IOSR Journal of Engineering (IOSRJEN) www.iosrjen.org ISSN (e): 2250-3021, ISSN (p): 2278-8719 Vol. 11, Issue 7, July 2019, ||Series -I|| PP 27-44 International organization of Scientific Research27 | P a g e Water Quality Monitoring and Its Assessment on Mahanadi Basin Abhijeet Das a , Dr. Bhagirathi Tripathy b a Guest Faculty, Civil Engineering Department, Odisha. b Assistant Professor, Civil Engineering Department, IGIT, Sarang, Odisha. Received 20 December 2018; Accepted 05 July 2019 ABSTRACT Mahanadi River is said to be the lifeline of the state Odisha, as the people use the water extensively, without sufficient and reliable information about water qualities and pollution status. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the water quality of the river and to analyze the suitability for drinking, agricultural and industrial uses. Most of the agriculture, industry and all-round developments are due to rich water resource potential of this river. This is why this study on the Mahanadi River is extremely important for the region. For this study, samples from 21 sampling stations over a period of 14 years were collected during low flow periods (between June – August) and high flow periods (between November – January) and multivariate techniques like factor analysis, Pearson correlation analysis and cluster analysis is being applied to surface water quality data sets obtained during two different hydrological periods. Results shows during low flow conditions, water quality was strongly affected by agricultural and irrigation uses. So, the major pollutant source changed from urban land uses to agricultural uses during the low flow period. The main reason for this was the negative effect of runoff to surface water quality because of the storage ability, the buffering capacity of roads and buildings to rain or storm water in urban areas, had been drastically weakened. Thus, major pollution threats in low and high flow periods were urban and agricultural land uses which are defined as non-point pollution sources. Therefore, priority should be given to minimization of these sources to improve water quality in the basin. This approach is believed to assist decision makers in identifying priorities to improve water quality that has deteriorated due to various land uses. KEYWORDS:Pearson Correlation, Factor analysis, Cluster analysis, Runoff, Buffering capacity, Water quality. I. INTRODUCTION Water, a prime natural resource and precious nationalasset which formsthechiefconstituentofecosystem. Sustainable management of water resources is an essential requirement for the growth of the state’s economy and well-being of the population. It is an essential requirement for human and industrial developments which promotes sustenance of human civilization and it is the most delicate part of theenvironment. Water quality deals with the physical,chemical and biological characteristics in relation to allother hydrological properties. The water quality from the rivers has a considerable importance for the reason that these water resources are generally used for multiple matters such as drinking, domestic and residential water supplies, agriculture (irrigation), hydroelectric power plants, transportation and infrastructure, tourism, recreation, and other human or economic ways to use water. Watersourcesmaybemainlyintheformofrivers,lakes,glaciers, rain water, ground water etc. Besides the need ofwater for drinking, water resources play a vital role invarious sectors of economy such as agriculture, livestockproduction,forestry,industrialactivities,hydropowergeneration,fisheriesandothercreativeactivities.Theav ailability and quality of water either surface or ground,have been deteriorated due to some important factors likeincreasingpopulation,industrialization,urbanizationetc. Water quality of any specific area or specific source can be assessed using physical, chemical and biological parameters. The values of these parameters are harmful for human health if they occurred more than defined limits. For a given river, the water quality is the result of several interrelated parameters with a local and temporal variation which are influenced by the water flow rate during the year. In the context of sustainable water management, many hydrological studies have been published around the world, which highlights the ecological role of water from the rivers. Moreover, there have been more researches based upon water quality evaluation. This category of studies is related to the quality of water courses which generally use many statistical and mathematical models.Water quality monitoring has one of the highest priorities in environmental protection policy. The main objective is to control and minimize the incidence of pollutant-oriented problems and to provide water of appropriate quality to serve various purposes such as drinking water supply, irrigation water. The quality of water is defined in terms of its physical, chemical and biological parameters.