34

Water Supply and Sanitary Engineering

Ch
Art
Perennial rivers, and
(1)
Non-perennial or seasonal rivers
Perennial rivers are snow fed and hence, maintain same flow of water in an
season. Scasonal rivers go dry virtually without any flow in summer season and
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as in monsoon heavy flood visits them
For such types of rivers, it is desirable to store the excess water of flood
This stored water may thes
monsoons by constructing dams across such rivers
be used in summer
The principal
It can be developed as the chief source of water supply for a town or a city
uses of a river can be summarised as follows
(i)
It can be used for navigation
(i)
It can be used to supply water for irrigation purposes
(1)
It can serve as an agent of purification of wastes
It can serve as a centre of recreational activities such as bathing, boating
(iv)
(v)
fishing, fountains, etc
In order to ascertain the quantity of water available from the river, the
discharges at various periods of the year are taken and recorded. The observations
good guide for estimating the quantity of wate
over a number of years serve as a
available from the river in any paricular period of the year
Generally the quantity of water available from non-perennial rivers is variable
throughout the year and it is likely to fall down in hot season when demand of
water is maximum. It becomes therefore essential to augment such source of water
supply by some other sources so as to make the water supply scheme successful
The quality of surface water obtained from rivers is not reliable. It contains
silt and suspended impurities. When completely or partly treated sewage is being
discharged into the river at some upstream point, the river water is to be
suspected
for high contamination. The river water requires to be properly analysed as regards
to the contents of disease bacteria, harmful impurities, etc. The presence of all
such undesirable elements in river water requires an exhaustive treatment of water
before it can be made fit for drinking purposes.
It should however be noted that the quality of river water is subject to the widest
on various uncertain factors such as character of the
variations because it
catchment area, discharges of sewage and industrial wastes, climatic conditions
season of the year, etc. The character of the water differs not only with each
individual river, but also at many points along the course of the same river. It is
usually found that the quality of river water at its head is good, but it goes on
deteriorating as the river proceeds along its course. The main reasons why the
river pollution is undesirable are as follows:
depends
contamination of water supplies resulting
treatment plants;
tion of nuisances in the form of appearance and odour:
(1)
in additional load on
(u)
detrimental effect on fish life;
hindrance to the navigation by banks of deposited solids;
(iv)
restriction of recreational use; etc.
(v)