PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF DRINKING WATER TREATMENT PLANT OF ARIB, ALGERIA

Abstract

Arib treatment plant is crucial for supplying drinking water to the population of the Ain Defla cities. The process consists of conventional units as Aeration and Pre-chlorination, Coagulation, Flocculation, Lamellar sedimentation, Sand filtration and chlorine disinfection, The objectives of this study are to evaluate the operational performance of the plant to ensure the production of drinking water by analyzing the main physicochemical and bacteriological parameters of both raw and treated water during the year 2022, comparing them to Algerian drinking water quality standards. Results showed that the majority of the analyzed parameters were within the Algerian standards with exception-elevated levels of turbidity during the rainy season and temperature, iron, manganese, organic matter, and bacteriological contamination during dry season in raw water.

In treated water, all the analyzed parameters were in decrease and lower than the regulatory limits for drinking water indicating the effectiveness of the treatment process.  However, Sulfate concentrations exhibited slight increase in treated water comparing to raw water during the study period, suggested aluminum sulfate addition.

The highest removal efficiency was observed for turbidity at 84.51%, contributing to an overall average efficiency of 46.39%. Chlorine disinfection was successful in achieving 100% removal of biological contaminants such as E. coli, SF and SRA.