Water Supply Treatment Research Articles

Urban Water Access and Use in the Kivus: Evaluating Behavioural Outcomes Following an Integrated WASH Intervention in Goma and Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo.

Increasing the availability and reliability of community water sources is a primary pathway through which many water supply interventions aim to achieve health gains in communities with limited access to water. While previous studies in rural settings have shown that greater access to water is associated both with increased overall consumption of water and use of water for hygiene related activities, there is limited evidence from urban environments. Using data collected from 1253 households during the evaluation of a community water supply governance and hygiene promotion intervention in the cities of Goma and Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo, we conducted a secondary analysis to determine the impact of these interventions on household water collection and use habits. Using multiple and logistic regression models we compared differences in outcomes of interest between households in quartiers with and without the intervention. Outcomes of interest included litres per capita day (lpcd) of water brought to the household, lpcd used at the household, and lpcd used for hygiene-related activities. Results demonstrated that intervention households were more likely to use community tapstands than households located in comparison quartiers and collected on average 16.3 lpcd of water, compared with 13.5 lpcd among comparison households (adj. coef: 3.2, 95 CI: 0.84 to 5.53, p = 0.008). However, reported usage of water in the household for domestic purposes was lower among intervention households (8.2 lpcd) when compared with comparison households (9.4 lpcd) (adj. coef: −1.11, 95 CI: −2.29 to 0.07), p = 0.066) and there was no difference between study groups in the amount of water allocated to hygiene activities. These results show that in this setting, implementation of a water supply governance and hygiene promotion intervention was associated with a modest increase in the amount of water being bought to the household, but that this did not translate into an increase in either overall per capita consumption of water or the per capita amount of water being allocated to hygiene related activities.

Antimicrobial Resistance and Environmental Health: A Water Stewardship Framework for Global and National Action.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global health crisis that affects all life on Earth. In 2015, the World Health Organization developed guidance to combat AMR in accordance with a One Health framework considering human, animal, and environment sectors of planetary health. This study reviewed global guidance and 25 National Action Plans to evaluate thematic priorities in One Health AMR approaches using a novel framework that additionally facilitated the identification of water-related stewardship gaps, as water resources are recognized as the primary environmental AMR reservoir and dissemination pathway. This review found that global and national stewardship primarily focuses on mitigating antibiotic use in the human and animal sectors, overlooking environmental drivers, particularly diverse environmental waters. The findings of this study highlight the need to broaden the scope of water-related AMR concerns beyond water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) infrastructure for water supply and wastewater treatment, and account for environmental waters in AMR development and dissemination, particularly in low-income countries where half a billion people rely on environmental waters to meet daily needs. Equitably accounting for water environments, supplies, and waste in AMR prevention, mitigation, surveillance, and innovation can significantly enhance the integration of environmental objectives in One Health AMR stewardship.

Responses of winter wheat and maize to varying soil moisture: From leaf to canopy

Drought is a serious constraint to crop growth and production of important staple crops such as winter wheat and maize. Improved understanding of crops' response to drought can be incorporated into cropping system models to support crop breeding, crop and varietal selection and management decisions to minimize negative impacts. Plants may respond to drought through immediate stomatal regulation as well as possibly altering their morphological characteristics over longer periods. The degree and combination of these short- and long-term responses depends on the intensity and duration of drought as well as crop characteristics. However, field observational evidence for different crop types detailing these at short- and longer term responses and for different organizational levels is still limited. Here we examine the effects of various water supply treatments on short-term changes in leaf water potential (LWP) and gas exchange at the leaf level together with the seasonal changes in canopy photosynthesis, transpiration, and cumulative growth of winter wheat and maize based on field data collected in 2016, 2017, and 2018. Leaf and canopy gas exchange and cumulative growth was varied strongly with the duration and intensity of drought stress as well as growing stages. The longer-term morphological drought responses in winter wheat appeared to have a larger effect on regulating transpiration and assimilation rates than shorter-term responses of stomatal control had. Maize (grown in 2017 and 2018) exhibited different responses, with seasonal variations in minimum LWP and complete stomatal closure at LWP of between -1.6 and -2 MPa. While stomata closed with increasing drought, for maize, the physiological advantages of C4 photosynthesis as well as morphological adjustments in leaf area size and leaf-rolling strongly determined crop growth and canopy gas exchange in the drought plots as compared with the irrigated plot. Observations highlight that improvements for soil-vegetation-atmosphere models in simulating gas exchange and crop growth should emphasize the dynamic reduction of leaf area under water stress, as well as stomatal regulation.

