Physico-Chemical Assessment of Water in Diverse Lentic Habitats of Bhutan

AUTHOR: Shivaraj Bhattarai

ABSTRACT

Water samples collected from diverse habitats in Bhutan, mainly from the eastern Dzongkhags, were analysed for basic water qualities during the period from February 2000 to January 2002. Most of the sampled water bodies depicted their sub-tropical nature with their waters ranging from typically acidic to circum-neutral to slightly alkaline and with poor to moderate mineral contents. They are mostly well oxygenated and moderately hard to soft confirmed by methyl orange alkalinity, total hardness as well as by low calcium, magnesium and chloride contents, thereby also suggesting a need to supplement the water bodies with essential mineral nutrients in case of any future plans to harness them for biological productivity. Comparisons in water quality are also made with available reports from the Himalayan Region.

KEY WORDS:

Bhutan, Himalayas, Freshwater, Water bodies, Water quality

REFERENCES

Anon, (1992). Bhutan towards sustainable development in a unique environment. National Environment Secretariat, Planning Commission Thimphu. 71 pp.

A.P.H.A. (1992). Standard Methods for Examination of water and wastewater (18th Ed.). American water Works Association and Water Pollution Control

Federation, New York. 1198 pp. (Eds. Arnold E. Greenberg, Lenore S. Clesceti and Andrew D. Eaton.).

Arora, R. K. (1990). Water pollution: studies on nitrite in Kanglung waters. In: Bhutan and Its Natural resources, Vikas Publishing House Pvt Ltd., New Delhi.

Barbosa, F.A.R. (1981). Variacos diuarnas (24 horas) de Parametros limnologicose da Productividae Primaria do fitoplancton na Lagos Carioca-Parque Florestral do Rio Doce-MG-Brasil. Ph.D. Thesis. Univ. Fed. S. Carlos.

Chandler, D.C. (1942). Limnological studies of western lake Erie. III. Phytoplankton and physical chemical data from November 1939 to1940. Ohio Journal of Scence, 42: 24-44.

Dhendup, T. and Boyd, C. E. (1994). Chemical features of water and soil farming areas in Bhutan. Journal of Aquaculture in the Tropics, 9: 35-41.

Gyeltshen, T. (2001). Bhutan Water Partnership launched. In: Kuensel, Bhutan’s National Newspaper. Vol.XVI. No.34.

Horne, Alexander J. and Goldman, Charles R. (1994). Limnology (2nd ed). McGraw-Hill Inc., New York. 576 pp.
Jain, A, Rai, S.C., Pal, J. and Sharma, E. (1999). Hydrology and nutrient dynamics of a sacred lake of Sikkim Himalaya. Hydrobiologia, 416: 13-22.

Kaushik, S. and Saksena, D.N. (1999). Physico-chemical Limnology of certain In: water bodies of central India. Freshwater Ecosystems of India. (Ed. K. Vijayakumar), Daya Publishing House, Delhi. 2-58.

Pandit, A.K. (1999). Trophic Structure of Plankton Community in some Typical Wetlands of Kashmir, India. In: Limnological Research in India (Ed. S.R. Mishra), Daya Publishing House, Delhi. 190-224.

Payne, A.R. (1986). The ecology of tropical lakes and rivers. John Wiley & Sons. New York. 301 pp.

Quadri, M.Y. and Yousuf, A.R. (1988). A comparative study of the Limnology of three typical water bodies of Kashmir. In: Recent Advances in Fish Ecology, Limnology and Eco-conservation (Ed. Surendra Nath), Creative Publishers, New Delhi, pp 176.

Sarwar, S.G. (1999). Water Quality and Periphytic Algal Component of Anchar Lake in Kashmir. In: Freshwater Ecosystem of India (ed. K. Vijayakumar). Daya Publishing House, Delhi. 237-250 pp.

Sharma, B.K. (2001). Water Quality of Subtropical lentic biotopes of Meghalaya. In: Water Quality Assessment, Biomonitoring and Zooplankton Diversity.

(Ed. Prof. B.K Sharma), Department of Zoology, North Eastern Hill University, Shillong, Meghalaya. 10-22 pp.

Sharma, B.K. and Bhattarai, S. (2005). Hydro-biological analysis of a peat bog with emphasis on its planktonic diversity and population dynamics in Bumdeling Wildlife Sanctuary: eastern Bhutan. Limnology 6: 183-187.

Singh, S.P., Pant, M.C., Sharma, P.C. and Purohit Rekha. (1982). Limnology of Shallow Water zones of lakes in Kumaon Himalaya (India). In: Proc. First International Wetlands Conference (Eds. B. Gopal, R.K. Turner, R.G. Wetzel and D.F. Whigham), Jaipur, India. 39-49.

Swar, D.B. and Fernando, C.H. (1979). Cladocera from Pokhara valley, Nepal with notes on distribution. Hydrobiologia 66:113-128.

Venkateswarlu, V. (1983). Taxonomy and ecology of algae in the river Moosi, Hyderabad, India. II. Bacillariophyceae. Bibliotheca Phycologica (Ed. J. Cramer). 66: 1-44.

Wetzel, R.G. (1983). Limnology. W.B. Saunders, Philadelphia,767pp.

Webber, W.J.Jr. and Stumm. (1963). Mechanism of hydrogen ion buffering in natural waters. Journal of American Water Works Association, 155: 1553.