PHYSICOCHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL PARAMETERS OF WATER AT INDUSTRIAL SITES OF METROPOLITAN CITY OF CHENNAI, TAMIL NADU, INDIA

Abstract

Water is essential to sustain life, and an adequate, safe and accessible supply must be available to all as improving access to safe drinking water can result in tangible benefits to health. In the present study, eighteen water samples from six different study area, viz., Red Hills, T. Nagar, Saidapet, Ashok Nagar, Alandur and Guindy of metropolitan Chennai were tested for their physicochemical and biological parameters, of which Red Hills served as control area. Results with regard to the physical parameters, showed no variation in the colour of water samples which was clear except for control as it appeared light brown. The odour of samples collected from all six study areas was observed to be constant and agreeable. The water temperature, turbidity, electrical conductivity and total dissolved solids for all six study areas ranged from 28.7 to 29.7°C, 3.7 to 11.7NTU, 723.3 to 1099.7μS/cm, and 396.7 to 805.0mg/L. The values of chemical parameters represented by pH, total hardness, total alkalinity, sulphates and flourides ranged from 7.7 to 8.0, 128.0 to 503.3mg/L, 13.3 to 50.0mg/L, 106.6 to 224.0mg/L, and 0.6 and 1.5mg/L. All the samples were found to be free from coliforms except for the control in the case of biological parameters. Overall results indicate that the physical and chemical parameters were found to be within the permissible limits set by standards and biological contamination was absent in the samples except in control which is a natural reservoir.