Chemical and Phytoplankton profile of two water plants model before and after treatment in Menoufia governorate, Egypt

Abstract

Safe drinking water is ahealth necessity. This study was for comparing between certain physico-chemical and microbial parameters of two water treatment plants (Shebin El-kom conventional plant and Shobrabass compact plant) during a period from February 2019 to December 2019. The treated water at these plants had a remarkable enhancement as compared with raw one basically with the values of TDS, conductivity, total alkalinity, phosphates and nitrates but treated water of Shobrabass has high turbidity ranged from 1.6 NTU to 3 NTU compared with Shebin El- kom that ranged from 0.18 NTU to 0.33 NTU. Regarding to biotic component, it was proved that both total and fecal coliform beside algae disappeared more or less completely at the end of the treatment process. The results showed diverse phytoplankton structures of three groups namely: Bacillariophyta, Chlorophyta and Cyanophycta. Bacillariophyta represented the most widespread group in Shebin El- kom and Shobrabass raw water during the period of study as it accounted 72.6 % and72.7%, respectively of total annual crop, followed by chlorophyta with 17.4% and 15.5%, respectively and Cyanophyta ranked as 3rd group with 11.6% and 11.5% of total annual crop for Shebin El-kom raw water and Shobrabass raw water, respectively. The conventional Shebin El-kom plant was more effective than Shobrabas compact plant to obtain better potable water and so a modification was performed on Shobrabas. The final results of turbidity decreased from 2.3 NTU to 1.4 NTU and the total algal count decreased from (1000× 10³ organisms/ L) to (26× 10³ organisms/ L).