Pollution Status Assessment of Haora River, Tripura 1.0 Introduction : Rivers are natural water bodies having various beneficial uses for mankind. Even after enactment of Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act as early as in 1974, water quality continues to deteriorate in the country. Rivers, streams and ground water are severely polluted. The amount of pollutants that find their way into water sources are way above receiving water bodies’ natural assimilative capacity. Surface water pollution is increasingly becoming a source of conflict among upstream and downstream water users because the later suffer the effects of upstream pollution. Quantity of water available for specific uses will decline with pollution. When quality deteriorates, water loses its economic value. For example, with progressive quality deterioration, water uses may successively shift from drinking water to bathing water, water for livestock, agriculture and industrial uses and so on. Pollution also creates water scarcity in regions which otherwise have abundant water resources. 2.0 Background: Haora river is the lifeline of Agartala city because it fulfills the major demand of drinking water as well as water for other purposes of the entire population of Agartala city. It also fulfills the total demand of the families who reside near the banks of the river from Champaknagar to Bangladesh border area. Haora is one of the ten major rivers of Tripura. The river originating from the eastern side of the Baramura range flows westerly through the alluvial plains and passes by the southern embankment of the capital city of Agartala before finally flowing down into Bangladesh. The flow length of the river is 53 kms in Indian territory and basin area is 570 sq.kms. The annual flow of this river is 36,032 m3. Agartala Municipal Council and Public Health Engineering Department uses the water of this river daily for community use. The intake wells are situated near Jogendranagar and Gandhighat. The water of Haora river is the main source of drinking water for the people of Agartala and its surrounding areas from Champaknagar to Bangladesh border. Previously the river water was pollution free due to less anthropogenic interferences. Presently, the number of inhabitants on the banks of the river is increasing very fast. As the inhabitants of the river bank belong to the section Below the Poverty Line, they have to make kaccha latrines on the bank of the river and their excreta flow directly into the river. Due to this, the river water quality has deteriorated to an alarming condition. Tripura State Pollution Control Board 1 3.0 State Profile : Tripura is one of the smallest states of North East India. The State of Tripura is situated in the eastern part of India and surrounded by Bangladesh on the West, South and North. Its Northeastern and Eastern boundaries are demarcated by Assam and Mizoram respectively. The state lies between 22056’ to 24032’ North latitudes and 91009’ to 92020’ East longitudes with an aerial extent of 10,491.69 sq. km. The population of the state as per the 2001 census data is about 31,91,168. 3.1 Administrative Setup : The state has four administrative districts namely i) West Tripura ii) South Tripura, iii) North Tripura iv) Dhalai, 15 Sub-Divisions, 40 Blocks and 14 Towns including Nagar Panchayats. Agartala is the state Capital and Udaipur, Kailashahar and Ambassa are the District Headquarters. 3.2 Climate: The state is characterized by humid sub-tropical climate with three distinct seasons such as summer, monsoon and winter. The climate warms up generally from the middle of March and this condition persists up to May. Generally the average maximum temperature is 350C whereas average minimum temperature is 100C. The average annual rainfall recorded is about 261cm. Humidity is generally high throughout the year. In the Summer season relative humidity is between 50% to 74% whereas in the rainy season it is over 85%. 3.3 Drainage : The flow in a river helps in dilution of effluents and in self purification. The drains are divided into three categories – ‘high’, ‘medium’, & ‘low’. This is done to differentiate the different drains according to their dilution capacity, which may be based on the flow characteristics in a particular district. In Tripura there are no rivers having high flow. The State is drained by as many as 10 rivers which originate in the hill ranges and flow either in a northerly or westerly direction through the narrow valleys. These rivers are Longai, Juri, Deo, Manu, Dhalai, Khowai, Haora, Gomti, Muhuri and Feny. However, all rivers are rain-fed and ephemeral in nature, their flow is directly related to rainfall. Tripura State Pollution Control Board 2 3.4 Flood: All the rivers draining the State originate in the hill ranges and are prone to flood during the rainy season. Whenever the intensity of the rainfall exceeds the normal the river discharge rises. The volume of water rushing down from the catchment areas cannot be accommodated within the river banks. As a result, the rivers overtop the banks and flood the low lying areas. Flood level of the Haora river indicates that the danger level is 10.48 m whereas the extreme danger level is 10.78 m. The highest flood level of this river was observed as 11.08 m. 3.5 Physiography: Tripura is characterized as a hill state. Physiographically, the area represents the western fringe of the typical ‘ridge and valley’ (structural) province of the late tertiary fold mountain belt, commonly known as the Indo Burma Range (Purbachal Range).The general altitude of the State varies from 780 m above mean sea level in the North-East to 15 m above mean sea level in the west. Five ridges, namely the Jampui, the Sakhantang, the Longtarai, the Atharamura and the Baramura traverse the State from North to South. 