Effect of Hydraulic Retention Time on the Performance of a Compact Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor for Effluent Polishing of Treated Sewage

Treated effluent from a wastewater treatment plant can be further reused as a water resource for a water supply treatment plant. In this case, the treated sewage gathered in the study of the Class V National Water Quality Standard (NWQS) of Malaysia would be treated for use as a water resource for a water treatment plant. In a moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) with a 500-L working volume, organic pollutants, undesirable nutrients, and bacteria were removed without disinfectant. At 24-h hydraulic retention time (HRT), the maximum removal efficiency of 5-day biological oxygen demand, ammonia–nitrogen (NH3-N), and total phosphorus were 71%, 48%, and 12%, respectively. The biofilm thickness, which was captured using scanning electron microscopy, increased from 102.6 μm (24-h HRT) to 297.1 μm (2-h HRT). A metagenomic analysis using 16S rRNA showed an abundance of anaerobic bacteria, especially from the Proteobacteria phylum, which made up almost 53% of the total microbes. MBBR operated at 24-h HRT could improve effluent quality, as its characteristics fell into Class IIA of the NWQS of Malaysia, with the exception of the NH3-N content, which indicated that the effluent needed conventional treatment prior to being reused as potable water.

Analysis of Wastewater Treatment Technology Based on Bipolar Membrane Electrodialysis

Metal wastewater and saline wastewater are two major problems in the field of wastewater treatment. At present, common treatment methods include ion exchange, electrodialysis and reverse osmosis. The ion exchange method often uses chemical reagents to achieve regeneration, which is likely to cause secondary pollution after treatment. Electrodeionization technology can continuously operate to treat wastewater, and does not require the use of acid-base reagents to achieve resin regeneration, but the structure is complex and requires higher pretreatment. Bipolar membrane electro-regenerative ion exchange is a new technology that has been practically applied in water supply treatment by a certain enterprise. A considerable degree of ion exchange capacity, after reaching the exchange capacity, the bipolar membrane is used for water dissociation to achieve electrical regeneration of the membrane. On the basis of investigating the desalination and regeneration of groundwater (well water) by this technology, this paper studies its removal effect on simulated food processing salty wastewater, Cu2+ and Fe2+ containing simulated electroplating rinsing wastewater. Influence of operating conditions such as influent flow on the treatment effect.

Grundfos signs special investment contract with Russia

Grundfos has entered into a Special Investment Contract (SpIC 2.0) which will open up water supply and wastewater treatment projects in Russia.

Forecasting Reservoir Water Levels Using Deep Neural Networks: A Case Study of Angat Dam in the Philippines

