Environmental Pollution Of Yamuna River : A Comparative Study

Archana Saily and Ashok Kumar

Department of Chemistry, St. John's College, Agra - 282 001, India.

This paper assesses the existing status of water quality of Yamuna river during calender year 1998. Yamuna water from Agra is analysed for various physico-chemical characteristics and some heavy metals and compared these parameters with base line parameters from Yamuna bridge near Barkot, a tinsel township in the hill where the contamination of river water is negligible. Gross variations in parameters from Agra compared to reference parameters from Yamuna bridge have been observed. The data were subjected to factor analysis to determine source contribution. The study revealed that the quality of water at Agra is below the desired status. It is recommended that discharges require very high degree of treatment before their recreational use.

physico-chemical characteristics; heavy metals; base line parameters