SEWAGE DISPOSAL SITUATION AT DIGHA COAST: A TIME SERIES ANALYSIS

Abstract

West Bengal is a maritime state in the northeastern part of the Indian subcontinent with a coastal area of 10,158.22 sq. km. The coastal region consists of the Digha coast, which is noted for its tourism and fish landing activities. We highlight in this paper, a load of nitrate and phosphate during premonsoon in the aquatic phase of Digha for more than three decades (1984 – 2020) to observe the trend of these two variables, which are important components of sewage. A uniform increase in the concentrations of the nutrients is observed except in the years 2009 and 2020. A sudden peak observed for both the nutrients during 2009 may be attributed to Aila, a super cyclone that hit coastal West Bengal on 25th May 2009. The dip in the levels of nutrients during 2020, may be the effect of the COVID lockdown phase in the state during which all the tourism and fish landing activities were completely paralyzed.