Slow Sand Filtration for Cercariae Removal in Rural Egypt.(Dept.C)

Abstract

In 1990, El-Mansoura University signed a contract with the international Development research Center IDRC to conduct an integrated research to field test the process of slow filtration. A pilot plant was constructed and installed in Sandoop Compact Water Treatment Plant in El-Mansoura City. The pilot plant consists of an intake, Up flow Roughing Filter (URF), and four SSP's. The raw water source was El-Bahr El-Saghier Canal, a branch of the Nile River. A slug of 10000 cercariae units in one liter was dropped on the water surface at each of three filters, no presence of cercariae at the final effluent of the SSF were detected. At some depths across the sand layer positive samples were identified. During this study twenty samples from the effluent of the tested slow sand filters; the URF, and the compact treatment plant were collected. Out of the 20 samples positive results showed nil after the SSF, 5 after the URF and, 3 after the compact unit. These results indicated the efficiency of the SSF in removing cercariae.