Water Quality Assessment of Behta River Using Benthic Macroinvertebrates

Abstract

Aquatic macroinvertebrates play significant role in responding to a variety of environmental conditions of rivers and streams and therefore may be used as bio-indicators for water quality assessment. In the past, biological communities like plankton, periphyton, microphytobenthos, macrozoobenthos, aquatic macrophytes, fishes etc. have been used for the assessment of water quality of rivers and streams, but now the use of benthic macroinverte- brates as bio-indicators is gaining importance as these can be easily caught and seen with naked eyes and the method is less costlier and less time consuming compared to other methods given above. Behta River of Paonta Sahib in Hi- machal Pradesh was chosen to assess the suitability of river water for drinking purposes. The present study involved sampling, pre-identification and identification of macroinvertebrates and computing the percent of occurrence of families of various taxonomic groups and conducting physico-chemical analysis of samples from selected location. Macroinvertebrates chosen were identified up to family level, and bio-assessment at various locations has been done using NEPBIOS score system. It was found that out of total 30 genus belonging to 10 families of taxonomical group like Ephemeroptera, Trichoptera, Plecoptera, Coleoptera, Heteroptera, Odonata, Diptera Mollusca, Oligochaetes etc. have been found in different composition inhabiting the river. The results further show that all the locations assessed for quality using macroinvertebrates and physico-chemical analysis are in the range of water quality class ill (Moderately Polluted) and the water can not be used for drinking purposes. The measures tOcreduce