Impact of environmental factors on maintaining water quality of Bakreswar reservoir, India

Abstract

Reservoirs and dams are engineered systems designed to serve purposes like supply of drinking water as well as other commercial and industrial use. A thorough assessment of water quality for these systems is thus necessary. The present study is carried out at Bakreswar reservoir, in Birbhum district, which was created by the dam, built on Bakreswar River. The major purpose of the reservoir is the supply of drinking water to the surrounding villages and Bakreswar Thermal Power Station. Water samples were collected fortnightly from three different stations of the reservoir. Physical and chemical factors like dissolved oxygen, atmospheric temperature, pH, conductivity, salinity, solar radiation, water temperature, alkalinity, hardness, chloride, productivity etc. were analysed using standard procedure. Abundance data is calculated for four major groups of zooplanktons (Cladocera, Copepoda, Ostracoda, and Rotifera) with the software PAST 2.1. Multivariate statistical analysis like PCA, hierarchical cluster and CCA are performed in order to predict the temporal variation in the water quality factors using SPSS 20. Distinct seasonal variation was found for environmental factors and zooplankton groups. Bakreswar reservoir has good assemblage of zooplankton and distinct temporal variation of environmental factors and its association with zooplankton predicts water quality condition. These results could help in formulating proper strategies for advanced water quality management and conservation of reservoir ecosystem. Key elements for growth and sustenance of the system can then be evaluated and this knowledge can be further applied for management purposes.

Keywords

• limnology
• PCA
• CCA
• cluster analysis
• reservoir
• India