Assessment of Spatial and Temporal Variation in Water Quality for the Godavari River

Abstract

With increasing population and industrialization, the water quality of freshwater sources like rivers, lakes, and ponds is becoming increasingly degraded. Most of the rivers in India are becoming polluted, including the Godavari. With the construction of dams, new industries and unsustainable agricultural practices in the Godavari basin, the water characteristics are degrading spatially and temporally. The present study emphasizes the analysis of water quality parameters like temperature, pH, Dissolved Oxygen (DO), conductivity, Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD), nitrate, and faecal coliform concentration in the Godavari basin. This was achieved by analysis of data taken from the Central Pollution Control Board, India (CPCB) for 21 stations around the Godavari basin over a span of five years from 2015 to 2019. The Pearson Correlation coefficient for the water quality parameters was assessed to study the relationship among the parameters. Variation in the water quality parameter is observed from the graphs for each station for respective years. It was found that conductivity and DO, temperature and pH and DO and faecal coliform are negatively correlated. It was also observed that DO has a negative correlation with pH, BOD and faecal coliform, indicating the utilization of dissolved oxygen at higher rates due to increasing degradation of organic matter by aerobic microorganisms in the river. One-way ANOVA was applied to find out significant temporal variations and it was observed that temperature, pH, and faecal coliform level had significantly changed the overdue course of time (F(4, 115) = 2.451, p < 0.05). The obtained results from the analysis indicate that the selected water quality parameters have varied significantly spatially, whereas temporally, according to the ANOVA coefficient, only temperature, pH and faecal coliform had shown significant differences during the selected timeframe. Hence, the present study highlighted the deteriorating water quality of the Godavari River over time.