Geochemical Assessment of Fort Lake, Belagavi: A Comparative Study of Physico-Chemical Parameters

Fort Lake (Kote Kere) is an urban lake in the heart of Belagavi, Karnataka, that received sewage until remedial measures began in 2005. This paper compares the monthly physico-chemical data of the lake for 2004, 2006 and 2010 taken from published research papers. Eight parameters are considered: pH, hardness, total dissolved solids (TDS), chloride, electrical conductivity, biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), dissolved oxygen (DO) and nitrate. Mean BOD falls from 14.18 mg/L in 2004 to 5.79 mg/L in 2006 and 1.44 mg/L in 2010 (July–September only). Mean chloride falls from 121.4 to 61.2 and then 48.4 mg/L, and mean DO rises from 4.66 to 6.25 mg/L between 2004 and 2006. Chloride and nitrate stay far below the limits of IS 10500:1991 in all years, and pH is within 6.5–8.5 in 34 of 36 months. The data show a clear improvement in organic pollution after the remedial measures reported in the literature. They do not cover recent years, and several parameters are missing for 2010.