ANALYSIS OF PHYSICO-CHEMICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE RIVER YAMUNA, DELHI STRETCH WITH AN ASSESSMENT OF SITE-SPECIFIC WATER QUALITY INDEXRICHA BHARDWAJ, ANSHU GUPTA AND J. K. GARGAbstract River Yamuna is highly polluted river that fails to provide ecosystem services due to nonavailability of ecological flow of water, raw sewage disposal and industrial pollution. In the present investigation water quality assessment of River Yamuna has been carried out for two consecutive years (2013-2015) in three different seasons at seven sampling sites for 11 different parameters. In order to determine the influence of various anthropogenic factors on River water quality, statistical analysis has been carried out to record any significant changes seasonally and sitewise. Significant differences (p<0.05) were observed for Temperature, Electrical conductivity, Total dissolved solids, Total suspended solids, Turbidity, Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen, Biochemical and Chemical oxygen demand seasonally. Also, there are significant differences among all the sites for all the parameters. The Water Quality Index identified two sites i.e. Najafgarh drain and Shahdara drain outlet in river Yamuna as the two criticalsites responsible for the major influx of pollutants. From the overall Water Quality Index value (22.53), we concluded that our study area as a whole is critically polluted in terms of various Physico-chemical parameters as it is under Poor rank. Results have indicated a significant deterioration of water quality. Hence, there is an urgent need to restore the water quality of the river.
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