Forecasting reservoir water levels is essential in water supply management, impacting both operations and intervention strategies. This paper examines the short-term and long-term forecasting performance of several statistical and machine learning-based methods for predicting the water levels of the Angat Dam in the Philippines. A total of six forecasting methods are compared: naïve/persistence; seasonal mean; autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA); gradient boosting machines (GBM); and two deep neural networks (DNN) using a long short-term memory-based (LSTM) encoder-decoder architecture: a univariate model (DNN-U) and a multivariate model (DNN-M). Daily historical water levels from 2001 to 2021 are used in predicting future water levels. In addition, we include meteorological data (rainfall and the Oceanic Niño Index) and irrigation data as exogenous variables. To evaluate the forecast accuracy of our methods, we use a time series cross-validation approach to establish a more robust estimate of the error statistics. Our results show that our DNN-U model has the best accuracy in the 1-day-ahead scenario with a mean absolute error (MAE) and root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.2 m. In the 30-day-, 90-day-, and 180-day-ahead scenarios, the DNN-M shows the best performance with MAE (RMSE) scores of 2.9 (3.3), 5.1 (6.0), and 6.7 (8.1) meters, respectively. Additionally, we demonstrate that further improvements in performance are possible by scanning over all possible combinations of the exogenous variables and only using a subset of them as features. In summary, we provide a comprehensive framework for evaluating water level forecasting by defining a baseline accuracy, analyzing performance across multiple prediction horizons, using time series cross-validation to assess accuracy and uncertainty, and examining the effects of exogenous variables on forecasting performance. In the process, our work addresses several notable gaps in the methodologies of previous works.

Seven Myths About US Infrastructure

We focus here on traditional infrastructure, defined as capital-intensive physical assets that are vital to the functioning of an advanced society and that broadly enable economic activity: power and energy, transportation and transit, water supply and water treatment, and digital communications. This article questions seven myths about infrastructure investment in the United States: (1) the US government can unilaterally dictate where funds are spent for most infrastructure classes; (2) the federal government owns and controls interstate highways; (3) many infrastructure projects cannot get funding; (4) the United States disfavors public–private partnerships; (5) US airports should be privatized to achieve efficiencies and improved passenger service; (6) it is easy to transition the US power grid to renewable generation; and (7) only money matters for improving infrastructure. The vast stores of public and private capital earmarked for investments in infrastructure can be readily deployed if there is stakeholder alignment, political will, sufficient planning, timely regulatory approvals, and economic viability. In contrast, misalignment of costs and benefits, a lack of economic viability or political will, or opposition from key stakeholders creates project delivery challenges.

Seasonal shift of water quality in China Yangtze River and its impacts on membrane fouling development during the drinking water supply by membrane distillation system

Membrane distillation (MD) technique is increasingly regarded as a promising process for drinking water supply and wastewater treatment owing to its great water purification and usage of renewable energy. Like other membrane separation processes, the membrane fouling issue is widely considered as the main obstacle for real applications of large-scale MD systems. Feedwater characteristics, as the predominant factors for membrane fouling layer formation, mostly determined the membrane fouling trend of MD. Thus the impacts of seasonal shifts of initial feedwater quality on the MD membrane fouling were detailedly researched in this study, and the biofilm development mechanism was especially explored. The bacterial community structure of membrane biofilms was clearly clarified in MD runs of Yangtze River waters that collected in four seasons. The results revealed that the winter run posed a quite sharp flux drop, while a relatively milder flux decline behaviour was seen for other groups despite of the higher bacteria concentration of initial feedwaters. The poorer water quality in winter induced the establishment of a rather thick biofilm on the MD membrane, in which the biofilm-forming bacteria (Gammaproteobacteria and Alphaproteobacteria) and organic matters (EPS) were remarkably observed. Comparatively, a relatively thin biofilm containing abundant live cells and fewer organics finally formed in summer and autumn runs, causing a mitigated flux decline trend. Hence, it can be inferred that the membrane flux decline of MD was likely to be more sensitive to the organic attachment on the membrane in comparison with the bacteria adhesion. Finally, a three-phase pretreatment method was suggested for MD fouling control, including heating course, sterilization course, and filtration course.

