Abstract : Assessment of surface water quality is a complicated issue as they are used for agriculture, domestic and industrial purposes. In India particularly water pollution is a serious problem as nearly 70 percent of its surface water is contaminated by biological, toxic, organic and inorganic pollutants. Hence, to protect this natural resource proper water management strategies are essential. In this context, the present study aims to evaluate the water quality of the river Hooghly in West Bengal, India. Both pre-monsoon and post-monsoon samples were collected from eleven points distributed along the entire river stretch for the parameters namely Chloride, Conductivity, Dissolved O2 (DO), Fecal Coliform, Magnesium, Total Coliform, Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), Total Suspended Solids(TSS) and Turbidity and tested at laboratory. Based on the tested results Water Quality indices were calculated to assess the water quality of the river . Finally , based on these results digital cartographic maps depicting the water quality status of the river were generated using ARC GIS 10.3 software in order to develop a cost effective regular monitoring system.

Keywords : Water Quality Parameters, WQI, Pollutants, Monitoring , ARC GIS 10.3

| DOI: 10.17148/IARJSET.2021.8897