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The study was conducted to assess the seasonal water quality of four stations located along the River Henwal (one of the major tributaries of River Ganga, flows in the region of Uttarakhand, India). To assess the pollution load, comprehensive pollution index (CPI) was used by considering the most significant water quality parameters for which a standard permissible limit is proposed by different government agencies. The minimum value of CPI (1.25) was observed at control site during winter and maximum (8.52) was at Jajal during monsoon which indicates that control site was moderately polluted followed by severely polluted Nagni, Kharee and Jajal. The river water was dominated by a group of blue-green algae among phytoplankton and protozoans dominate zooplankton. Besides this, Simpson’s index (D) and Shannon–Wiener index (H) were used to observe the diversity of plankton and Taxon Evenness (E) was also estimated to know the distribution of individuals within a community. The high value of D (4.69), H (1.57) and E (0.45) was found to be for Nagni site. The relationship between abiotic properties of water and planktonic composition was developed with the help of Karl Pearson’s correlation matrix. For the identification of main responsible water quality parameters and the influencing sources, PCA and CA were used. The quality of river water is declining as a result of developmental activities, and this work is expected to give the essential support to future water management systems in the area.

Water quality can be considered a key contributor to both health and disease for humans. To obtain more advanced information about water quality the principal component analysis (PCA) was applied using the drinking water supply network data during four seasons in 2018 in Souk Ahras city/Algeria in order to extract principal factors that can explain the quality of drinking water. These factors aim to bring together the main explanatory elements of the water quality and their order of responsibility on the quality of the water through physicochemical parameters measured in situ. During the course of study 14 parameters were used for the characterization of the quality of drinking water in Souk Ahras city, these parameters were replaced by six (6) principal components explaining approximately 65.33% of the variance of the data. The study highlights two main problems, the strong signs of the presence of harmful germs and probably malfunction in part of the equipment of the processing and distribution facilities; and second, amount of the residual chlorine in water

River Ganga covers around 26% of India’s land area and sustains diverse ecosystems in this overly populated area. The globally accepted coherent approach of water quality indices (WQIs) and multivariate statistical models (principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis (CA)) were applied on the dataset to evaluate the spatial-temporal variation and pollution source identification and apportionment. Twenty-two hydro-chemical parameters were analyzed by collecting the samples from 20 different vertically elevated monitoring locations for different seasons. The CA evaluation of data, grouped the monitoring locations into five clusters of varied water quality with human perturbations and geo-genic inputs. The PCA analysis of an extensive dataset indicated the seven significant principal components (PCs) explaining 93.0% of the total variance and finalized 8 water quality parameters out of preselected 22 to represent good aspects of the water quality. The seasonal variation in river water quality by the Canadian Council of Ministers for Environment Water Quality Index (CCMEWQI) showed the quality class at a marginal level in summer (62.16), monsoon (59.96), and post-monsoon (60.20) season, whereas in winters (71.18), water quality was in fair condition. The response of National Sanitation Foundation Water Quality Index (NSFWQI) classified the river water in medium quality class for summer, monsoon, post-monsoon, and winter season, respectively. The present observations contribute in the usefulness of these statistical methodologies to interpret and understand large dataset and also provide reliable information to reduce the tedious and cost of water quality monitoring and assessment programs.

Ganga River system is a life support system to sustain the people of northeast region, India, by providing freshwater resource. In this study, the seasonal heavy metal concentrations of Ganga River system at Haridwar region (India) have been characterised for metal pollution. The collection of water samples was done from 10 different locations and analysed for various metal parameters (Zn, Pb, Mn, Fe, Cu, Si, Al, Ni, Cd, Mg and Co) using a standard laboratory procedures. The pollution level was assessed from the observed concentrations by using Heavy Metal Pollution Index (HPI) for nine heavy metals. The observed values of HPI were found lower than the Critical Pollution Index value of 100 (average value 78.62 and 81.18) during the study period. The concentration of Fe and Mg is exceeding the desirable limits of the World Health Organization, Bureau of Indian Standards and US Environmental Protection Agency in all water samples throughout the study period. The levels of all the metals were higher in the monsoon season and lower in the winter season. The Karl Pearson’s correlation matrix was developed by using the mean values of all parameters and showed the light intensity positively correlated with biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and sulphate which indicate good microbial activity. Dissolved oxygen and BOD is found negatively correlated. From this study, it is easy to understand the various harmful effects of metal pollution to irrigation water and health of local people.

