WATER

Dr : Mutaz Abdallah Abdelhadi

 Water

Water is not only a vital environment life

factor to all forms of life, but it has also a great

role to play in socio-economic development of

human population
 Is There Really A Water Crisis?
• Over 1 billion people lack access to safe water
• 2 out of 3 people will be living with water shortages
by 2025
• Half of the world's wetlands have been lost since
1900.
• The basis for most projections for future conflicts is
that with the growth of demand, the decline in
freshwater availability, & the adverse health effects
from poor water quality, scarcity will result in
violence and water wars
 Safe & wholesome water

Water intended for human consumption should

be both safe & wholesome. This has been
defined as:
• free from pathogenic agents
• free from harmful chemical substances
• pleasant to taste - free from color & odor

• usable for domestic purposes

The global situation
 The global situation
• Less than 3% of the world’s
water is fresh - the rest is
seawater and undrinkable
• Of this 3%, over 70% is frozen,
locked up in Antarctica, the
Arctic and glaciers, and not
available to man
• Thus humanity must rely on
this 0.3% for all of man’s and
ecosystem’s fresh water needs
 Water requirement
• The basic physiological requirements for drinking
water have been estimated at about 3 liters per head
per day this is just for survival

• A daily supply of 150-200 liters per capita is

considered as an adequate supply to meet for all
urban domestic purposes
• Water must be available close to people
(i.e. no spend time and energy to obtain it,
which can pollute water in the process)

• Adequate volume will help to reduce the

incidence of many water – related diseases
 Uses of water
• Domestic uses: drinking, cooking, washing, bathing &
flushing
• Public purposes: cleaning streets, fire protection, public
parks
• Industrial purposes: processing, cooling, etc
• Agricultural purposes: irrigation, pasture
• Power production: steam power & hydropower
• Carrying away wastes: from houses, industries
WATER is therefore an essential factor in the economic,
social & cultural development of the community, through
eliminating diseases, promoting rural development &
improving quality of life
Importance of water in body
• 80-90% of the weight of the newly born is water
• Loss of water (20%) causes instant death
• It is necessary part of a protoplasm
• The blood, lymph, gastric juice, spinal fluid are
mostly composed of water
• Removal of waste matter from the body: Urine,
perspiration & tears
• Needed for maintenance of normal body temperature
• Essential for the enzymatic activity

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Importance of water in body
• It is a universal solvent
• It is an efficient transport medium (nutrients)
• Facilitates thermoregulation in body
• Helps in maintenance of blood and plasma volume

• Cellular osmotic pressure

• Assist in secretary and excretory functions of body
• Constituent of enzyme & hormonal secretions
• Valuable medium for administration of therapeutics

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 Sources of water supply
Water can be abstracted from a number of sources:
• Rain water
• Surface water
a) impounding reservoirs
b) rivers & streams
c) tanks, ponds & lakes
• Ground water
a) shallow wells
b) deep wells
c) springs
 Rain
• Rain is prime purest source of all water
• It contributes to all other sources of water
• It sinks into the ground (increases ground water)
• Some run into streams & rivers
• Some of the water in the soil is taken by plants &
evaporates
• These events are called Water Cycle
 Characteristics of rain water
• Purest source of water in nature
• Physically - clear, bright, sparkling
• Chemically - soft water (only traces of
dissolved minerals)
• Biologically - free from pathogens
Impurities:
• Can pick up suspended impurities from
atmosphere e.g. dust, carbon dioxide, nitrogen
oxide – acid rain water
 Surface water
• Impounding reservoirs
• Rivers & Streams
• Tanks, ponds and lakes
• Sea water

• Originates from rain & is prone to get

contaminated therefore it needs sanitary
protection & purification before use
 Impounding reservoirs

