Rajshree
, Abhishek Chauhan , Anuj Ranjan, Tanu Jindal
- Amity Institute of Environmental Sciences, Amity University, Sector-125, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India
- Tridel Technologies, FZC, QD01, Dafza Industrial park, Al Qusais, Dubai, UAE.
- 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
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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.
