Abstract

ALGAL BIOREMEDIATION OF COOUM WATER

Puja Prabha Tripathi and *Dr. V. Judia Harriet Sumathy

Abstract

The Cooum River is the shortest river draining into the Bay of Bengal.This river is about 74 km in length, flowing 32 km in the urban partand the rural part. The river is highly polluted due to the wasteproduced by the city. The river trifurcates the city and separatesNorthern and Central Chennai. In Chennai district, the river flowsthrough three corporation zones - Kilpauk, Nungambakkam,Triplicane. Owing to intensive use of surface water upstream foragriculture, indiscriminate pumping of groundwater leading to reducedbase flow in the river, discharge of untreated sewage and industrialeffluents and industrial effluents and encroachment along the bankshas been highly polluted. The 2004 tsunami cleaned the mouth of theriver; however, the river returned to its usual polluted self within ashort period. However the unpolluted Part is still being used for drinking water needs ofmany villages in the banks of the unpolluted part of the cooum. Algae by definition are anassemblage of a large and diverse group of primitive aquatic organisms, sometimes referredto as “simple plants”. Algae are autotrophic organisms that can range in size from single cellsto large multi-cellular seaweeds that can grow to over 150 feet (45 meters).Autotrophicorganisms are the “producers” in a food chain that manufacture complex organic compoundsfrom simple inorganic molecules using photosynthesis, or the energy generated by the sun.Algal Bioremediation is being used worldwide in Waste Water Treatment as it exhibits highpotential in waste water remediation and is cost effective.

Keywords: Cooum River, Chennai, Pollution, Algal Bioremediation and Cost effective.