These are artificial lakes constructed of masonry

in which large quantities of water is stored.
Dams built across rivers and mountain streams
provide large reservoirs
Characteristics:
• Water is clear (nearly as pure as rain water)
• Pathogen free
• Chemical free
 Rivers
• Rivers furnish a dependable supply of water
• Many countries depend mainly on rivers for their water
supply – Sudan (main source of water)
Characteristics:
• River water turbid during rainy seasons
• Contains dissolved impurities (surface washing, sewage,
industrial, agricultural waste)
Self purification:
• Dilution
• Sedimentation
• Aeration & sunlight exposure
 Tanks
Tanks are large excavations in which surface water is
Stored. They are important source of water in some
villages in Sudan.
Contamination is a problem (weeds, washing in tanks,
animal waste etc…)
Natural purification:
• Storage
• Oxidation
• Aeration
• Sunlight exposure
 Sea water

• Plentiful source but has many great limitations

It contains:
• 3.5% salts in solutions
• 30-36g/L of dissolved solids including Cl, Na &
Mg
• Desalting & demineralization process involve
heavy expenditure
 Ground water
• Rain water percolating into ground constitutes
ground water
• It was recently realized that ground water is
limited in the world

Ground water:
• Shallow wells
• Deep wells
• Springs
 Ground water
Advantages
• Free from pathogenic agents
• Requires no treatment
• Constant even during dry season
• Less subject to contamination
Disadvantages
• High in mineral content (salts of Ca & Mg = hard
water)
• Requires pumping
 Wells
• Important source of water supply
• Technically, wells are of two types shallow & deep
• Shallow wells tap sub soil water
• Deep wells tap water from the water-bearing stratum
& are usually machine dug, they are deep & furnish
the safest water

Check this website

http://www.fao.org/docrep/X5567E/x5567e03.htm
 Difference between deep & shallow
wells
Shallow wells Deep wells

Definition Taps the water from Taps the water from

above the 1st below the 1st
impervious layer impervious layer

Chemical quality Moderately hard Much hard

Bacteriological quality Often contaminated Often pure water

Yield Usually goes dry in Provides a constant

Summer supply
 Springs
When ground water comes to the surface & flows
freely under natural pressure, it is called a (spring)

• Shallow ones dry quickly during summer

• Deep springs do not show seasonal fluctuations
• Springs do not need pumping
• Exposure to contamination is high
Water Pollution
 Burden of disease
• Diarrhoeal disease alone amounts to an estimated
4.1% of the total DALY global burden of disease
• Responsible for the deaths of 1.8 million people
every year (WHO, 2004)
• It was estimated that 88% of that burden is
attributable to:
• Unsafe water supply
• Sanitation and hygiene (mostly concentrated on
children in developing countries)
 What is pollution ?
• According to the American College Dictionary,
pollution is defined as: to make foul or unclean; dirty

Water pollution
• Occurs when part of water is adversely affected due
to the addition of large amounts of materials to the
water
• When it is unfit for its intended use, water is
considered polluted
There are 2 types of water pollution:
 
• Point source pollution: occur when harmful
substances are emitted directly into part of water. 
The Exxon Valdez oil spill best illustrates a point
source water pollution

• A non point source pollution: delivers pollutants

indirectly through environmental changes.  An
example of this type of water pollution is when
fertilizer from a field is carried into a stream by rain,
in the form of run-off which in turn affects aquatic
life
Pure uncontaminated water does not occur in nature
It contains impurities of various kinds:
• Natural
• Man made
Natural:
1. Dissolved gases (oxygen, carbon dioxide)

2. Dissolved minerals (salts, calcium)

3. Suspended impurities (sand, mud)

A more serious aspect of water pollution is that
caused by human activity (man made):
1. Sewage (pathogenic agents)

