Assessment of Rajasthan Surface Water Quality During Covid19 Pandemic Lockdown

Abstract

This research paper aimed at investigating the effect of the covid19 pandemic lockdown on the surface water (rivers, canals, dams and lakes) quality of Rajasthan state of India.The data was collected from sixty independent monitoring stations control by the State Pollution Control Board;and was analyzed and compared with the result of April of 2019 using the Indian standardfor water quality recommendations (IS: 2296:1992). The result shows that lockdown has contributed immensely to the improvement of the surface water quality.This was due to the reduction of industrials, transportationand other anthropogenic activities that mostly contributed to the release of toxic effluents and gases which lead to the surface water contamination.Therefore, a periodic based assessment should be employed so that the quality level of surface water can be monitored and controlled as well as enforcing laws to both industries, and general public regarding refuse dumping.