Assessment of physico-chemical parameters of rainbow trout farms for the evaluation of potential threat to natural streams in Nepal

Authors

  • Payaswini Ghimire Department of Environmental Science and Engineering School of Science, Kathmandu University. Kathmandu
  • Archana Niraula Department of Environmental Science and Engineering School of Science, Kathmandu University. Kathmandu
  • Anuradha Rai Department of Environmental Science and Engineering School of Science, Kathmandu University. Kathmandu
  • Aastha Pandey Department of Environmental Science and Engineering School of Science, Kathmandu University. Kathmandu
  • Smriti Gurung Department of Environmental Science and Engineering School of Science, Kathmandu University. Kathmandu
  • Chhatra Mani Sharma Department of Environmental Science and Engineering School of Science, Kathmandu University. Kathmandu

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3126/ije.v6i2.17361

Keywords:

Rainbow trout farms, Physico-chemical parameters, Pollution threat, Nepal

Abstract

 Three trout farms from Nepal were studied to investigate the changes in physico-chemical parameters and their potential threat to natural water bodies receiving the effluents. Reference and impact sites were determined in each farm so as to find out the level of impacts due to farming activities. Some of the parameters such as dissolved oxygen, turbidity, conductivity, and total dissolve solids were significantly changed in the impacted zones compared to reference sites. Similarly, concentrations of some major ions such as calcium and sodium were increased in the impacted zones. On the other hand, some of the parameters such as pH and potassium did not change in the impacted zone although their concentrations were different among farms studied. Nevertheless, the overall changes in the physico-chemical parameters did not pose health risk to the aquatic ecosystems receiving effluents from these fish farms as the concentrations were below the prescribed levels by Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as well as Nepal Environment Statistics. This is an indication that, although fish farming activities are degrading water qualities, there is no threat to the water quality receiving the effluents yet probably due to small scale farming. The increase in number of fish farms in the same area, however might pose risk to the ecological health in the region which warrants regular monitoring.  

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENT

Volume-6, Issue-2, Mar-May 2017, Page: 43-55

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.
Abstract
3077
PDF
923

Downloads

Published

2017-05-23

How to Cite

Ghimire, P., Niraula, A., Rai, A., Pandey, A., Gurung, S., & Sharma, C. M. (2017). Assessment of physico-chemical parameters of rainbow trout farms for the evaluation of potential threat to natural streams in Nepal. International Journal of Environment, 6(2), 43–55. https://doi.org/10.3126/ije.v6i2.17361

Issue

Vol. 6 No. 2 (2017)

Section

Research Article

License

The author(s) acknowledge that the manuscript submitted is his/her/their own original work; all authors participated in the work in a substantive way and are prepared to take public responsibility for the work; all authors have seen and approved the manuscript as submitted;  the manuscript has not been published and is not being submitted or considered for publication elsewhere; the text, illustrations, and any other materials included in the manuscript do not infringe(plagiarism) upon any existing copyright or other rights of anyone.

Notwithstanding the above, the Contributor(s) or, if applicable the Contributor’s Employer, retain(s) all proprietary rights other than copyright, such as Patent rights; to use, free of charge, all parts of this article for the author’s future works in books, lectures, classroom teaching or oral presentations; the right to reproduce the article for their own purposes provided the copies are not offered for sale.

The copyright to the contribution identified is transferred to IJE.