2. Industrial wastes (toxic agents e.g. metal salts)

3. Agricultural pollutants (fertilizers, pesticides)

4. Physical pollutants (heat)

 Causes of water pollution

Pesticides
Pesticides that get applied to farm fields and
roadsides and homeowner’s lawns run off into
local streams and rivers or drain down into
groundwater, contaminating the fresh water for
aquatic life for humans
 Fertilizers
• In excess levels nutrients over-stimulate the growth
of aquatic plants and algae
• Excessive growth of these types of organisms
blocks light to deeper waters while the organisms
are alive
• When the organisms die, they use up dissolved
oxygen as they decompose
• This causes oxygen-poor waters that support only
diminished amounts of marine life
• Such areas are commonly called dead zones
Examples of
Polluted
Waters
Trash Truck Disposing of Garbage
into a River in Peru
Personal Care Products, Household
Cleaning Products, and Pharmaceuticals,
sewage
• Excessive use of personal-care products and
household cleaning products (window cleaner,
dusting spray, or stain remover; hair dye, shampoo,
conditioner, or perfume; toothpaste or mouthwash;
antibacterial soap or hand lotion) is a problem
• Sewage goes into river/sea (defaecation)
• All goes down the drain into the water that will
come back to us
• Therefore water should be conserved
 Oil Spills
• Oil spills get lots of news coverage
• They do cause major water pollution
• Problems for local wildlife, fishermen, and
coastal businesses
• Polluting the quality of water for domestic use
• Decreasing aquatic life, those aquatic life that
survive have some sort of toxicity on human life
• Affects economy of a country – oil spill clean
up is expensive
Definition of Water purification

Is a process of removing undesirable

chemicals, materials, and biological
contaminants from contaminated water. The
goal is to produce water fit for a specific
purpose.

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Purification of water

Purification of water is on 2 scales:

• Large scale

• Small scale

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 Purification of water
• LARGE SCALE

Storage Filtration Disinfection

• SMALL SCALE (DOMESTIC)

A. Household purification
 Boiling
 Chemical disinfection:
Bleaching powder, Chlorine solution , High test hypochlorite
(HTH), Chlorine tablets (Halazone) , Iodine, Potassium permanganate
 Household filtration:
Ceramic filters

B. Disinfection of well
a. By adding bleaching powder
b. Double pot method

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 STORAGE

Storage is done in natural/artificial reservoirs

Effects of storage:

Physical:
• Gravity – 90% of suspended impurities settle down in
one day
Chemical:
• Aerobic bacteria oxidize organic matter with aid of dissolved
oxygen
• Content of free ammonia is reduced, nitrates increase

Biological: Only 10% bacteria remains at the end of 1 week

Optimum period of storage: 2 weeks

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Filtration

• This is the second stage of purification

• Removes 98-99% of bacteria

There are 2 types of filters:

• Biological or slow sand filter.
• Mechanical or rapid sand filter

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Slow sand (biological) filters

• Used 1st in 1804 in Scotland

• During the 19th century their use spread throughout
the world
• Slow sand filter consists of the following:
– Supernatant (raw water)
– Bed of graded sand
– Under drainage system
– System of filter control valves

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Mechanism of action of slow sand filter:
1.Sedimentation: The supernatant water acts as a settling reservoir.
Settled particles sink to the sand surface.

2. Mechanical straining: Particles too big to pass through the interstices

between the sand grains are retained.

3. Adhesion: The suspended particles that come in contact with the

surface of the sand grains are retained by adhesion to the biological
layer

4. Biochemical processes in the biological layer:

Removes organic matter, holds back bacteria and oxidizes ammonical

nitrogen in to nitrates

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CLEAN SLOW SAND FILTER WITHOUT WATER

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RAPID SAND FILTRATION

First in 1885 in USA

There are two types of rapid sand filtration
• 1. Gravity type(Open)/Paterson’s
• 2. Pressure type (Closed)/Candy’s

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 River

In Mixing Chamber
Coagulation by Alum (5-40 mg/litre)
Violent mixing of alum (minutes)

In Flocculation Chamber
Slow stirring of water by paddles(30 minutes)
Flocculent ppt. of Aluminium Hydroxide entangles all particulate, suspended matter
along with bacteria

