Water quality monitoring and water quality index of the Tuikual River in the vicinity of Aizawl city, Mizoram

The Tuikual River is a major source of potable water for the people of Aizawl city in the state of Mizoram. Domestic and municipal waste from Aizawl’s western suburbs and biomedical effluents from the Civil and Ebenezer Hospitals are getting discharged into it. Agricultural run-off adds to the river’s pollution. Here we examine the water quality of the Tuikual River over two years (October 2019 to September 2021) at four sampling stations selected along the river course both upstream and downstream of the city. The water quality index was computed as 287, 310, 162 and 135 at sites 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively. The findings depict that the river water at all the sites is unfit for drinking because the weighted arithmetic water quality index exceeds 100 at all the stations.