Effect of point and non-point sources of pollution on water quality of Halali reservoir in India

Abstract

The study intends to examine the spatial and temporal variations of the water quality of an Indian reservoir and to assess the anthropogenic inputs into the reservoir system. The datasets on various physico-chemical parameters, i.e., temperature, pH, TDS, EC, free CO2, DO, alkalinity, hardness and chloride and heavy metals, namely, Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn from this study were treated by Duncan multiple range test (DMRT), cluster analysis (CA), principal component analysis (PCA) and Pearson's correlation analysis. Significant differences among the sites and seasons were obtained from the DMRT. CA showed two different groups of similarity among the sampling sites reflecting the different physico-chemical characteristics and pollution levels of the studied water system. Three latent factors were identified as responsible for the data structure explaining 83% of the total variance of the dataset. The study showed that the reservoir is under the influence of anthropogenic activities and is prone to water pollution.