Effect of Phytoremediation on Koradi Lake Water

Surface water is more prone to pollution than ground water. The impacts of surface water pollution are also instant, severe and visual. Unlike rivers which posses self-cleaning capacity, it is also difficult to clean the stagnant water in lakes, ponds etc. Koradi Lake near Nagpur is one such example as the lake is facing the issue of water pollution. The sources of this lake pollution varies from sewage water discharge from nearby villages, cooling water disposal from adjacent Thermal Power Station, runoffs, idol and Nirmalya immersions and many more. The focus of the project is to identify the naturally occurring plant species which can be helpful in removing the pollutants and reducing the impacts of polluted water. Four different species were considered and used for phytoremediation, two aquatics species Azolla Pinnata and Water Hycinth and two media based species Canna Indica and Colocasia Esculenta. The lake water was introduced for a period of 20 days and observed. The Phytoremediation capacity of aquatic species was found to be much better than the Phytoremediation capacity of media based species. Moreover, the lake water showed adverse effects on the growth of media based species, which opens the scope for further research regarding the quality and contents of water.