In Sedimentation Chamber
Flocculent ppt. settle down (removal is done time to time)
Clear water above goes for filtration

Rapid Sand Filter

Remaining alum floc, floc layer over sand bed, it holds back bacteria,
oxidize organic matter
Back washing-by air bubbles or water when floc layer becomes very thick
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Mixing Chamber

• In this chamber water is treated with alum with a dose

of 5-40mg depending on turbidity & colour
• Rapid mixing: water is agitated violently to allow
quick mixing of water with the chemicals

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Flocculation chamber
• Flocculation is a process which clarifies the water.
• Clarifying means removing any turbidity or colour so
that the water is clear and colourless
• Clarification is done by causing a precipitate to form
in the water which can be removed using simple
physical methods
• Initially the precipitate forms as very small particles
but as the water is gently stirred, these particles stick
together to form bigger particles

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Paddles in a flocculation chamber

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Sedimentation chamber
• Waters enters sedimentation basin, (a clarifier or settling basin)
• It is a large tank with slow flow, allowing floc to settle to the
bottom
• The sedimentation basin is best located close to the flocculation
basin so the transit between does not permit settlement or floc
break up
• Sedimentation basins may be rectangular, where water flows
from end to end, or circular where flow is from the centre
outward
• Sedimentation basin outflow is typically over a weir so only a
thin top layer—that furthest from the sediment—exits
• The amount of floc that settles out of the water is dependent on
basin retention time and on basin depth
• The minimum clarifier retention time is normally 4 hours

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Filtration
• After separating most floc, the water is filtered as the final
step to remove remaining suspended particles and unsettled
floc
• Water moves vertically through sand which often has a
layer of activated carbon or anthracite coal above the sand
• The top layer removes organic compounds, which
contribute to taste and odour
• The space between sand particles is larger than the smallest
suspended particles, so simple filtration is not enough
• Most particles pass through surface layers but are trapped
in pore spaces or adhere to sand particles. Effective
filtration extends into the depth of the filter

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Properties Rapid sand Slow sand
filter filter
Area Small area Large area
Rate of 4000-7500 100-400
filtration(L/m2/hr)
Sand size (diameter) 0.4-0.7 mm 0.2-0.3 mm
Pretreatment Coagulation and Sedimentation
sedimentation
Filter cleaning Backwashing Scraping
Operation More skilled Less skilled
Removal of colour Good Better
Removal of bacteria 98-99% 99.9%-99.99%
Prior water storage Storage needed No need

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 DISINFECTION

Criteria for satisfactory disinfectant:

1. Destroy the pathogenic organism without being influenced from

properties of water (pH, temp. etc.) within a time period

2. Should not be toxic and colour imparting or leave the water

impotable

3. Available, cheap,easy to use

4. Leave the residual concentration to deal with recontamination

5. Detectable by rapid,simple techniques in small concentration

ranges to permit the control of disinfection process

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 Chlorination

METHOD OF CHLORINATION

Chlorinating equipment (Paterson’s chloronome) for adding gaseous

chlorine

Action:
Kills pathogenic bacteria (no effect on spores and viruses)
Oxidize iron, manganese and hydrogen sulphide
Reduces taste and odours
Controls algae
Maintains residual disinfection

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 Super chlorination

• method of choice for highly polluted waters

• high dose of chlorine is added
• after 20 minutes of contact, dechlorination
is done with sodium sulphate / sodium thiosulphate

to reduce the taste of excess chlorine

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OTHER DISINFECTANTS

OZONE

•Used in Europe and Canada

•Strong oxidizing agent
•Strong Virucidal
•No residual effect
•Should be used with chlorination

UV RAYS

•Used in UK
•Water should be clear
•No residual effect
•Expensive

CHLORAMINE

• Chlorine + Ammonia — Chloramine

• Less effective than chlorine
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 PURIFICATION OF WATER ON SMALL SCALE

A . HOUSEHOLD PURIFICATION:

