Pollution Research Paper

DRINKING WATER CHARACTERISTICS OF BERHAMPUR CITY, ORISSA, INDIA

LAKSHMAN NAYAK, SIMANCHALA AND DURGA PRASAD BEHERA

Abstract

Drinking water characteristics of Berhampur city was studied during 2010 from six stations. The drinking water characteristics like pH, Dissolved Oxygen, Biochemical Oxygen Demand, Chemical Oxygen Demand, Total Suspended Solid, Total Dissolved Solid, Electric Conductivity, Total Hardness, Calcium Hardness, Magnesium Hardness, Iron, Nitrate and Phosphate were studied. The pH value varied from 6.83 to 8.69. Dissolved Oxygen varied from 0.1 mg/L to 7.6 mg/L. BOD varied from 2 mg/L to 6.8 mg/L. The maximum value of Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) was 90 mg/L and the minimum value was 20 mg/L. Similarly the high and low value of Total Suspended Solid, Total Dissolved Solid and Electric Conductivity were 25 mg/L and 4 mg/L, 120 mg/L and 5 mg/L and 22.4 mg/L & 1.3 mg/L. The Total Hardness, Magnesium Hardness and Calcium Hardness varied from 2 mg/L to 33 mg/L, 1 mg/L to 7 mg/L and 1 mg/L to 25 mg/L respectively. Likewise Iron and Nitrate values ranged between 0.1 mg/L to 20 mg/L and 0.001 mg/L to 0.122 mg/L and Phosphate value was 0.001 mg/L. The value of all the parameters were below the prescribed permissible limit of USPH, WHO, European Standard and ICMR, except the value of BOD which is slightly higher.