Free Oxygen Budget of a Polluted Tropical River

Abstract

Rivers are highly vulnerable water bodies to pollution due to their roles in assimilating or carrying off the municipal and industrial wastewater and run-off from agricultural land in their vast drainage basins. This paper analyzed the effluents discharged from industries contain chemicals which directly affect the parameters of the water. Present study deals with the investigation of monthly as well as seasonal variations of selected parameters in river Ami, which is a prime river in Gorakhpur, India. BOD 5 test measures the oxygen demand biodegradable pollutants whereas the COD tests measure the oxygen demand of oxidizable pollutants. These tests have its widest application in measuring waste loadings to treatment plants. The maximum value of BOD 5 was recorded to be 188 mg/l while COD was recorded to be 370 mg/l during summer and DO was completely absent during most part of the year.