Physiochemical Analysis of River Sutlej, Sindh and the Arabian Sea to Evaluate the Water Quality

Abstract

Globally, water pollution is caused primarily by growing populations, urbanization, and modern agricultural techniques. In this study, freshwater samples were collected from Satluj river, Sindh river, and Arabian sea to assess water quality. A variety of physicochemical parameters were measured in these samples, including pH (7.5 to 8.4), color (variable), odor, turbidity (7 NTU to 18 NTU), taste (salty/bitter), total dissolved solids (182 mg/L to 34768 mg/L), total soluble solids (52 mg/L to 1244 mg/L), EC (109 µS/cm to 51488 µS/cm), total hardness/Ca+2+Mg+2 (25 mg/L to 125 mg/L), total alkalinity or CO3 -2 , HCO3 - (80 mg/L to 172 mg/L), exchangeable ions like Cl- (27 mg/L to 19742 mg/L), F- (0.3 mg/L to 1.29 mg/L), SO4 -2 (30 mg/L to 2974 mg/L), PO4 -3 (8 mg/L to 35 mg/L), NO2 -2 (18 mg/L to 43 mg/L), Mn+2 (0.0002 mg/L to 0.63 mg/L), Cu (0.0005 mg/L to 0.08 mg/L), Cd+2 (0.0005 mg/L to 0.88 mg/L), Cr+3 (0.003 mg/L to 0.32 mg/L), Zn+2 (0.001 mg/L to 2.72 mg/L), Fe+2 (0.01 mg/L to 0.9 mg/L), Ni+2 (0.002 mg/L to 0.23 mg/L), Na+ (15 mg/L to 10157 mg/L), K+ (4.4 mg/L to 379 mg/L), Ca+2 (20 mg/L to 380 mg/L), Mg+2 (5.4 mg/L to 1584 mg/L) tested by standard methods reported in Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC) with little modifications. Most of the parameters studied in these water samples were beyond the National Environment Quality Standard of drinking water guidelines for seawater, but within acceptable limits for rivers. Consequently, these trends made seawater unfit for the survival of aquatic plants and marine life as well as for the people who use river water for domestic and agricultural purposes.