Assessment of water quality in Halda River (the Major carp breeding ground) of Bangladesh

The present study has been conducted to assess the surface water quality of Halda River from September 2015 to March 2016. DO, BOD5, COD, pH, EC, Chloride, Alkalinity, and Hardness concentrations in water samples have been found to range within 0.93-5.15 mg/L, 30-545 mg/L, 43-983 mg/L, 6.3-7.3, 110-524 uS/cm, 12-56 mg/L, 35-67 mg/L, and 38-121 mg/L, respectively. Multivariate statistical analyses, such as Principal Component Analysis (PCA) as well as Correlation Matrix (CM) have revealed significant anthropogenic pollutant intrusions in water. Cluster Analysis (CA) has indicated decent results of rendering three different groups of resemblance between the two sampling sites, reflecting the different water quality indicators of the river system. A very strong positive linear relation has been found between COD and BOD (1.000), hardness and EC (0.993), pH and DO (0.979), hardness and COD (0.929), hardness and BOD (0.924), EC and COD (0.922), and EC and BOD (0.916) at a significance level of 0.01, proving their common origin entirely from industrial effluents, municipal wastes, and agricultural activities. River Pollution Index (RPI) has indicated that the water from rivers at Kalurghat and Modhunaghat varied from low to high pollution, which is due to the former area s being mostly industrial zone with some domestic sewage, while the latter underwent less industrial activities. On the contrary, lots of agricultural activities have been found in Modhunaghat. Use of river water can pose serious problems to human health and aquatic ecosystem via biological food chain. The present research suggests special preference for proper management of the river with eco-friendly automation along with development of the country s sustainable economic.