Published Paper Details:

Water constitutes approximately 70% of the Earth's surface and is essential for all known life forms. Oceans and seas contain nearly 97% of the planet's water, leaving only about 2.3% as freshwater. Of this, nearly 99% is stored as ice and groundwater, with less than 0.4% present in rivers, lakes, and the atmosphere. Although it provides no calories or organic nutrients, access to safe drinking water is critical for human health and ecosystem sustainability. Despite improvements in global water accessibility over past decades, around 900 million people still lack safe drinking water, and more than 2 billion lack adequate sanitation. A significant correlation is observed between access to clean water and a nation's gross domestic product per capita. Projections indicate that by 2025, over half of the world population may face water scarcity, and by 2030, several developing regions could experience water demand exceeding supply by approximately 45%. In this major project, water samples were collected from six lakes: Himayat Sagar, Mir Alam Tank, Shamirpet Lake, Pedda Cheruvu, Kuntloor Pedda Cheruvu, and Injapur Lake. Extensive physical, chemical, biological, and microbiological analyses were conducted and benchmarked against Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) criteria. The Water Quality Index (WQI) was calculated for each lake to quantitatively assess and compare their water quality status.