Rajshree, Abhishek Chauhan , Anuj Ranjan, Tanu Jindal

  1. Amity Institute of Environmental Sciences, Amity University, Sector-125, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India
  2. Tridel Technologies, FZC, QD01, Dafza Industrial park, Al Qusais, Dubai, UAE.
  3. Amity Institute of Environmental Toxicology, Safety and Management, Amity University, Sector-125, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India

akchauhan@amity.edu; mail4mons@gmail.com

Received Date: April 12, 2020 / Accepted Date: June 19, 2020 / Published Date: June 25, 2020 \

Abstract

Dubai creek lies at the heart of Dubai. It has aesthetic value as it provides 14 km waterfront and attractive living space for residents and tourists. The creek breezes It’s way with the opening, which is a hundred meters wide, into the Arabian Gulf and extends 7 km inwards into a wide lagoon with twelve-hundred-meter opening. Till 2016 the creek was an enclosed water body. Poor flushing of the water in the creek made pollutants to reside in the creek water for a longer time. In November 2016, Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) inaugurated the Dubai Canal, which is an extension of Dubai Creek, making a complete U-shaped open waterbody. Dubai creek is highly impacted by residential sprawl in recent year. One of the major sources of wastewater input into the creek and contaminating it is the effluents from Al Aweer sewerage treatment plant (STP). Many studies done on Dubai creek previously showed that the water quality was not up to the mark to support good living environment especially for migratory birds in the Ras Al Khor Sanctuary which is rich in more than 250 species of migratory birds and mangroves. The aim of this study is to determine the quality of creek water before, during and after the lockdown amidst the Covid-19 Pandemic. Lockdown was from 6th – 23rd April 2020 in U.A.E. The data is being collected from official Dubai coastal monitoring site of Dubai Municipality ‘www.dubaicoast.ae’ through real-time water quality monitoring sensors which are being deployed in water buoys in Dubai creek lagoon by Dubai Municipality. The results showed improvements in the water quality of the lagoon during the lockdown. The overall quality of the water improved because of less industrial operating hours during the lockdown. The opening of the canal might have minor positive effects on lagoon water due to better circulation. There was significant improvement noted in the DO, Turbidity, Salinity, Chlorophyll (a), pH and BGA during the Lockdown. However, no significant effects were observed in the water temperature of the Lagoon.

Keywords  Dubai creek, Water Quality, Treatment Plant, COVID-19, Lockdown


References 

Al Tunaiji, Naama (2016). Water Quality Analysis In Dubai Creek, UAE: With The Focus On Heavy Metals And Nutrients.
10.13140/RG.2.2.29863.55206.

Al Zahed, K.A. (2008). Coastal zone management in Dubai with reference to ecological characterization along Dubai Creek.

Google Scholar

A.P. Yunus, Y. Masago and Y. Hijioka, COVID-19 and surface water quality: Improved lake water quality during the lockdown, Science of the Total Environment (2018), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.139012.

Google Scholar

Clifford, C. (2020) The water in Venice, Italy’s canals is running clear amid the COVID-19 lockdown — take a look [WWW Document]. URL https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/18/photoswater-in-venice-italys-canals-clear-amidcovid-19- lockdown.html .

Chauhan, A., Goyal, P., Verma, A and Jindal, T (2015) In -Vitro Antibiotic Resistance and Heavy Metal Tolerance Patterns of Gram-Positive and Gram-Negative Bacteria Isolated From Effluent Treated Water of Delhi, India. Journal of Current Pharma Research 5 (2),1449-1458.

Google Scholar 

Chauhan, A., Goyal, P., Verma, A and Jindal, T (2015) Microbiological evaluation of drinking water sold by roadside vendors of Delhi, India. Appl Water Sci, DOI 10.1007/s13201-015-0315-x.

Google Scholar 

Hassan Deshgooni, Mohammad Abdul Rahman, “Modeling and Assessment of Environmental Capacity, Dubai Coastal Region, United Arab Emirates” (2002). Theses. 70. https://scholarworks.uaeu.ac.ae/all_theses/70.

Google Scholar

Freije, A. (2015). Heavy Metal, Trace Element and Petroleum Hydrocarbon Pollution in the Arabian Gulf: Review. Journal of the Association of Arab Universities for Basic and Applied Sciences.

Google Scholar

Mani, K.S., (2020) The Lockdown Cleaned the Ganga More Than ‘Namami Gange’ Ever Did [WWW Document]. URL https://science.thewire.in/environment/ganga-riverlockdowncleaner-namami-gange-sewage-treatment-ecological-flow/.

Mitra, Abhijit & Mitra, Ankita. (2020). COVID-19 Lockdown phase: A boon for the River Ganga water quality along the city of Kolkata.

Google Scholar

Mohan, M., Chandran, M.S., Jayasooryan, K., Ramasamy, E. (2014) Mercury in the sediments of Vembanad Lake, western coast of India. Environmental monitoring and assessment 186.

Google Scholar

Ahmed, A. (2010). An overview of conventional and non-conventional water resources in arid region: assessment and constrains of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Journal of Water Resource and Protection2010.

Google Scholar

 


How to cite this article          

Rajshree, Chauhan, A., Ranjan A., Jindal T. (2020) Impact of COVID-19 lockdown on water quality of Dubai creek lagoon Science Archives, Vol. 1 (1), 1-6.

Crossref DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.47587/SA.2020.1101

Copyright

This is an open-access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium provided the original work is properly cited.

View Details