Vol. 5, Issue 10, Part B (2019)

Abstract
Pollution of natural water-bodies is a major concern nowadays. Idol immersion activities during various religious festivals are adding pollution to the water bodies. In that Non-biodegradable materials, plaster of paris, white cement and synthetic paints used for making these idols are posing a serious threat to aquatic life and environment. Water quality assessment is important concern to evaluate the nature and extent of pollution in order to take appropriate control measures. The present work is concern about the Water quality parameters assessment to evaluate the nature and the extent of pollution in the water body. The major lord Ganesh idol-immersion sites of Penna river canal and Mypadu coast, Nellore were selected for taking the freshwater sample and Mypadu coast marine water sample respectively in the present study. Pre-immersion, immersion, and post-immersion samples were collected from two stations and analyzed for various water quality parameters such as pH, Total suspended solids (TSS), Total dissolved solids (TDS), Turbidity, conductivity, hardness, Dissolved oxygen (DO) and COD. The variations in the values of these parameters were more prominent in freshwater samples than marine samples. It was observed that the values of these parameters significantly increased during the post immersion period. However the general trend observed was: immersion > post-immersion > pre-immersion values. pH declined slightly during the immersion period whereas DO showed only slight variations in the pre-immersion, immersion and post-immersion samples.