Problems of drinking water treatment along Ismailia Canal Province, Egypt     

Geriesh MH  Balke KD  El-Rayes AE 《Journal of Zhejiang University. Science. B》2008,9(3):232-242

The present drinking water purification system in Egypt Uses surface water as a raw water supply without a pre-liminary filtration process.On the other hand,chlorine gas iS added as a disinfectant agent in two steps,pre- and post.chlorination.Due to these reasons most of water treatment plants suffer low fltering effectiveness and produce the trihalomethane (THM) species as a chlorination by-product.The Ismailia Canal represents the most distal downstream of the main Nile Rivet.ThUS its water contains all the proceeded pollutants discharged into the Nile.In addition.the downstream reaches of the canal act as an agricultural drain during the closing period of the High Dam gates in January and February every year.Moreover,the wide in-dustrial zone along the upstream course of the carlal enriches the canal water with high concentrations of heavy metals.The obtained results indicate that the canal gains up to 24.06×106m3 of water from the surrounding shallow aquifer during the closing period ofthe High Dam gates,while during the rest ofthe year,the callal acts as an influent stream losing about 99.6×106m3 of its water budget.The reduction oftotaI organic carbon(TOC) and suspended particulate mattes(SPMs)should be one of the central goals of any treatment plan to avoid the disinfectants by-products.The combination of sedimentation basins.gravel pre-filtration and slow sand filtration,and underground passage with microbiological oxidation-reduction and adsorption criteria showed good removal of parasites and bacteria and complete elimination of TOC.SPM and heavy metals.Moreover,it reduces the use of disinfectants chemicals and lowers the treatment costs.However,this purification system under the arid climate prevailing in Egypt should be tested and modified prior to application.  相似文献