Monitoring of Physico-chemical and Microbiological Characteristics of Municipal Wastewater at Treatment Plant, Haridwar City (Uttarakhand) India

The present investigation was conducted to monitor the physico-chemical and microbiological characteristics of Municipal Wastewater (MWW) at treatment plant, Haridwar, installed under Ganga Action Plan (GAP)/National River Action Plan (NRAP) to control the pollution of river Ganga. The results revealed that the untreated MWW has high inorganic and organic pollution load. The treatment plant received the MWW from various Sewage Pumping Stations (SPSs) being treated through different stages viz. primary (physical), secondary (chemical) and tertiary (disinfection) treatments. In the present study, a significant (p<0.001) decrease was observed in the physico-chemical and microbiological parameters viz. turbidity, Total Suspended Solids (TSS), Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Chlorides (Cl-), alkalinity, hardness, free carbon dioxide (CO2), Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen (TKN), phosphate (PO43-), sulphate (SO42-), iron (Fe2+), Most Probable Number (MPN) and Standard Plate Count (SPC) after treatment. The Electrical Conductivity (EC), pH, Dissolved Oxygen (DO), Zinc (Zn), Cadmium (Cd), Copper (Cu), Nickel (Ni) and Chromium (Cr) were also recorded to be significantly (p<0.01) decreased in treated MWW. The maximum removal of turbidity (66.92%), TSS (88.37%), EC (89.43%), pH (14.18%), BOD (91.31%), COD (91.84%), Cl- (86.76%), alkalinity (90.42%), hardness (39.06%), free CO2 (79.23%), TKN (71.40%), PO43- (90.16%), SO42- (85.90%), Fe2+ (95.86%), Zn (95.06%), Cd (87.50%), Cu (92.30%), Ni (91.30%), Cr (85.71%) and MPN (99.99%) and SPC (99.99%) of MWW were recorded after final treatment. The maximum increase in DO (135.28%) was recorded in finally treated (outlet) wastewater. Thus the treatment plant had a significant role in the control of pollution loads of wastewater installed under GAP/ NRAP at Haridwar city.