No abstract

Forty-four  bottles  of drinking water  were collected from the local markets of Basra City and stored in the laboratory refrigerator  at 4ºC until the physical, chemical and biological measurements were carried out. The results showed a discrepancy in the compatibility of the specifications written on the drinking water  bottle  label with the sample measurements as well as the variation in the results with the Iraqi standards for bottled water.  The percentage of bottled water that is not safe for drinking  was 88.5% of the total samples of the study. This value is high and an indication of lack of control over marketing  from the imported or produced in the local labs, so it is a danger to the health of the consumer. Results showed that the PH ranged 6.5–8 and did not exceed the values on the information sheet of the potable drinking water as well as the TDS, chloride, magnesium; nitrate and potassium which were within the permissible limits. In addition, the results showed that calcium, total hardness, fluoride and bacterial growth values exceeded  the permissible limits, and there are different significations between factors in samples.

In many low-income countries, access to improved sanitation is frequently lacking and nearly 90 percent of sewage is discharged without treatment into water bodies. Even with the immense social and technical developments, many researchers around the world still concentrate on pollution issues. Filter unit which consist of single media or mixed media can be improve by using different material with various physical and chemical properties, so, this property must have positive influence when mixed with original material of filter or in the other word the new material must promote, also alter the hydraulic and environment behavior of filter unit and this will reflect on treatment coast of wastewater and drinking water regardless the source. The inequality in physical and chemical properties of mixed or added material must increase the operation efficiency by reduce the virus and pathogenic, also increase the removal of suspended solid, diminish the water salinity and reduce the concentration of harmful materials. Over all the modified filter unit must work with satisfactory level as compared with standard filter unit considering the operation and maintenance coast. In general, the modification in filter unit lead to the dramatic increase in removal of total suspended solid with increase in COD and BOD 5 level, also increase the removal of chemical material.

This study was conducted on the Al-Hartha Water Treatment Plant (HWTP), the largest water treatment plant in the city of Basra, during the period from December 2017 to March 2018. This study gives a description of the units and components of the HWTP, and aimed to evaluate the efficiency of the plant by calculating the efficiency of its sedimentation, filtration and sterilisation basins. Additionally, it aimed to examine its water quality by examining the physical and chemical characteristics of the raw water and treated water at this plant and then comparing the findings with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Iraqi standard limitations. The results of this study showed that the efficiency of the sedimentation basins is 57%, while the efficiency of the filtration basins is 13.3%, and the sterilisation efficiency ranges from 27 to 50%. The laboratory results for the treated water quality have shown that the turbidity is equal to 12.8 NTU, electrical conductivity (EC) is equal to 7750 µs/cm, the total salt concentration of the total dissolved solids (TDS) is equal to 5200 mg/l, and the concentration of the total suspended solids (TSS) is equal to 65 mg/l of the water outside from the HWTP. All these water quality results are higher than the WHO and Iraqi standard limitations, except the pH value of 6.95, which is within the permissible limits.