Water quality assessment and modeling of Cuttack city

Abstract

As Cuttack is located at the deltaic region of the Mahanadi River and its branch the Kathajodi, thus sufficient water resources are available.
Ground water exploitation through tube wells and dug wells are found to be more economic. In 1949, public health system organized the 1st pipe line water supply system from ground water source. Today its capacity is sufficient only for 35% of the urban population. Residents use water from shallow dug wells and tube wells located inside the city, of which a big portion is in close proximity of the main sewerage drain of the city and few septic tanks. Without treatment this water is used by the residents for years. Thus the study was carried out to assess the ground water quality throughout the city to see whether the components are within the standard permissible limit or not and thus to see which treatments are necessary to make suitable for the purpose of day to day use.
The rivers namely the Mahanadi and the Kathajodi and the Taladanda canal are the surface water source for the city. The rivers receive raw domestic sewage from the city. River Kathajodi receives raw sewage at two points, namely Mattagajpur and Khannagar. While the dangerous and infectious wastes produced by the SCB medical college and hospital and organic garbage from nearby markets are disposed in the Taladanda canal. The presence of few dairy farms and high population along the canal adds more pollution to the canal in the form of human and animal excreta.
Water samples were collected from these rivers and were tested in the laboratory for various water quality parameters. Previous year (2007-10) datas of various water quality parameters of the two rivers were obtained from the Orissa State Pollution Control Board office. Sreeter Phelp’s equation was used for modeling of the water quality, few programs were compiled in MATLAB and were executed.

Keywords: nutrient, pollution, sewage, water.