Abstract
A severe water scarcity challenge is facing Iraq, which is predominantly due to the absence of water management policies, negatively impacting the water quantity and quality provision from the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Moreover, these practices have led to the intrusion of the Arabian Gulf salinity wedge into the Shatt Al-Arab River (SAR), which is the main water source for most water treatment plants (WTPs) in Basra city. In addition, the inadequate management and operation for most WTPs is another reason for the deterioration of water quality provided to Basra province. Accordingly, the aim of this study is to evaluate the performance of the main WTP within Basra province and to subsequently make recommendations for decision-makers to come up with new management strategies and policies. The effluents from eight WTPs were selected to study the quality of water supply for Basra city during the period between January 2018 and December 2018. The results showed that all WTPs were inadequate to treat raw water for drinking or irrigation purposes mainly due to the very bad raw water quality provided by the SAR as well as the lack of maintenance for such plants, resulting in very low removal efficiencies for various water contaminants.
Highlights
Water is a vital natural resource for life to continue on earth
The key aim of this study is to evaluate the performance of the main water treatment plants (WTPs) of Basra city, since there are insufficient previous studies covering this important issue relating to the public health and the environment of Basra governorate
An overview of the raw water quality provided to the main WTP assessed in this study can be seen in Tables 7 and 8
Summary
The provision of safe water is essential for community life [1,2], since more than 80% of human health issues relate to insufficient sanitation and low-quality drinking water [3,4]. Raw water treatment and purification by removing chemical and microbial contaminants as well as the undesirable physical constituents such as taste and odour are essential to provide water fit for human consumption [5]. Raw water can be treated using various treatment processes such as flocculation, sedimentation, filtration and disinfection, which should be undertaken in treatment plants to produce safe water for communities [6]. Regular evaluation of the water treatment plant (WTP) performance by monitoring the treated water quality is essential to ensure that the produced water is within legal thresholds. Treated water is mainly dependent on the raw water source properties as well as on the technical and operation conditions in
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