Assessment of physicochemical and bacteriological parameters in surface water of Padma River, Bangladesh

In the present study, surface water samples were collected during three seasons (summer, monsoon and winter) from four different study sites (T-dam, Padma Garden, I-dam and Talaimari point) of Padma River at Rajshahi, Bangladesh, and various physicochemical and bacterial parameters were analyzed based on standard methods. Significant differences (p<0.05) in physicochemical parameters were observed among the seasons and sites except for water temperature. However, except for fecal coliform, other bacterial parameters such as total heterotrophic bacteria, total coliform and Vibrio cholerae counts showed significant differences (p<0.05) among the seasons, while difference among the sites was insignificant (p<0.05). The result also showed that all the bacterial parameters were maximum during summer and minimum during monsoon season. Untreated sewage and industrial effluents together with reduced water flow and water level were found to increase bacterial counts during summer at Site 2 (Padma Garden). Although the present situation is not serious and alarming enough, the river water requires intensive monitoring to improve its quality for better and sustainable management.