The assessment of the Ganga River System at Rishikesh was investigated at five different sites for three different seasons (summer, winter and monsoon) using comprehensive pollution index (CPI), considering 10 physicochemical parameters such as conductivity, turbidity, total dissolved solids, dissolved oxygen, biochemical oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand, total hardness, Cl, phosphate and sulphate. The CPI was found to be 0.54–2.47, which indicates the variation in pollution level of the River Ganga. The variation in pollution index value clearly shows that water quality was slightly polluted in winter (0.54–0.72) and summer (0.64–0.88) whereas high contamination (1.68–2.47) was observed during monsoon season. Among various sampling stations, Pashulok Barrage (Site 5) was more contaminated than other sites. All the studied parameters were under the permissible limit of W.H.O. (2011) except turbidity, total solids and suspended solids which were higher than the permissible limit. This study also illustrates the correlation between parameters by developing correlation matrix. The result of this study clearly elucidates that the water quality is getting contaminated as we moved from upstream to downstream of river and helps to understand the potential effects of water quality on drinking, irrigation and other purposes.

Henwal is a spring-fed river and a source of freshwater in Garhwal region, India. It is one of the important tributaries of River Ganga and its water is useful for irrigation and hydropower production. The purpose of this study was to check the pollution level in river water by using the comprehensive pollution index (CPI). The assessment of CPI was based on different hydrological parameters. CPI was found within the range of 2.11–4.66 which indicates that the river water was severely polluted. The diversity and density of different planktonic groups were also observed and found to be higher in at Jajal site. Blue-green algae dominate phytoplanktons, and Protozoa was dominant among zooplankton. It is recommended that pollution control practices should be adopted and planktonic composition should be monitored on a regular basis.

Beach litter surveys represent a fundamental tool for monitoring marine litter pollution in the marine environment and have been used worldwide to quantify the amounts of litter deposited on the coastline and detect its sources. This study investigated the abundance, composition and sources of marine litter stranded on five beaches located at the bay of Durres and the Bay of Lalzi in Albania. During April 2018, a total of 3,321 marine litter items were collected, classified and recorded. Within this study the mean litter density was found to be 0.14 items/m2 and 333 items/100m stretch of beach. The sites investigated differed in terms of human-induced pressures with 2 sites being classified as semi-urban; 2 sites as urban and 1 as semi-rural. Artificial/anthropogenic polymer materials accounted for the majority of marine litter items found, with a percentage of 65%. The most abundant type of items was glass and ceramic fragments accounting for 19.7%, followed by cigarette butts and filters accounting for 17.9% of all litter collected. The vast majority of litter items (58.5%) originated from shoreline sources including poor waste management practices, tourism and recreational activities. Single-use plastics (SUPs) accounted for 48% of all items recorded ranging from 16.8% to 69.1% for the different beaches.

Assessment of physicochemical parameters of Ganga Canal water was carried out during 2012–2013 at Haridwar (Uttarakhand) with two different sites, i.e., Bhimgoda Barrage (site 1—control site) and Bahadrabad (site 2—contaminated site), where canal water flows with loads of pollution from highly commercial and industrial areas. During investigation, maximum turbidity (287.72 ± 56.28 JTU), total solids (1167.60 ± 303.90 mg l−1), free CO2 (1.88 ± 0.22 mg l−1), total hardness (60.14 ± 1.13 mg l−1), pH (7.1 ± 0.13), nitrate (0.048 ± 0.010), nitrite (0.019 ± 0.001), biochemical oxygen demand (2.866 ± 1.098), chemical oxygen demand (6.8 ± 2.61) and phosphate (0.087 ± 0.015), while minimum velocity (1.71 ± 0.19 ms−1), transparency (0.12 ± 0.08 m) and dissolved oxygen (7.95 ± 0.44 mg l−1) were recorded in monsoon season at site 2 in comparison with site 1. The mean values of these parameters were compared with WHO and ISI standards and found significant differences (p

The present study on dynamic flow of River Ganga was undertaken for a period of one year from October 2012 to September 2013 to assess the species diversity and impact of pollution on limnological conditions of River Ganga in Uttarakhand, India. In the present study water samples were collected from two important sampling sites Shivpuri and Pashulok barrage of River Ganga in Rishikesh. A total of three groups were identified, total diatoms, green algae and blue green algae, including six major species belonging to diatoms. Higher concentration of phytoplankton species at site 2 indicates polluted nature of river water and can be used as an indicator of organic pollution in the river for domestic use but having positive effect on the growth of these ecological indicators of aquatic ecosystem.