Integrated flood management based on Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point approach

AbstractThis study proposes to adopt the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) approach and its seven principles to assist integrated flood management and transboundary cooperation in river basins, extending over more municipalities, regions, or states. Although HACCP was initially employed in the food production and processing industry to identify hazards and reduce risks throughout the production process, its principles have already been successfully applied to other sectors, such as water supply and wastewater treatment. The paper focuses (a) on the adaptation of the HACCP approach for integrated flood management, for example, for assessing the impact of planned upstream measures on downstream areas, and (b) on step 3 of the proposed Flood‐HACCP approach establishing critical limits for CCPs. For the demonstration purposes, the confluence of the Slovenian part of Drava River and its tributaries, Meža and Mislinja, is selected. Results indicate that keeping the Meža River discharge within the range of ±5% from its initial value would cause only minor local changes of flood situation within the selected case study area. On the other hand, variations to the Mislinja River discharge could change the flood situation to a greater extent and in a more diffuse way.

The role of climate change and decentralization in urban water services: A dynamic energy-water nexus analysis

Urban water services, including drinking water supply and wastewater treatment, are highly energy dependent, contributing to the challenges described under the water-energy nexus. Both future climate change and decentralized water system adoptions can potentially influence the energy use of the urban water services. However, the trend and the extent of such influences have not been well understood. In this study, a modeling framework was developed to quantify both the separate and the combined influences of climate change and decentralization on the life cycle energy use of the urban water cycle, using the City of Boston, MA as a testbed. Two types of household decentralized systems were considered, the greywater recycling (GWR) systems and the rainwater harvesting (RWH) systems. This modeling framework integrates empirical models based on multilinear regression analysis, hydrologic modeling, water balance models, and life cycle assessment to capture the complex interactions among centralized water services, decentralized water system adoptions, and climate parameters for cumulative energy demand (CED) assessment, considering all residential buildings in Boston. It was found that climate change alone will slightly increase the energy use of the centralized systems towards the end of the century, due to the cancelation effect amongst changes in water quality, flow rate, and space and water heating demand. When decentralization is considered alone, we found economically viable decentralized systems may not necessarily produce energy savings. In fact, RWH adoptions may increase energy use. When climate change and decentralization are combined, they will increase the water yield and cost savings of the decentralized systems, while reducing the energy use from the centralized systems. When the centralized systems are further added into the picture, the CED of the entire urban water cycle is projected to increase by 0.9% or 2.3% towards the end of the century under climate change if GWR or RWH systems are adopted by respective cost saving positive buildings.

The impact of access to water supply and sanitation on the prevalence of active trachoma in Ethiopia: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

BackgroundTrachoma is a worldwide infectious disease causing blindness. Trachoma continued as a public health problem in Ethiopia due to a lack of sanitation and inadequate prevention strategies. This study aimed to identify the impact of water supply and sanitation intervention on preventing active trachoma among children.MethodsSystematic literature searches were performed from 4 international databases. The search involved articles published from January 1995 up to March 2019. The Cochran Q and I2 statistical tests were used to check heterogeneity among the studies. A random-effect meta-analysis was employed to determine the pooled estimates with a 95% confidence interval (CI). Data analysis was performed using the CMA V.3 and RevMan 5 software program, and the result of the systematic review was reported using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines.FindingsOut of 211 studies screened for the analysis, only 29 studies were finally included in this systematic review and meta-analysis. The result revealed factors that are significantly associated with increased odds of active trachoma. Accordingly, households with no access to toilet facilities (odds ratio [OR]: 2.04, 95% CI: 1.75–2.38), no access to improved water (OR: 1.58, 95% CI: 1.27–1.96), and do not practice regular face washing for children (OR: 4.19, 95% CI: 3.02–5.81) have shown increased odds of active trachoma. Besides, the results show a higher prevalence of active trachoma among children who did not wash their faces with soap and frequently.ConclusionsThe study found strong evidence that lack of access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) was associated with increased prevalence of active trachoma among children. Therefore, a comprehensive and partnership-oriented program is needed to tackle the problem, but further study will be required to strengthen its implementation.

