Abstract
The water quality of the Meenachil river at Kottayam has been studied with reference to toxic trace metals during pre and post monsoon seasons for 10 stations during May 2009-September 2009. The metals analyzed include Zinc, Manganese, Iron, Lead, Copper and Cadmium. Among the metals studied, iron, lead and cadmium showed higher concentrations above the permissible limit for drinking water prescribed by Bureau of Indian Standards. Iron and lead showed higher concentration during post monsoon and the cadmium content was high during pre-monsoon. It was observed that the main causes of deterioration in water quality might be due to the discharge of domestic wastes, municipal wastes, terrestrial runoff from seepage sites, agricultural sites and also due to geological weathering process.