Assessment of physicochemical properties of water and their seasonal variation in an urban river in Bangladesh

To assess the magnitude of water quality decline in the Turag River of Bangladesh, this study examined the seasonal variation of physicochemical parameters of water, identified potential pollution sources, and clustered the monitoring months with similar characteristics. Water samples were collected in four distinct seasons to evaluate temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration, five-day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD₅), chemical oxygen demand (COD), electrical conductivity (EC), chloride ion (Cl⁻) concentration, total alkalinity (TA), turbidity, total dissolved solids (TDS) concentration, total suspended solids (TSS) concentration, and total hardness (TH) using standard methods. The analytical results revealed that 40% of water quality indices were within the permissible limits suggested by different agencies, with the exception of EC, Cl⁻ concentration, TA, turbidity, DO concentration, BOD₅, and COD in all seasons. Statistical analyses indicated that 52% of the contrasts were significantly different at a 95% confidence interval. The factor analysis presented the best fit among the parameters, with four factors explaining 94.29% of the total variance. TDS, BOD₅, COD, EC, turbidity, DO, and Cl⁻ were mainly responsible for pollution loading and were caused by the significant amount of industrial discharge and toxicological compounds. The cluster analysis showed the seasonal change in surface water quality, which is usually an indicator of pollution from rainfall or other sources. However, the values of different physicochemical properties varied with seasons, and the highest values of pollutants were recorded in the winter. With the change in seasonal temperature and increase in rainfall, the seasonal Turag River water followed a self-refining trend as follows: rainy season > pre-winter > summer > winter.