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Nutrient and microbial water quality of the upper Ganga River, India: identification of pollution sources

Environmental Monitoring and Assessment volume 192, Article number: 533 (2020) Cite this article

Abstract

The Ganga River is facing mounting environmental pressures due to rapidly increasing human population, urbanisation, industrialisation and agricultural intensification, resulting in worsening water quality, ecological status and impacts on human health. A combined inorganic chemical, algal and bacterial survey (using flow cytometry and 16S rRNA gene sequencing) along the upper and middle Ganga (from the Himalayan foothills to Kanpur) was conducted under pre-monsoon conditions. The upper Ganga had total phosphorus (TP) and total dissolved nitrogen concentrations of less than 100 μg l−1 and 1.0 mg l−1, but water quality declined at Kannauj (TP = 420 μg l−1) due to major nutrient pollution inputs from human-impacted tributaries (principally the Ramganga and Kali Rivers). The phosphorus and nitrogen loads in these two tributaries and the Yamuna were dominated by soluble reactive phosphorus and ammonium, with high bacterial loads and large numbers of taxa indicative of pathogen and faecal organisms, strongly suggesting sewage pollution sources. The high nutrient concentrations, low flows, warm water and high solar radiation resulted in major algal blooms in the Kali and Ramganga, which greatly impacted the Ganga. Microbial communities were dominated by members of the Phylum Proteobacteria, Bacteriodetes and Cyanobacteria, with communities showing a clear upstream to downstream transition in community composition. To improve the water quality of the middle Ganga, and decrease ecological and human health risks, future mitigation must reduce urban wastewater inputs in the urbanised tributaries of the Ramganga, Kali and Yamuna Rivers.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would also like to thank the Indian Institute of Technology–Kanpur for providing a student fellowship to Aqib Ansari.

Funding

This work was supported by the Natural Environment Research Council award number NE/R000131/1 as part of the SUNRISE programme delivering national capability. The logical support for the middle Ganga surveying was funded by the Indian Institute of Technology–Kanpur.

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  1. UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Maclean Building, Crowmarsh Gifford, Wallingford, Oxfordshire, OX10 8BB, UK

    Michael J. Bowes, Daniel S. Read, Linda K. Armstrong, David J. E. Nicholls, Heather D. Wickham, Jade Ward & H. Gwyn Rees

  2. Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, Uttarakhand, 247667, India

    Himanshu Joshi, Moushumi Hazra, Monica Simon & Rajesh Vishwakarma

  3. Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, 208016, India

    Rajiv Sinha & Aqib Ansari

  4. British Geological Survey, Maclean Building, Crowmarsh Gifford, Wallingford, Oxfordshire, OX10 8BB, UK

    Jade Ward

  5. UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Bush Estate, Penicuik, Edinburgh, Midlothian, EH26 0QB, UK

    Laurence R. Carvalho

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Bowes, M.J., Read, D.S., Joshi, H. et al. Nutrient and microbial water quality of the upper Ganga River, India: identification of pollution sources. Environ Monit Assess 192, 533 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-020-08456-2

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  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-020-08456-2

Keywords

  • River Ganges
  • Nutrients
  • Sewage
  • Eutrophication
  • 16S rRNA sequencing
  • Flow cytometry