Potential impacts of industrial and domestic effluents on selected rivers of North Bihar

The disposal of wastes from industrial and domestic sources is becoming a serious problem throughout the world. In the present study based on laboratory and field studies we have tried to outline the potential value and problems associated with the discharges in the 3 rivers of North Bihar namely Shikrahana, Daha and Burhi Gandak. All the 8 sugar industries and the 3 distilleries are located on the banks of the rivers under study discharge their industrial effluents into the 3 rivers. Besides, the industrial and domestic effluents, agricultural runoffs are also discharged into the rivers. The results show that due to the discharges, the quality of river water has deteriorated and become polluted. Based on the results in the present study, it can be concluded that the organic pollution and fecal contamination is predominant because of some input from the sugar and distillery units as well as from domestic and also from non- point sources of pollution particularly from agricultural runoffs. The ecological significance of these observations is discussed herein.