CHAPTER- 1

INTRODUCTION

The living conditions today have surely been improved to a great extent due
to industrialization and urbanization but at only the expense of environmental
degradation. The resources are not only getting depleted but also polluted. Water is
essential for growing food, for household uses, including drinking, cooking and
sanitation, as a critical input into the industry for tourism, cultural purpose and for
its rule in sustaining the earth's ecosystem but the essential resources is under threat
due to water pollution caused by increasing industrialization which has been
accompanied throughout the world by the extraction and distribution of mineral
substances from their natural deposit. Many of these substances have under gone
chemical changes through technical processes and then finally pass and are finely
dispersed in solution by way of effluent sewage, dust and are dumped into water.
These include heavy metal such as chromium, mercury and lead etc. At the dusk of
20th century, man has sufficiently polluted the air we breathe, the water we drink
and the food we eat. The early examples of well known environmental tragedies
like the case of mercury poisoning in Mina Mata, Japan, severe smoke pollution
episode in London and Los Angeles are a mere warning to the threatening problems
we have to face at the dawn of 21st century.

Lucknow district, the capital city of Uttar Pradesh is known for its cultural
refinement and patronage to art and literature. Administratively, the Lucknow
district has been divided into 4 tehsils and 8 community development blocks. The
drainage of the district is controlled by river Gomti and Sai its tributary.

Lucknow being the capital city of most populated state ‘Uttar Pradesh’ is
facing tremendous population pressure. This has led to over exploitation of natural

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resources and among them water is the most valuable natural resource essential for
human survival and ecosystem.

The river Gomti originates from Gomt taal which was formerly known as
Fulhar jheel near Madho Tanda, Pilhibit, India. It extends to approximately 900 km.
through Uttar Pradesh and meet Ganges river near Saidpur kaithi in Gazipur. It
passes through the districts of Shahjahanpur, Kheri, Sitapur, Lucknow and
ultimately merges in Ganga. Its water coverage is about 22,735 square kilometer.
After travelling about 246 square kilometer, Gomti enters Lucknow, where it travels
for 16 km. Its flow is mainly dependent on occurrence of rain and therefore the flow
in river is very lenient during monsoon. The river tiny in its initial stage, cascades
spiritedly down gathering strength and picking up speed, and makes a wider
channel as it enters the plain. The river drains the aerial lines between river
Ramganga and Shraddha in the upper reaches and Ganga and Ghagra at the lower
reaches. Many sugar industries based at the banks if the river have negative effects
on the ecosystem of Gomti. The river collects large amount of domestic waste
waters, sewage, and sludge as it flows through highly populous areas of Uttar
Pradesh. Every day river Gomti is facing huge quantity of untreated sewage,
agricultural runoffs, pesticides, fertilizers, asphalts, heavy metals, street washout,
industrial waste all of which significantly alter the physico- chemical characteristics
of its water. Before reaching Lucknow city, the Gomti River also receives waste
from sugar and distillery industry of Sitapur district. River Gomti is the main source
of drinking and irrigation water of the numerous villages situated by its site. When
water of such a river gets contaminated and polluted it affects a major population
and immediate steps are necessary for its conservation.

Water pollution is defined as the presence in water, of some foreign

substances or impurities (organic ,inorganic ,radiological or biological) in such
quantities so as to constitute a health hazard by lowering the water quality and
making it unfit for use.

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 There are two major sources of river water pollution, namely sources and
diffused or non -point sources. Those sources which can be identified at a single
location are known as point sources .For instance the flow of water pollutant
through regular channels like sewerage systems, industrial effluents and refuse
disposal sites. Non point sources are those whose location cannot be easily
identified. Diffused agricultural sources include wash off and soil erosion from
agricultural land carrying materials applied during agricultural use, mainly
fertilizers, herbicide and pesticides. While diffused urban sources consist of runoff
from city streets, from horticulture, gardening and commercial activities in the
urban environment and from industrial sites and storage areas.

Also the river Ganga is polluted earning to large number of factories and
tanneries in the state of Uttar Pradesh.

Objectives of the study

1. To determine the physico-chemical parameters of water samples collected

from sampling sites of river Gomti, viz .pH , hardness, alkalinity ,chloride
content, biological oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand ,dissolved
oxygen, nitrate content, total dissolved solid .
2. To investigate the heavy metals concentration in given sample of water.