Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

PHYSICO-CHEMICAL AND BACTERIOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF TUIKUAL RIVER IN AIZAWL, MIZORAM

Lalnunthari Ngente and B.P. Mishra

Abstract

The Tuikual river flows through Aizawl, also known as Tuithum Lui, before connecting with the Tlawng river, Mizoram’s primary source of water supply. The study was carried out over a year, from October 2020 to September 2021, with samples collected at monthly intervals. The research area was divided into four sampling locations along the river, from upstream to downstream. Pollutants carried by the river include untreated municipal garbage, sewage discharges, and biomedical effluents. The upstream Site 1 sample, which contained biomedical effluents from Aizawl Civil Hospital (Mizoram’s largest hospital), and the downstream Site 2 sample, which contained biomedical effluents from Aizawl Civil Hospital and Ebenezer Hospital (Mizoram’s most popular state private hospital). The downstream Sites 3 (Khawhpawp) and 4 (Tuithum) are tourist attractions that eventually join the Tlawng river. Temperature, Dissolved Oxygen, Biochemical Oxygen Demand, Acidity, Sulphate and total coliform count are important water quality parameters that have been estimated for the study of the monthly variation of Tuikual river water quality. Except for DO, the monsoon (rainy) months had higher values in all of the studied parameters, which could be attributed to the flow of heavy rainwater, which carries a large amount of pollutants from the surroundings into the river body of water. Microsoft Excel was used for the statistical analysis of the correlation coefficient.