Water Quality Investigation By Physicochemical And Biological Parameters Of Various Sources In District Shimla (Himachal Pradesh)

Abstract

The present study reports the water quality of various resources in Shimla district of Himachal Pradesh (erstwhile summer capital of British India). Floating population (tourist) 75,000 and permanent population of Shimla city is increasing day by day, So that water consumption is also increasing rapidly. The city has a population of 142,161 spread over an area of 19.55 km2 according to the 2011 censes. In this work, samples of water were collected from different sources of Shimla city (Satluj river, Pabbar river, Tap water, spring, Bore well, Artificial lake &Natural lake). All the water parameter was performed on various samples at “Water Testing Laboratory Jal Shakti Vibhag C&M Division Tutikandi Shimla-4”.Physicochemical& Biological parameters of water were analyzed. Indian Standards 10500 (Drinking water specifications) was referred to in order to check the acceptability of water. Most of the parameters were not found to be in the desirable range for drinking water and hence, appropriate measures were suggested to improve the quality of water.