Modeling the health impact of water and sanitation service deficits on waterborne disease transmission

Cholera is a waterborne disease that continues to pose serious public health problems in many developing countries. Increasing water and sanitation coverage is a goal for local authorities in these countries, as it can eliminate one of the root causes of cholera transmission. The SIWDR (susceptible–infected–water–dumpsite–recovered) model is proposed here to evaluate the effects of the improved coverage of water and sanitation services in a community at risk of a cholera outbreak. This paper provides a mathematical study of the dynamics of the water and sanitation (WatSan) deficits and their public health impact in a community. The theoretical analysis of the SIWDR model gave a certain threshold value (known as the basic reproductive number and denoted mathcal{R}_{0}) to stop the transmission of cholera. It was found that the disease-free equilibrium was globally asymptotically stable whenever mathcal{R}_{0} leq 1. The unique endemic equilibrium was globally asymptotically stable whenever mathcal{R}_{0} >1. Sensitivity analysis was performed to determine the relative importance of model parameters to disease transmission and prevention. The numerical simulation results, using realistic parameter values in describing cholera transmission in Haiti, showed that improving the drinking water supply, wastewater and sewage treatment, and solid waste disposal services would be effective strategies for controlling the transmission pathways of this waterborne disease.

Assessment of the Impact of Rainfall Variability on Drinking Water Production at Treatment Plants in Nzoia River Basin, Kenya

Increased wet season rainfall is associated with improved water supply at point water sources and improved river flows and water reservoir levels. For piped water supply schemes with surface water intakes, this is supposed to enhance operations since there is adequate raw water unlike in the dry season where operations are interrupted due to insufficient flows. However, this is not the case in Nzoia River Basin as established by this study. As rainfall increases, drinking water production in treatment plants at Moi’s Bridge, Lumakanda and Busia water supplies decrease and vice versa. Nzoia River Basin is one of the regions that is highly vulnerable to climate variability in Kenya, hence understanding rainfall variability and trends is important for better water resources management and especially drinking water supply. This study aimed at assessing rainfall variability and trends for 3 rainfall stations in Nzoia River Basin; Leissa Farm Kitale, Webuye Agricultural Office and Bunyala Irrigation Scheme and its impact on drinking water production at Moi’s Bridge, Lumakanda and Busia water supplies treatment plants. The rainfall data used in this study covers 31 years period from 1970 to 2001 and was obtained from the Kenya Meteorological Department (KMD), Nairobi, Kenya. Monthly water supply production data for Moi’s Bridge, Lumakanda and Busia water supplies covering 15 years period from 2000 to 2014 was obtained from the County governments of Uasin Gishu, Kakamega and Busia. Rainfall variability and trend was analysed using the parametric test of Linear regression analysis and the non-parametric Mann Kendall statistical test. Monthly rainfall and monthly drinking water production was analysed using Pearson moment correlation to establish the relationship between monthly rainfall and monthly drinking water supply production at Mois Bridge, Lumakanda and Busia Water supplies treatment plants. The results of variability and trend in annual rainfall shows Webuye Agricultural Office recording declining rainfall at -0.8994 mm/31 years (-0.029 mm/ year); whereas Leissa Farm Kitale shows increasing rainfall at 1.0325 mm/31 years (0.033 mm/ year) and Bunyala Irrigation Scheme’s rainfall is increasing at 0.5245 mm/31 years (0.017 mm/ year). Drinking water supply production at Moi’s Bridge, Lumakanda and Busia water supplies has been increasing with time between 2000 and 2014. The results of Pearson moment correlation coefficient shows a strong negative relationship between monthly rainfall and monthly drinking water supply production at 0.05 significance level for Moi’s Bridge, Lumakanda and Busia water supplies. This shows that as rainfall increases, drinking water supply production in treatment plants at Moi’s Bridge, Lumakanda and Busia water supplies decreases. During the rainy season, the cost of water treatment goes up as a result of increased turbidity. Increased rainfall in Nzoia River Basin presents water treatment challenges to the existing water supply treatment plants resulting into reduced production.Water supply managers should improve the capacity of the existing water supply treatment plants to cope with the increased rainfall variability under the changing climatic conditions.

