ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Estimation of Water Quality Parameters of Rawal
Lake and Its Associated Tributaries
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1
School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
2
Department of Education, Sukkur IBA University, Airport Road, Sukkur 65200, Pakistan
3
Department of Microbiology, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad 45320, Pakistan
4
Department of Forestry and Rangeland management, Kohsar University, Murree 47150, Pakistan
5
Department of Environmental and Conservation Sciences, University of Swat, Mingora 19130, Pakistan
6
Department of Zoology, Shah Abdul Latif University, Khairpur Mirs 66111, Pakistan
7
Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Shaheed Benazir Bhutto University,
Shaheed Benazirabad 67450, Pakistan
8
Department of Business Administration and Information Studies, Greenwich University, Karachi 75500, Pakistan
Submission date: 2020-11-21
Final revision date: 2021-06-21
Acceptance date: 2021-06-25
Online publication date: 2022-02-14
Publication date: 2022-04-06
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2022;31(3):2149-2155
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ABSTRACT
Globally, the rapid growth of the population over the past century has put enormous pressure
on freshwater resources. Pakistan, as a developing country, also faces a freshwater crisis. Rawal Lake,
an essential freshwater reservoir near Pakistan’s capital, has been showing signs of deterioration for
the past few years. Therefore, a brief study was planned to analyze the water quality of the lake
and the associated recharge streams. Twelve physical and chemical parameters were selected along
with the total bacterial and Escherichia coli count. Five sampling points were selected for water
sampling. Results showed that the Mallpur stream significantly has higher pH, total suspended solids,
and total dissolved solids values than the other sampling points and was not within the permissible
limits of the World Health Organization. In the case of total bacterial count and Escherichia coli
count, except Spillway, water samples showed higher concentrations than the permissible limits
of world health organization. However, the mineral content such as Calcium, Magnesium, Nitrogen,
Potassium, Chloride, and sulphate concentration at all sampling points are within the permissible limits
of the world health organization’s drinking water standard. Results also showed that the water
sampled from the Korang River tributary has more deterioration in physicochemical properties as well as in total bacterial count than the Mallpur tributary. Due to the deterioration of the water quality
parameter, it is suggested that Rawal Lake water is not suitable for human consumption.