Performance Evaluation of Urban Water Treatment Plant

Sustained supply of safe and potable water is of paramount significance in promotion of health and well being of the people. It is commonly observed in most of the conventional WTP in urban area are unable to perform this task. The common problem along with the unacceptable quality is inadequate amount of supply due to rapidly growing population and industrialization. Because of the variations in type, nature and concentration of impurities in river water and also due to seasonal variation in the raw water quality no single theory or design approach can be used universally for all water treatment plants and every treatment plant should be considered as a unique case before designing and deciding the different unit processes and operations to be used to treat the water. Unfortunately without much of such analysis most of the WTP are following same process train. Such practice is resulting in above mentioned problems. When the study regarding the performance evaluation of any existing WTP has to be made, criteria for performance evaluation and correct interpretation of the results obtained is very essential to arrive on correct problem identification and measures to be implemented in further work. The authors have visited and studied a plant in detail with respect to various processes followed and the effect of treatments provided. The paper throws light on the method and criteria used for the performance evaluation of conventional WTP and its findings. The authors also discuss the importance of characterization of media used in rapid sand filter beds.