| Abstract |
This paper highlights the preservation of a 100 year-old natural water body, its ecology, and utilization of pond water for drinking purposes and highlights the protection from pollution and degradation. The water body is called Raja tank, a fresh water pond that extends over 12.72 acres located in Kakinada city. Long time back, this pond water caters to the drinking water demand of Kakinada people, but now not in use for different reasons. To bring this water body back into use to meet the water demand of a fast-growing city, the present work on “A Study on Sediment Analysis, Raw Water Quality and Design of Inlet and Outlet for Raja tank, Kakinada, A.P.” has been carried out. The reason and the main objective of this study is that the storage capacity of the existing water tanks is not enough to meet the population demand; hence, this work has been carried out to determine the quality of raw water and its suitability for future use after treatment. As such, there has been no maintenance of the pond for the past few decades, which has led to stagnation and sedimentation in the pond. In addition, there is no inlet and outlet arrangement to this pond for filling of the pond with freshwater or discharge of stagnant water; hence, an inlet and outlet arrangement was designed. To know about Raja tank as a storage reservoir, raw water quality with special reference to seasonal changes and suitability for drinking purpose, water samples were collected and the physical, chemical, and biological nature of the pond water was analyzed. Sediment analysis was also performed. Based on the water quality analysis, composition of the sediment, the suitability of water in Raja tank for drinking purpose and for future use, etc., and chances of rejuvenation Raja tank, etc., had been decided. Except for turbidity, pH, and sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB), all the remaining physical, chemical, and biological parameters are quite good, the raw water quality is suitable for treatment, and supply can also meet the future water demand of smart cities. A higher DO value also indicates no organic pollution load. A comprehensive raw water quality management plan is suggested for ULB, Kakinada, which is a smart city. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2025. |
