Water Quality Assessment of River Tawi, Jammu Using Water Quality Index and Multivariate Statistical Techniques

The present study explores the water quality status, hydrogeochemical characteristics and factors affecting the water quality of Tawi River in Jammu. More accurate information of water quality was obtained by applying the hydrochemical plot like Piper's diagram, Water Quality Index and Multivariate Statistical Techniques such as Principal Component Analysis (PCA) on various physicochemical parameters. All the analyzed parameters were well within the permissible limits of Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS 2012) for drinking and domestic purposes for pre and post monsoon season. Based on the inferences obtained from Piper's diagram, Ca-Mg-HCO3 type predominated in the study area during both seasons. Most dominant cations were Ca2+ and Mg2+ whereas HCO(3)(-)and( )Cl(-)were the dominant anions in the analyzed water samples. The computed WQI values of the surface water ranged from 60.05 to 107.60 and from 75.25 to 123.38 during pre and post monsoon season respectively and fall under good to poor category. Varifactors obtained from PCA indicated that water quality variation was primarily due to the dissolution of minerals from rock water interactions, secondary effect of anthropogenic activities and ion exchange processes in water. These results provide fundamental and baseline information for developing more effective water pollution abatement strategies for River Tawi.