Water quality assessment of sacred glacial Lake Satopanth of Garhwal Himalaya, India

Abstract Satopanth Lake is a glacial lake, located at an altitude of 4600 m above sea level in Garhwal Himalaya of Uttarakhand state in India where an attempt was made to assess the water quality. A total of sixteen physico-chemical parameters including temperature, hardness, alkalinity, dissolved oxygen, conductivity, pH, calcium, magnesium, chlorides, nitrates, sulphates and phosphates were recorded during 2014 and 2015 between June and August in ice-free period. The mean values of pH ranged from 6.85 to 7.10; water temperature fluctuated from 0.1 to 0.3 °C; dissolved oxygen varied from 5.90 to 6.0 mg.L−1; free CO2 varied from 8.40 to 8.60 mg.L−1; total dissolved solids varied from 88.0 to 89.5 mg.L−1; calcium from 7.88 to 7.95 mg.L−1; magnesium from 0.53 to 0.66 mg.L−1. All the physico-chemical values were within the prescribed WHO/BIS limit for drinking water. Water Quality Index (WQI) calculated based on these parameters also revealed the excellent quality of lake water