Combination of River Bank Filtration and Solar-driven Electro-Chlorination Assuring Safe Drinking Water Supply for River Bound Communities in India

Abstract

The supply of safe drinking water in rural developing areas is still a matter of concern, especially if surface water, shallow wells, and wells with non-watertight headworks are sources for drinking water. Continuously changing raw water conditions, flood and extreme rainfall events, anthropogenic pollution, and lacking electricity supply in developing regions require new and adapted solutions to treat and render water safe for distribution. This paper presents the findings of a pilot test conducted in Uttarakhand, India, where a river bank filtration (RBF) well was combined with a solar-driven and online-monitored electro-chlorination system, treating fecal-contaminated Ganga River water. While the RBF well provided nearly turbidity- and pathogen-free water as well as buffered fluctuations in source water qualities, the electro-chlorination system provided disinfection based on the inline conversion of chloride to hypochlorous acid. The conducted sampling campaigns provided complete disinfection (>6.7 log) and the adequate supply of residual disinfectant (0.27 ± 0.17 mg/L). The system could be further optimized to local conditions and allows the supply of microbial-safe water for river bound communities, even during monsoon periods and under the low natural chloride regimes typical for this region.

Anthropic and Meteorological Controls on the Origin and Quality of Water at a Bank Filtration Site in Canada

“…During subsurface passage, water is exposed to physical, chemical, and biological processes, which may attenuate contaminants initially present in the surface water but also release unwanted minerals [4,5]. BF systems have proven to be efficient for the removal of turbidity [6][7][8], pathogens [9][10][11], and organic compounds [12][13][14][15]. The efficiency of BF systems to attenuate contaminants is strongly controlled by travel times [13,16] and redox conditions [17][18][19], which in turn depend on numerous site-specific natural and engineered parameters.…”

Integrated Water Resource Management: Rethinking the Contribution of Rainwater Harvesting

“…The decentralization of telecommunications in terms of decentralized finance and mobile phones can be regarded as already accomplished [35,36]. The decentralization of energy and water supply is far from accomplished, and the lack of appropriate technologies is certainly a key issue [34,37,38]. However, while special skills are required to transform all kinds of energetic raw materials (e.g., coal, sun, water) to electricity, water is available everywhere and sometimes already of drinking quality [33,39].…”

Sustainable solutions for solar energy driven drinking water supply for rural settings in Sub-Saharan Africa: a case study of Nigeria

“…The free chlorine disinfects water by killing bacteria and inactivating viruses. 35 A German company Autarcon produces such a system which is used in rural communities in developing countries. Depending on water quality, a filtration system is installed prior or past the chlorination process, which usually is a pressure filter, using either sand or manganese dioxide as medium.…”

“…The farms should be closely located to each other, so that the borehole to be drilled will be in reach of the farmers for installation of irrigation hoses and a water cleaning system for drinking water, which should contain a residual disinfectant to keep water and containers clean. The anodic oxidation system 35 is the technology of choice for this concept, since it can purify sufficient water for the farmers' families as well as additional villagers and produces free chlorine for disinfection ( Fig. 1).…”