Long Term Monitoring of Water Quality in the Gobind Ballabh Pant Sagar in the Region around a Thermal Power Plant

Gobind Ballabh Pant Sagar created in 1962 on the river Rihand is located in the state of Uttar Pradesh (24°12′9″N 83°0′29″E / 24.2025°N 83.00806°E / 24.2025; 83.00806).  / 24.2025; 83.00806 It was commissioned for the purposes like irrigation, flood control, fishery and wildlife conservation etc. along with electricity generation. Availability of coal mines in the vicinity of the reservoir resulted in rising of many thermal power plants of different capacity. These plants use the water from reservoir for various operations like cooling and discharging effluents which contaminates the hydro-environment. For monitoring the degree of hydro-pollution a long term detailed investigation program was initiated in the year 2002.  The study indicates that monitoring process clearly arrested further deterioration of water quality in the reservoir. This paper presents the detailed observations carried out in the region around one of these thermal power plants in different seasons during the period October 2002 to August 2012.