AccScience Publishing / EER / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/EER025310057
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ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE

Water quality patterns across seasons in major urban lakes of Dhaka Metropolitan City

Ha-mim Ebne Alam1* ,  Kazi Tawkir Ahmed1 ,  Md. Nizam Uddin1 ,  Md. Jahidul Hasan2 ,  Md. Yeasir Arafat1
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1 Department of Oceanography, Faculty of Marine Sciences and Fisheries, University of Chittagong, Chittagong, Bangladesh
2 Institute of Marine Sciences, Faculty of Marine Sciences and Fisheries, University of Chittagong, Chittagong, Bangladesh
EER, 025310057 https://doi.org/10.36922/EER025310057
Received: 1 August 2025 | Revised: 30 September 2025 | Accepted: 9 October 2025 | Published online: 29 October 2025
© 2025 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
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Abstract

Urban lakes in Dhaka are increasingly subjected to environmental degradation due to rapid urbanization and inadequate wastewater management. This study aims to assess and compare the water quality of three major urban lakes—Gulshan, Dhanmondi, and Hatirjheel—across four seasons—winter, pre-monsoon, monsoon, and post-monsoon—by analyzing key physicochemical parameters. In this study, data on various water quality parameters, including pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total dissolved solids (TDS), turbidity, suspended solids, electrical conductivity (EC), chloride, and alkalinity, measured using standard methods, were referenced from the Bangladesh government’s national report on water quality. The results revealed seasonal and spatial variations in water quality, with monsoon seasons showing dilution effects while pre-monsoon values indicate peak pollution. Among the three lakes, Dhanmondi Lake demonstrated the best water quality, with average BOD and COD levels remaining within environmental quality standards and DO concentrations that support aquatic life. Conversely, Gulshan Lake was found to be the most polluted, with BOD levels reaching up to 48 mg/L, COD up to 202 mg/L, turbidity as high as 208 NTU, and DO dropping to 0.12 mg/L. Hatirjheel Lake exhibited moderate pollution levels, with elevated TDS and EC values, particularly in the post-monsoon season. The study concludes that the urban lake system of Dhaka, particularly Gulshan and Hatirjheel, is subject to immense water quality degradation; therefore, compulsory lake management and pollution prevention actions should be adopted to enhance the ecological and recreational significance of the lakes.

Keywords
Dhaka Metropolitan City
Water quality
Seasonal variation
Gulshan Lake
Dhanmondi Lake
Hatirjheel Lake
Funding
None.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
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