Abstract:
Kshipra river passing through Ujjain city is a mythologically, spiritually and religiously important holy river. But in the recent past due to the pollution and other anthropological activities river water pollution is at its extreme and even the flow of water has come to stagnation. Ujjain is facing shortage of precipitation since past few years and to aggregate the situation excessive water for agro—irrigation is pumped out from the river. This has caused acute shortage of water in the City. To overcome this shortage of water Madhya Pradesh government has attempted to link Narmada river with Kshipra through a long pipeline so as to restore Kshipra flow again. This Narmada Kshipra link project was very crucial and important because holy city Ujjain celebrates Sirnhastha (Kumbh) Mela after every 12 years and all resources including natural water resource are at extreme pressure.
Kshipra river water was tested for physical chemical and biological parameters before and after its linkage with Narmada river water. For the analysis of these parameters American public health association (APHA, 1998) was followed. Water samples were collected from four different sites viz., Triveni ghat, Gau ghat, Ram ghat and Mangalnath ghat. pH, temperature, conductivity, chemical oxygen demand (COD), hardness, alkalinity, fecal coliforms, total coliforms, and fecal Streptococci were taken as parameters to assess the water quality in the laboratory. Observations and results reveal that water quality of Kshipra river before its linkage with Narmada water was comparatively more deleterious and all parameters were much above than the permissible limit of pollution
control board. All the pollution level decrease after Narmada linkage and the values of parameters were nearly permissible to standards of various organizations.
Results of this study suggest that the river linkage project can help to enhance the water quality and conserve the biodiversity of the existing water resource under constraints. Narmada-Kshipra link project positively support the above fact and enhance water quality status of stagnant water of Kshipra. It may further lead to cope up with the regional water crisis.
