Assessment of Water Quality for Varada River Basin using Water Quality Index in Shimoga, Karnataka, India

The study is focused on assessment of drinking water quality using water quality index (WQI), for this study purpose used twelve water quality parameters like, pH, Electrical Conductivity, Total Dissolved Solids, Calcium, Magnesium, Sodium, Potassium, Bicarbonate, Chloride, Sulphate and Nitrate and analyzed for pre-monsoon and post-monsoon seasons at Varada river basin from the year 2005 to 2008. The result was found that the most of the water samples having “Good” category for drinking purposes for both seasons. According to BIS standards all samples comes under within the permissible limit except few samples due to urban runoff, anthropogenic activities and more use of chemical fertilizers.