Sampling campaign at the Yamuna flood plain in Delhi

At the Yamuna flood plain in Delhi, close to the famous Akshardam Temple, another set of surface water samples from the Yamuna River and groundwater samples was taken in July 2013 by M. Gröschke. Heavy rainfall during June 2013 caused severe floods in North India and thus also at the field site in Delhi. Ankush Gupta and Laxmi Das joined to take water samples which were analysed for E.coli and total coliforms at IIT Roorkee. Within the study area the Yamuna River has been suffering from increasing degradation of water quality over the last decades. The adjacent flood plain aquifer is used for water production and threatened by various contaminants. The aim of this study is to investigate the fate and transport of nitrogen species during infiltration of surface water into the urban aquifer.

Inundated land at the flood plain in Delhi. (Background: Houses of the Commonwealth Games village, Foreground: water pipe connections) photo taken by M. Gröschke.