QUANTIFICATION OF SURFACE WATER BODIES IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES – THE NEED AND CHALLENGESNARESH KUMAR KOLLA, MANOJ KUMAR KARNENA AND SARITHA VARAAbstract Water is understood to be the most essential yet fragile resource, which in recent years is being stressed with human activities, urbanization and industrialization making this resource-scarce both in terms of quality and quantity. Changes in quality of water in the present scenario has become dynamic with overwhelming pollutants being released into them, affecting the ecosystem and humans. Assessing the qualitative status of freshwaters is a fundamental aim of international society, as indicated in Sustainable Development Goals. With variations among regulatory requirements, standards of water quality, geological and geographical, land-use and other location specific variations, management strategies as on-in-all is not applicable. Hence, continuous assessment of location-specific or local water bodies becomes mandatory. The first step in managing or protecting water resources is to evaluate water quantity and quality towards chalking and implementing measures for water security. Dependable assessment of water quality is vital towards decision making through understanding, interpreting and using this data for management activities pointing at protecting water resource. Several challenges exist in monitoring water quality which was addressed previously in literature. This review focusses on the issue of the need for continuous evaluation of water quality, particularly in developing countries and also discusses some of the challenges towards assessing water quality. |