1.BOILING
Rolling boil for 10 min.
Kills all bacteria, spores, cysts, ova, removes temporary hardness
No residual protection

2.CHEMICAL DISINFECTION

a. Bleaching powder: White powder, pungent smell

33% available chlorine

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b. HTH/Perchloron:

High strength Ca Hypochlorite

70% available chlorine
1 gm/L of water

c. Chlorine tablets:

NEERI developed cheaper good tablets 1 tab(0.5g) for 20 L water

d. Iodine :

2 drops (2% solution in alcohol) for 1 L water

Contact time 30 minutes
Used only in emergency situation

e. Potassium permanganate: Expensive, unreliable, not recommended

f. Alum : For turbidity reduction: 0.4-1.6 g/20 L water

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Water related diseases
 Water related diseases

Man’s health may be affected by the ingestion of

contaminated water either:
• Directly (drinking)
• Through food (contaminated by unclean water)
• Contact with contaminated water

Developing countries carry a heavy burden of water

related disease
a) Biological water borne diseases

i) Those caused by the presence of an infected agent:

• Viral
• Protozoa
• Bacterial
• Helminthic
ii) Those due to the presence of an aquatic host:
• Snail (shistosomiasis)
• Cyclops (guinea worm)

b) Chemicals
• Derived from industrial & agricultural wastes
 The state of water born diseases
around the world
• 1.8 million people die every year from diarrheal diseases
(including cholera); 90% are children under 5, mostly in
developing countries

• Improved water supply reduces diarrheal morbidity by

between 6% to 25%, if good measures are applied to clean
water

• Improvements in drinking-water quality through

household water treatment, such as chlorination at point of
use, can lead to a reduction of diarrheal episodes by
between 35% and 39%.
 Malaria
• 1.3 million people die of malaria each year, 90%
of whom are children under 5

• There are 396 million episodes of malaria every

year, most of the disease burden is in Africa
south of the Sahara

• Intensified irrigation, dams and other water

related projects contribute importantly to this
disease burden

• Better management of water resources reduces

transmission of malaria and other vector-borne
 Trachoma
• 146 million are threatened by blindness

• 6 million people are visually impaired by

trachoma

• Improving access to safe water sources and

better hygiene practices can reduce
trachoma morbidity by 27%
 Intestinal helminthes
(Ascariasis, Trichuriasis, Hookworm)

• 133 million people suffer from high intensity

intestinal helminthes infections

• These diseases cause around 9400 deaths

every year
 Hepatitis A, Hepatitis E

• There are 1.5 million cases of clinical

Hepatitis A every year
• Most cases of Hepatitis A recover
 Chemical water pollution: Arsenic

• In Bangladesh, between 28 and 35 million

people consume drinking-water with elevated
levels of arsenic

• The number of cases of skin lesions related to

drinking-water in Bangladesh is estimated at
1.5 million
 Flourosis

• Over 26 million people in China suffer from

dental fluorosis due to elevated fluoride in
their drinking water

• In China, over 1 million cases of skeletal

fluorosis are thought to be attributable to
drinking-water
 Access to safe water supply

• In 2002, 1.1 billion people lacked access to

improved water sources, which represented
17% of the global population

• In sub-Saharan Africa, 42% of the population

is still without improved water
 Emergencies and disasters

• Almost two billion people were affected by

natural disasters in the last decade of the 20th
century, 86% of them by floods and droughts

• Disasters compromise water quality

 The global response

Water for Life Decade: 2005-2015

UN Declares 2005-2015 “Water for Life” as

the International Decade for Action and set’s
the world agenda on a greater focus on
water-related issues
sustainable development goals SDGs -2030
 Conclusion

Clearly, the problems associated with water

pollution have the capabilities to disrupt life
on our planet to a great extent, increase
diseases and compromise our quality of life
• Awareness and Education are the two most
important ways to prevent water pollution

• If these measures are not taken and water

pollution continues, life on earth will suffer
severely
    
THANKS