4.0 Objective : The Objective of the study is to assess the water quality and the pollution load of the entire stretch of the Hoara river due to the dumping of human excreta, domestic sewage, Industrial effluent directly into the river. 5.0 Methodology : In order to assess the water quality of Hoara river, a scientific team of Tripura State Pollution Control Board collected water samples from seven locations covering the whole stretch of Haora river during January 2004 & analysed different parameters of water quality in the Laboratory of the Board. The Physico-Chemical quality of surface water was analysed using the standard methods given in APHA (American Public Health Association). The team has also carried out an extensive survey from Champaknagar to Bangladesh border to quantify the number of toilets Tripura State Pollution Control Board 3 situated on the banks of Haora river from which human excreta is directly drawn into the river and observed the total number of people who used the identified toilets. During the survey the TSPCB team has considered only those families whose toilets are situated on the banks of the river. 6.0 Study Areas : As a result of human interferences through out the river, it is difficult to select the locations on a river. For physico-chemical analysis of the present study, the seven locations were selected covering the entire stretch of Haora river as given in Table-1. Table-1 Sl. Name of the location Reason for selection No 1 Champaknagar, West Tripura. Bathing ghat 2 Mohanpur, West Tripura. Bathing ghat 3 Chandrapur,West Tripura. Bathing ghat 4 Aralia,West Tripura. Intake point 5 Gandhighat,West Tripura. Intake point 6 Dashamighat,West Tripura. Bathing ghat & Immersion ghat 7 Rajnagar,(Indo-Bangla border area), Down stream to Bangladesh West Tripura. For the quantification of the toilets present on the banks of Haora river, the following locations were surveyed covering the entire river bank from Champak nagar to Bangladesh Border of the Haora river as given in Table 2. Table -2 Sl. Locations Bank of the Number of river families No. surveyed 1 Chandrasadhupara,Champaknagar North bank 39 2 Chandrasadhupara,Champaknagar South bank 4 3 ChintaramKobraPara, Champaknagar North bank 5 4 Champaknagar Bazar North bank 6 5 Dhurlav Das Para, Champaknagar North bank 3 6 Harichandra Para, Champaknagar South bank 35 7 Khamar Bari, Champaknagar North bank 4 Tripura State Pollution Control Board 4 8 Joynagar, Jirania North bank 13 9 Madhya Para, Jirania North bank 34 10 Daksin Majlishpur North bank 5 11 Ranirbazar North bank 5 12 Bridhyanagar, Ranirbazar North bank 2 13 Munda Para, Khayerpur North bank 12 14 Khayerpur North bank 3 15 Chandpur(Trinath) North bank 47 16 West Champamura South bank 8 17 Kashipur North bank 18 18 Madhya Kashipur North bank 8 19 Daksin Kashipur North bank 13 20 Puratan Agartala South bank 22 21 Palli Samaj, Puratan Agartala South bank 3 22 Khayerpur South bank 15 23 North Champamura South bank 5 24 Balda Khal, West Champamura South bank 52 25 Chandrapur North bank 13 26 Daksin Chandrapur North bank 21 27 Aralia South bank 27 28 Collegetilla North bank 23 29 Uttar Jogendranagar South bank 42 30 Kata Shala South bank 42 31 Purba Pratapgarh South bank 18 32 Pratapgarh South bank 17 33 Ramthakur Palli, Town Pratapgarh North bank 10 34 Adarsha Palli, Collegetilla North bank 15 35 RamkrishnaPalli, MadhyaPratapgarh South bank 11 36 Surendra Palli, Madhya Pratapgarh South bank 23 37 Thakur Palli, Paschim Pratapgarh South bank 39 38 Trinath Colony, Town Pratapgarh North bank 61 39 Pratap Sangha, Paschim Pratapgarh South bank 17 40 Janakalyan Sangha, Paschim Pratapgarh South bank 5 41 Town Bordowali South bank 16 42 Howrah Nutan Palli, Town Pratapgarh North bank 52 43 Umesh Ch. Bandyopadhaya Palli, Gangail North bank 28 Road Tripura State Pollution Control Board 5 44 Bhattapukur South bank 14 45 Balurchar, Bhattapukur South bank 52 46 Dakshin Joynagar South bank 44 47 Joypur North bank 28 48 Rajnagar North bank 41 49 Pashchim Joynagar North bank 48 50 Dashamighat, Gangail Road North bank 6 51 Shamshan Ghat, Gangail Road North bank 71 Total 1145 7.0 Observations: 7.1 Physico- Chemical & Bacteriological Observations : The observation of Physico- Chemical & Bacteriological characteristics of Haora river water of seven locations are given in tables 3 &4.