WATER QUALITY DEGRADATION AND ITS IMPACT ON HEALTH OF THE RIPARIAN SLUM DWELLERS OF RIVER KARALA IN JALPAIGURI MUNICIPALITY: RESEARCH INSIGHTS

Karala river is a tributary of river Teesta which flows through the Jalpaiguri Municipality, West Bengal is facing challenges and is experiencing significant water quality degradation. This is mainly due to anthropogenic activities such as rapid urbanization and discharge of untreated sewage from the drains. Hence a study was carried out to analyze the water quality of the Karala River within the Jalpaiguri Municipality area and its impact on the health of the slum dwellers residing along river Karala. The water quality analysis was done with the help of National Sanitation Foundation’s Water Quality Index (NSF-WQI) and each of the individual parameters were compared to the Bureau of Indian Standard permissible limits, and according to the classification developed by NSF as the WQI value is 49.76 which falls between 26-50 indicating not safe for direct contact and is not suitable for any type of use. The probit model analysis was used to find the effect between socioeconomic variables and the health parameters. It was found that variable educational status has significant effect on diseases related to menstrual hygiene and skin infections. The variable wealth quantile has a significant effect on skin infections, dysentery and diarrhea related diseases and lastly the variable different kinds of daily activities on the river have significant effect on diseases like menstrual hygiene, skin infections, dysentery and diarrhea.