Water quality assessment of lake water: a review

Abstract

Ever increasing population, urbanization and modernization are posing problems of sewage disposal and contamination of surface waters like lakes. Natural water gets contaminated due to weathering of rocks, leaching of soils and mining processing, etc. Various types of problems in lake which cause nutrient enrichment in lake have been reviewed. Land use change and longer growing seasons could increase the use of fertilizers with subsequent leaching to watercourses, rivers and lakes, increasing the risk of eutrophication and loss of biodiversity. Water quality can be assessed by various parameters such as BOD, temperature, electrical conductivity, nitrate, phosphorus, potassium, dissolved oxygen, etc. Heavy metals such as Pb, Cr, Fe, Hg, etc. are of special concern because they produce water or chronic poisoning in aquatic animals. Harmful algal blooms are becoming increasingly common in freshwater ecosystems globally. Pollution by plastic debris is an increasing environmental concern in water bodies, where it affects open-water, shoreline and benthic environments. Surface water densities of plastics are as high as those reported for areas of litter accumulation within oceanic gyres. Different methods have been used to analyse the water quality of lake such as Hyperion, water quality index and hazard quotient. It is recommended that pollution prevention and water re-use should be adopted in combination with the recycling of nutrients in controlled urban agriculture.