The characteristic of Natural Organic Matter (NOM) of water from Cikapundung River Pond

Abstract

Natural organic matter (NOM) is an important parameter in drinking water due to its roles as one of main precursors of trihalomethanes (THMs). The characteristic of NOM might be influenced by land use of catchment area. The present study aims to analyse the correlation between various NOM parameters and THMs, and physical characteristics of raw water. The effect of land use around the catchment is also presented. The samples were taken from Cikapundung river pond, which is used by the water company of Bandung City as raw water sources for drinking water. Geographic Information System (GIS) was applied to distinguish anthropogenic and natural land use around the water catchment. The samples were categorised as unfiltered samples and filtered samples to measure dissolved material. Turbidity and conductivity were measured to obtain the physical characteristics of water. NOM parameters were as of TOC, DOC, COD, UV254 and UV355. The turbidity and conductivity of water were 5-34.7 NTU and 132-306 µmhos/cm, respectively. COD was from 32 to 76.8 mg/L. TOC was between 4.22 and 6.92 mg/L. UV254 and UV355 ranged 0.15-0.38 cm-1 and 0.09-0.16 cm-1, respectively. COD and conductivity correlated well in unfiltered (r = 0.923) and filtered sample (r = 0.995). In both unfiltered and filtered samples, UV254 were correlated with UV355 with r of 0.986 and 0.995 respectively. The results revealed that catchments area of the pond was possibly dominated by anthropogenic activities.