Abstract
Coastal environment is facing the hazards like flood, cyclone, erosion, storm surge and tsunami.
Ingress of sea into the land and nearby surface water bodies is also another major threat to coastal environment. In this scenario, the rivers Ponnaiyar, Gadilam and Uppanar flowing in the heart of the Cuddalore town have been chosen to study the effect of coastal environment on river water quality. The water samples have been collected from the both rivers during pre-monsoon and post-monsoon periods and they were analyzed in the laboratory by adopting standard procedure (APHA, 1998). The chemical analysis results were fed into HYCH software to understand the water quality type. From the study it is revealed that all the three rivers were facing sea water intrusion problem during pre-monsoon and post-monsoon periods. The level of COD, BOD and E.Coli of Ponnaiyar river water is comparatively higher than the Gadilam river water. The Uppanar river water is showing concentration of heavy metals like Lead (Pb) and Zinc (Zn). Therefore, immediate steps to be taken to save all the three rivers from problems like sea water intrusion, sewage and industrial pollution. The strategies like construction of check dams, embankment across rivers, avoiding sand quarrying from river beds, prohibiting the entering of sewage and effluent into stream and monitoring of river water quality are essential to overcome the above problems. Creating awareness to public through various mass-media and implementing strict environmental laws are also to be needed to safe guard the coastal environment of this region.
