NSU Research Contributions
Title : DEVELOPMENT OF LOW COST DRINKING WATER TREATMENT SYSTEM FOR THE POOR SLUM DWELLERS OF DHAKA CITY, BANGLADESH AND A COMPARATIVE STUDY WITH COMMERCIALLY MANUFACTURED WATER FILTERS
Authors : Shafayet Ahmed, Dr. Bruce Savage, Dr Arya Ebrahimpur, Dr. Nazmun Nahar
Abstract : Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh and one of the largest megacities of the world, has been encountering an alarming decrease in the quantity and the quality of potable drinking water. Especially in the slum areas, the problem is much severe in compare to the other residential and commercial areas of the city. In Dhaka city, around 4.5 million people living in the slum areas consisting around 30% of total population of the city. The slum dwellers are mostly poor people group of the city lacking basic living rights like shelter, food, education etc. and many slum dwellers complained against the poor quality of drinking water supplied by DWASA, the main responsible authority of water supply and sewerage of Dhaka city. In this study, samples of drinking water have collected from the Korail slum, one of the largest slums of the city. After testing the quality of samples, it has found that the water contains high concentration of E. coli and Turbidity which causes many water borne diseases among the slum dwellers. To get rid of this problem, two different water filters has been proposed which are especially effective against E. coli and Turbidity concentration of water. Also both filters are cheap and raw materials are available hence the poor slum dwellers can easily afford them. Clay filter has been designed and proposed for removing E. coli concentration of water and sand stone filter has been proposed to treat turbid water. Laboratory testing suggested that, clay filter can remove up to 78% of total E. coli concentration of water and sand stone turbidity filter can remove up to 87% of total turbidity concentration. To make a comparison, raw water sample of Korail slum also filtered by commercially manufacture ceramic water filter and it removed up to 85% of E. coli concentration of water. Finally, as an extra work, Turbidity concentration of Portneuf river has measured as 28 NTU. After filtration the water by sand stone filter, the value dropped to 3.3 NTU. All the testing has conducted following guideline of USEPA. USEPA 1103.1 and USEPA 180.1 methods has followed for E. coli and Turbidity concentration testing respectively.
| Journal : | Volume : | Year : 2017 | Issue : |
| Pages : 75 | City : | Edition : | Editors : |
| Publisher : | ISBN : | Book : | Chapter : |
| Proceeding Title : | Institution : Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Idaho State University, Idaho, USA | Issuer : | Number : |