Spatial analysis and probabilistic risk assessment of exposure to fluoride in drinking water using GIS and Monte Carlo simulation.

Prevalence of fluorosis is a worldwide public health problem especially in many states of India. It is necessary to find out the fluoride endemic areas to adopt remedial measures to the people on the risk of fluorosis. The target goals of this research were to assess (a) the exposure of fluoride concentration; (b) probabilistic risk assessment, sensitivity analysis, and uncertainty through intake of groundwater among population of Agra City (infants, children and adults) by Crystal Ball software; and (c) spatial distribution of HQ and fluoride concentration. A total of sixty samples from standing tube wells/hand pumps were gathered from selected and identified fluoride prevalent areas in Agra City. The concentration of fluoride scrutinized was obtained to be ranging from 1.32 to 4.60 mg/L with mean value of 2.36 in Agra City, and more than 91% of samples investigated surpassed the allowable level set for fluoride concentration in potable water 1.5 mg/L, although 9% of the samples were well within the drinking water guidelines (0.5-1.5 mg/L). The hazard quotient (HQ) was obtained to an enormous difference in the exposure dose in infants (1.66-3.91), children (1.87-4.4), and adults (0.92-2.16), correspondingly. The non-carcinogenic HQ values in the group of infants, children, and more than 90% of adults were higher than those of the safety level (i.e., HQ >1). Consequently, the non-carcinogenic risks (HQ level) of fluoride vary from the most to the least: children, infant, and adults, respectively. With 87.41% certainty, the results indicated that the HQ values are between 1 and 3.42. So, infant is the most vulnerable group to fluoride consumption in study area. Uncertainty analysis results indicated that the children group's HQ level was between 1 and 1.90 with 38.48% certainty. To avoid further worsening of the situation as far as health is concerned, remedial actions like alternate sources of water supply and appropriate treatment of water need to be adopted besides required medical attention to affected people.

A decision support system to design water supply and sewer pipes replacement intervention programs

Asset management in hydraulic infrastructures aims for the long-term sustainability of water distribution and wastewater networks. Strategic maintenance planning has thus been deeply analyzed in the literature for individual water and sewer pipes. However, water utilities do not plan and perform replacement activities on individual elements, but rather on coherent aggregations of neighboring pipes. We have developed a decision support system (DSS) to help water utilities design intervention programs for hydraulic infrastructures. It integrates a two-stage algorithm that groups water supply and sewer pipes into practical and efficient replacement works, based upon their proximity and their priority of renewal. A multi-objective genetic algorithm optimizes the work programs configurations while integrating the water company's strategic policy into an innovative multi-objective function. We have applied our methodology to a large water company in Spain and illustrated this application with a sensitivity analysis to determine how the company's strategic criteria influences the resulting work configurations.

Impact of urbanization processes on availability of ecosystem services in National Capital Region of Delhi (1992-2010).

The Southern and Eastern National Capital Region of Delhi is experiencing diversified and expanding urbanization as in million-plus cities of the area the urban sprawl activities are more frequent than the urban densification activities. The progressing sprawl of residential and construction sites is transforming the regional ecosystems and hampering the generation of ecosystem services of fundamental importance, i.e. the benefits and services that we get directly or indirectly from the ecosystem functioning. The Costanza et al., (2014) approach shows that the ecosystem services value has decreased at US$ 56 ha−1 year−1 (0.09% per year) and absolute and cumulative losses are estimated US$ 285.4 ha−1 year−1 and US$ 502.8 ha−1 year−1, respectively. The ecosystem service values assessment shows that the ecosystem services like climate regulation and recreation have increased but food production, genetic resources, water supply, soil formation, raw materials and waste treatment have decreased over the time. The use of alternative ecosystem value coefficient shows that the estimated value of the ecosystem service value changed from a low of 0.005% for 1% change in the value of the forest coefficient, to a high of 0.749% for a 1% change in the value of the agricultural land coefficient. For each land use/land cover category, the sensitivity analysis reflects the inelasticity or robustness of the estimated ecosystem value with respect to the value coefficient. Overall, prioritizing the conservation and enrichment of natural and man-made ecosystems of critical value will lead to sustainable development of urban ecosystems.

