Studies of Physico-chemical Status of the Ponds at Varanasi Holy City under Anthropogenic Influences

Scarcity of water, pollution load, political issues and rising population has drawn a great attention for proper management of water resources such as surface water in 21 century. India is one of the developing country having prosperous fresh water resources in the form of rivers, kunds, ponds and lakes etc. Varanasi is a religious city and is popularly known for its mythological ponds & kunds. The developments, urbanization and load of the various pollutant sources lead to deterioration of the ponds. In 1980 decades there were about 110 Ponds and kunds in Varanasi but now it is not more than 56. In the present paper physico-chemical quality parameters of eight major sacred ponds existing from ancient time at the Varanasi city studied in the year 2012-13. The important water quality parameters studied were temperature, pH, conductivity, total dissolved solid (TDS), oxidation reduction potential (ORP), acidity, chloride, total alkalinity, hardness, nitrate, phosphate, dissolve oxygen (DO), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD).The experimental results suggest that nitrate (52 mg/L), BOD (2.5mg/L),TDS (2420 mg/L) and phosphate (7.5 mg/L) were very high as compared to the permissible limit of drinking and irrigation water quality standard (BIS, IS-10500, FAO). Among all eight ponds the Durgakund, Lahartara and Adityanagar ponds site have objectionable water quality especially with respect to human health, biotic life and entire ecosystem. The catchment area study to find out the major contributor of the deterioration in water quality of these ponds reveal various ritual activities, municipal waste water, washing discharge of temple effluents and animals waste. Sachin Mishra et al 262