CHAPTER 4

WATER QUALITY
Prepared by Bereket.T

Physical, chemical and biological

characteristics of water
Pure water is a chemical compound with each of its
molecules containing two hydrogen atoms and one
oxygen atom [H2O].
pure water can never be available in nature.
Quality of water for different uses
Domestic use: requires the highest degree of purity.
Civic use: is characterized by large water
requirement and any degree of impurity is acceptable
unless mixed with sewage and other refuses.
Trade and/or Business use: Purity depends upon
the nature of trade/business.
Commercial or Industrial use: Water should be
chemically pure.

Impurities
Impurities in water could be classified as organic
and inorganic.
Impurities could further be grouped into these three
classes as:
1. Suspended impurities,
2. Dissolved impurities, and
3. Colloidal impurities.
To insure safety to public health, economy and
utility in industries and other uses, it is authoritative
for planners and designers of the public water
supply schemes.

Properties of water
Physical
xcrs

Xcrs of
Water

Chemical
xcrs

Biological
xcrs

Properties of
water
Physical Characteristics:

primarily affect the

acceptability of water from the aesthetic
considerations.

Chemical Characteristics: presence of chemicals

that alter water characteristics.
Biological Characteristics: presence of microorganisms, viruses, other living organisms and their
remains.

Physical Characteristics

Color
A character of pure water regarding color is
colorless.
The presence of color in water is not objectionable
from health point of view, but from aesthetic and
psychological point of view it may be objectionable.

Taste and odor

Objection to taste and odor in drinking water is
very subjective in nature and different persons
react differently to them.
It is frequently difficult, to identify the specific
cause of taste and odor.

Turbidity

Turbidity is an expression of the optical property of

water that causes light to be scattered and
absorbed rather than transmitted in straight lines.
If a large amount of suspended material such as
clay, silt are present in water, it will be muddy or
cloudy or turbid in appearance.
The turbidity of raw water must be measured and
then reduced by treatment to permissible values so
as to make it almost invisible to naked eye.

PH
pH is a measure of acidity and alkalinity using a
scale of 0 to 14, 7 being the neutral point.
Without proper alteration of pH raw water may be
corrosive and adversely affect treatment processes.
Generally, alkalinity is caused by the presence of
bicarbonates of calcium and magnesium.

Temperature
Temperature of water at user's end depends on the
temperature of water source as well as the
processes the water has undergone by way of
treatment and distribution.
Generally ground water is cooler than surface water.

Chemical characteristics

Chemical in water
May be toxic and may constitute a danger to health
even at a very low concentration. E.g. Arsenic,
Cadmium, Cyanide, Lead, Mercury and Selenium.
May affect health or may interfere with the
acceptability of the water depending upon their
concentration. E.g. Fluoride, Nitrate, Sulphate,
Chloride, Iodine.
May cause hardness of water and cardiovascular
diseases. This is caused by ions principally calcium
and magnesium.
May cause medicinal test and persistent odor
problems.

Hardness

Hard water is one that requires considerable

amounts of soap to produce foam or lather.
surface waters are softer than ground waters.
Principally hardness is caused by Mg and Ca.
Hardness of water is derived largely from contact
with the soil and rock formation.
Hard water originates in areas where the topsoil is
thick and lime stone formations are present.
Hardness is commonly expressed as equivalent
concentration of calcium carbonate and is reported
in mg/l of CaCO3.

Cont
The application of hardness data is
that
It is useful in determining the suitability of
water for domestic and industrial uses.
The engineer uses it as a basis for
recommending the need for softening process.
The relative amounts of Ca and Mg hardness
and of Carbonate and non-carbonate hardness
present in water are factors in determining the
most economical type of softening process to
use, and become important consideration in
design.

Phenolic Compounds

Phenols are released into water during the

metabolic processes of aquatic organisms.
Decaying vegetation, for example, fallen leaves of
some species of trees may release phenol in water.
Other sources of Phenolic compounds are:
From the distillation of coal and wood,
oil refineries, chemical plants, livestock dips
microbial degradation of pesticides and human
and animal wastes.
Concentrated solutions of phenol, when ingested,
give rise to severe pain, shock and probably death.
Even at very low concentrations they cause serious
taste and odor problems in water supplies.

Cont
In the oil-bearing areas the ground water often
contains a higher concentration of phenols.
When it is present in water it can react with
chlorine which is added for disinfecting in the
final treatment of water and form chloro-phenol,
which give medicinal tastes and cause persistent
odor problems in the distribution system.

Microbiological Analysis of water

Unfortunately not all water helps human being to
survive.
By definition pathogens are organisms which cause
disease to other organisms and these are fungi,
bacteria, protozoa, viruses, etc.
Such pathogens occur in a drinking water supply
when there is feacal pollution to the source.
The process of detection is time consuming and
uneconomical and detection and estimation needs
selective media of pure culturing and bio-chemical
test.
Indicators are used to detect the presence of faecal
pollution and thus the pathogens in the water
supply system.
i.e., the presence of indicators means the
presence of pathogens.

The use of testing for indicators is:

To detect recent contamination;

To evaluate the efficiency of treatment systems;
To examine the disinfections process;
To choose the best source; and
Generally it serves as a quality control.
Thus the types of indicator organisms used in
water quality analysis:
Coli-forms
Streptococci
Anaerobic spore forms
Of these, coli-forms are the most widely used
indicators.

Cont
The simplest and most recent method adopted for
detecting and measuring the presence of coli-form
bacteria is to filter the water sample through a sterile
membrane of special design (i.e., 80 % porosity, pore
size 5 to 10m ).
The process is called culturing.
Water Quality Examination
Physical examination: are done for physical
characteristics of water.
Chemical examination: are measurements of the
amount of metals, alkalinity and hardness, intensity
of acidity or alkalinity, nitrogen, chlorides, dissolved
oxygen, BOD, and Chlorine remaining in the water
after treatment.

Cont
Bacteriological examination: determines the
probable number and kind of bacteria present in
the water.
Microscopical examination: provide information
on the variety and number of microscopic
organisms with special reference to the probable
source of taste and odor.

Water quality standards

Municipal water required for domestic uses
particularly the water required for drinking must be:
colorless,
odorless and tasteless
Free from turbidity, and excessive toxic chemical
compounds.

 World Health Organization (WHO) has

laid down its international standards,
specifying the minimum water quality
requirements.