Governance of Artificial Intelligence in Water and Wastewater Management: The Case Study of Japan

The integration of artificial intelligence into various aspects of daily life is developing at a rapid pace in Japan. Discussions to govern applications of artificial intelligence to the field of social infrastructure are also critical and need to match the rapid pace of development. However, the legal implications and risks of applying artificial intelligence to the management of lifelines such as drinking water supply and wastewater treatment have not yet been fully explored. This paper reviews the existing legislations and ongoing discussions on governance regarding applications of artificial intelligence to water and wastewater management. Based on the review, we discuss the ability of legislative frameworks in Japan to respond to the applications of artificial intelligence, as well as identifying potential gaps and challenges thereof, including access to accurate data, demarcation of rights and responsibilities, risk hedging and risk management, monitoring and evaluation, and handling of intellectual property rights. This paper concludes with key recommendations to national and local governments to support the application of artificial intelligence in the field of water and wastewater.

Performance evaluation of ceramic pot filters combined with adsorption processes for the removal of heavy metals and phenolic compounds.

It has been demonstrated that the ceramic pot filters (CPFs) with impregnated colloidal silver are efficient for the removal of turbidity and pathogens for household water treatment. This investigation evaluated the efficiency of two filter models for the removal of chemical contaminants (Hg, Pb, As and phenolic compounds) during 175 days. The first model is a traditional CPF impregnated with colloidal silver and the second consists of the ceramic silver-impregnated pot plus a post-filtration column with granular activated carbon and zeolite (CPF + GAC-Z). The results of the CPF showed average efficiencies of 91.5% (Hg), 92% (Pb), 50.2% (As) and 78.7% (phenols). The CPF + GAC-Z showed similar efficiencies for the removal of heavy metals (92.5% Hg, 98.1% Pb and 52.3% As) and a considerably higher efficiency for the removal of phenols (96.4%). The As concentration of the filtered water in both systems was higher than the regulatory limit. The ceramic pot was responsible for the highest removal of chemical compounds. It can be concluded that the traditional CPF is a viable option for water supply treatment at the household level for the removal of chemical contaminants. The efficiency of this filter can be improved with the post-filtration column mainly for the removal of organic constituents.

Valorisation Wastes from Sugar Mill Plant and Water Supply Treatment Process as Alternative Materials for Ecological Ceramic Floor Tiles

Wastes from many industries have an effect on environmental degradation and led problems to manufacturers for disposing them. Likewise, the sugar mill process also generates substantially wastes i.e., bagasse ash and calcium carbonate, which are difficult to eliminate. Furthermore, in water supply treatment process, it has generated the abundant of sediment soil, which are still unutilized and need budgeting for disposing. This research aims to utilize wastes from sugar mill process and water supply treatment process for developing eco-friendly floor tiles ceramics by implementing bagasse ash, calcium carbonate and sediment soil. Tri axial diagram is employed to construct the formula mixtures of three alternative materials with adding brown cullet glass. After dry mixing for all materials according to formulas mixtures, they are moulded by 100 bars of uniaxial pressing in dimension 50 × 100 × 7 mm. Then, they are fired at 1100° and 1150° C. Physical properties; bending strength, water absorption, bulk density, % shrinkage, % weight loss is examined. Bending strength and water absorption are compared with TIS 2508-2555. In addition, microstructure of fired specimens is analysed by Scanning Electron Microscope and X-ray Diffractometer.