Mysore City is an Ancient, historic and one of the beautiful cities of the country. It is the 2^nd largest city in the state of Karnataka, next to Bangalore. It lies about 146km (91 miles) southwest of Bangalore, the capital of Karnataka. The Mysore city is located between 12^o 14’ 41”N to 12^o 22’25” N latitudes and 76^o 34’20”E to 76^o 43’23”E longitude at an altitude of 2526ft above the mean sea level (Map.1). Mysore city Spread across an area of 128.42 km2 (50 sq.miles) & it is lies in the saucer shaped basin & is situated at the base of the Chamundi hills. The City of Mysore in Karnataka is one of the most visited tourist destinations of the state. City is divided into 9 Zones, and they sub divided as 65 wards by MCC (Mysore City Corporation) based on 2011 data. The population is about 8, 93,062 in 2011 census, with males 4,46,676 and 4,46,386 females respectively.

Based on the Information’s from the Vani Vilas Water works (VVWW), Mysore. There are four treatment plants in Mysore, the ownership belongs to Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA). The treatment plant in Belagola scheme is the oldest water supply to the Mysore city and commissioned in the year 1896. In Belagola the head work is located at a distance 9 Kms away from city. The water is drawn from Devarayana canal near Belagola village. Out of two treatment plants in Belagola scheme the filter bed of old water treatment plants are dilapidated condition and are not in operation. Hence, the overall treatment process from this plant is based on the second stage of treatment plant. In Belagola the filter back water discharging Kukkurahalli Lake. The treatment plants in Hongally-II and Hongally-III the water drawn from low level canals of Cauvery by gravity pressure. The Hongally head work is located at a distance of about 14 Kms away from city.

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There are four treatment plants in Mysore, the ownership belongs to Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA). The capacities of each plant were mentioned in Table 1.

Treatment Processes Assessment The raw water is treated in all four Water Treatment Plants (WTP’s) by a conventional water treatment method which comprises coagulation/flocculation, sedimentation, filtration followed by disinfection (Table 2 ).

The waste management was not taken seriously and the plants in Hongally the backwash water and the sludge from the clarifier and sedimentation tanks directly discharging into the drain. The water treatment plant in Melapura was the 4th stage of water supply scheme to Mysore city. From head works near Melapura village raw water is directly pumped to existing water treatment plants located at Ramanahalli village through vertical turbine pumps. The pipeline from head works to WTP is 1100 mm diameter MS pipe and covers a distance of about 6.5 Kms. The head work of Melapura is located at a distance of about 15 Kms from city. In Melapura plant the filter back wash water and sludge from the clari-floculator goes to Ramnahally Lake. For all four treatment plants alum is used as the coagulants. Out of four water treatment plants two plants (Belagola and Melapura) having aeration facility. The most common type of filter for all four water treatment plants is rapid sand filters. In terms of disinfectants, four plants using liquid chlorine. The details of treatment process is mentioned in Table 2.

The seasonal variations of physio-chemical parameters of raw water and treated water samples from all four plants are shown in Table 3, Table 4 respectively.

For the correlation study we used few physio-chemical parameters to check the inter-relationship of each parameter. Statistically, using Pearson’s correlation coefficient pH was found to be positively and significantly related to Residual chorine. Turbidity was found to be significantly and positively related to Residual chlorine. EC was found to be significantly and positively related to DO, TDS and TH. The dissolved oxygen was negatively related to TDS and TH. Total dissolved solids were found to be positively related to Total hardness. Rest of combinations was not significantly related to each other (Table 5).

In Mysore the water treatment plants are run by the operators of concern plant under the supervision of in-charges and executive engineers. The most of the operators are having lack of technical knowledge regarding determining the flow rates, chlorine dosage and minor repair of the equipment. However, the in-charges of the concern plants are fairly knowledgeable about the proper functioning of the plants. The major issues of the plants are the lack of communication between the executive engineers and the operators. This may be due to the difference in educational qualifications. Most of the plant operators are not qualified to handle the technical operations. The plant operators are not aware about the international water quality standards.

The training of the operators according to the international standards will be useful for the proper running of the plant. Among four water treatment plants only two plants (Melapura & Vanivilas) having the laboratory facility attached to the plant. The treatment plant Melapura having automated facility. The issue noticed during the survey study was the electricity usage. In many plants they are not operating the clari-floculator units properly. Another observed issue is about the poor maintenance of the plants. In some plants noticed the prolonged equipment errors, but the finished water quality they will be maintained based on the excess chlorine dosage. The in-charges of concern plants are very much bothered about the finished water quality. This will be resulted for over dosage of chlorine in some seasons.