Water Treatment Plant Visit Report

Water Treatment Plant Visit Report

Date: 1st March 2016 Time: 9.30 a.m to 11.30 am Group members: Nur Izzati Nadhirah Binti Mokhtar (131303210) Nurhakimah Binti Azhar (131303153) Nur Afiqah Binti Zakaria

Lecturer: Dr. Ramachandran Kamath

Objectives :

1) To understand the importance of safe water supply to the community 2) To discuss the community health importance of the water treatment plant. 3) To describe the process of treating water.

Water is really important in our life. Any living creature needs water to survive. Our diet and daily chores mainly involve water usage. Therefore, there are a lot of water-borne disease can spread if the contaminated water is used. Drinking contaminated water source especially, causing sickness and disease from waterborne germs, such as Cryptosporidium, E. coli, Hepatitis A, Giardia intestinalis, and other pathogens. Drinking water sources are subject to contamination and require appropriate treatment to remove disease-causing agents. In order to ensure the society stay is the best shape of health and to provide the clean water continuously, the water needs to be treated. It is best to take preventive measures than to treat later on. Definition Any process that makes water more acceptable for a specific end-use, which may be drinking, industry, irrigation , river flow maintenance, water recreation or many other uses. Water treatment should remove existing water contaminants or so reduce their concentration that their water becomes fit for its desired end-use, which may be safely returning used water to the environment. Aim As far as possible to degrade the C, N and P compounds contained in the waste water, remove them from the waste water (by adsorption and absorption) or to convert them into simpler, less harmful compounds in the sewage plant. Treated waste water should be optically clear and no longer contain any substances which are harmful to nature or people.

Bearing the aim and definition of water treatment, on 1st March 2016, we went to Water Treatment Plant located in Udupi to witness the process.

Process Of Water Treatment

1. Cascade Aereator Water is mixed with oxygen to allow decomposition of waste substance by the microorganism present in the water.

2. Clarifloculator Here the sedimentation process started. The process takes 2-4 hours. Alum ( a chemical substance ) is added in which it will bind with the impurities and allow them to settle down

3. Sand Filtration Bed There are 6 levels of filtration with different filtration pore sizes. The final beds will produce clear water and collected in the tank. There is air blower to provide backpressure in cleaning the filter bed.

4. Chlorination The clear water collected is pumped to other centre for chlorination.

Figure 1: Source of water

Figure 2 : Cascade Aereator

Figure 3: Water from aereator flowing to clarifloculator

Figure 5 : Clarifloculator

Figure 6: Sand filtration bed

Figure 7: Clear water after sand filtration

Conclusion Water plays a very important role in human life, whether for daily routine purpose or human health. This field visit made us aware about the quality of water since it may affect the human health especially. There are various processes for the water treatment to ensure that the water is safe for daily consumption and routine since there are organisms which are transmitted via water that may cause diarrhea, for example bacteria, parasites and virus. In Manipal, there are 2 seasons which are rainy season and non-rainy season. During the non-rainy season, the water will be supplied to general populations for alternate days. Hence, they have to be prepared during the non-water supply day. Moreover, this field trip made us realised that it is not easy to supply the water directly from the main supply to the people. Thus, thanks to the responsible party and the workers who invested in this project to ensure the health and convenience of the people in Manipal.