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Water Treatment Process Options for Gravity-Feed System of Rural Water Supply Scheme in Western Sarawak Mohamad Sabari Shakeran (30138118) Degree of Master of Science (ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE) This thesis is presented for the degree of Master of Philosophy of Murdoch University 2004 DECLARATION I declare that this thesis is my own account of my research and contains as its main content work which has not previously been submitted for a degree at any tertiary education institution. …………………………… Mohamad Sabari Shakeran January 2004 ii ABSTRACT Water resource is abundant in Malaysia. The renewable water resource from both surface water and groundwater is about 630 billion cubic meters. About 97 percent of the rivers in Malaysia are abstracted for public water supplies. This contributes to the establishment of 487 water treatment plant intake points in Peninsular Malaysia and 91 in Sarawak. The number does not include the number of water treatment plants established in the State of Sabah. Nevertheless, the nation aspiration of overarching vision 2020 to achieve the fully developed nation status has caused impacts to the national water resources because of the rapid pace of socio-economic development. The stakeholders have started expressing their concern on the issues of freshwater scarcity because of apparent degradation in water quality standard. Furthermore, the land-use developments have extended into the rural areas to exploit the natural resources for economic purposes. Consequently, the pollutions generated from unregulated development activities have caused environmental impacts and scarcity of freshwater sources from designated water supply catchment areas. Since the urban populations are getting their water sources from major river basins, which are larger, the populations living in remote rural areas are experiencing the opposite. In the State of Sarawak, 60 percent of the population are living in the remote rural areas. They get their water supply from freshwater sources that come from smaller water catchments provided by the State Health Department, known as the gravity-feed water catchment. In this regard, only designated first-priority water catchments with sources that comply with the requirement of the drinking water quality standards as well as passing the catchment sanitary survey are chosen for development as gravity-feed systems. Because of the high raw water quality, the villages are supplied with these sources as their drinking water, through piped-gravity water without the provision of any basic treatment. The communities are only advised to boil their water for safety reasons. The iii State Health Department carries out routine drinking water quality surveillance programmes to monitor the water quality from the gravity-feed systems. In 2002, there are 2,730 gravity-feed system established in Sarawak.These gravity-feed systems are developed by the State Health Department. The purpose of this study is to determine the conditions of raw water quality from various State Health Department gravity-feed systems as of whether these raw waters are still safe as drinking water for the rural populations. Due to some constraints and limitations, only water quality data from selected water catchments in three districts of Western Sarawak, namely, Lundu, Serian and Betong are used for the study. In addition, the study is trying to determine the best available solution to overcome the water quality problems by finding a feasible and economical water treatment process options to enhance existing practice adopted by the State Health Department for the rural water supply. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract..................................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents………………………………………………………….….....................… v Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………..……. xvii CHAPTER ONE: STUDY BACKGROUND 1.1 Introduction……………………………………………………….….….………… 1 1.2 Study Focus…………………………………………………………….…………. 3 1.3 Research Question……………………………………………………..………….. 4 1.4 Hypothesis……………………………………………………………….………… 5 1.5 The Purpose and Limitation of Study…………………………………..…………. 6 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Water Resources in Malaysia ………………..…………………..…………….…. 8 2.2 Water Resources Management System…………………………………………… 12 2.3 Water Catchment Protection in Sarawak…………………………………………. 15 2.4 Water Supply In Sarawak………………………….………………………..…….. 18 2.4.1 State Water Legislation………………….……….……….…………..… 18 2.4.2 Rural Community Water Supply …………………….………………… 19 2.4.3 Water Supply Authorities…………………………..………………..…. 21 2.5 State Health Department Gravity-Feed System…………………………………… 23 2.5.1 Typical Design of Gravity-Feed System…………………..……………. 24 2.5.2 Maintenance of Gravity-Feed System……………..………..…………… 26 2.5.3 Drinking Water Quality Surveillance Programme………………………. 26 2.5.4 Drinking Water Quality Standard…………………………..…............... 27 2.5.5 Instruments for Water Sampling…………………………..………….… 29 2.6 Rural Water Supply………………………………………………………………… 29 2.6.1 Significance of Water Quality Standard…………………………….…… 29 2.6.2 Effective Water Treatment………………………………………………. 35 2.6.3 Water Treatment Process Options…………………………..…………… 38 2.6.4 General Costing for Rural Water Treatment Methods………………… 45 CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY 3.1 Research Methods……………………………………..……….……….................... 47 3.1.1. Literature Review……………………………………..……………….. 47 3.1.2. Field Investigation and Site Visits……………………………..……… 48 3.1.3. Data Collection………….……………………………………..………. 49 3.1.4. Data Analysis…………………………………..…………….………… 50 v 3.2 Comparative Study Methodology………………………….……………….............. 50 3.2.1. Purpose of Comparative Study……………………..….….……..……. 52 3.2.2. Data Collection and Compilation……………………..…….………… 53 3.2.3. Data Analysis…………………………………..…………….…..…… 53 CHAPTER FOUR: WATER AUTHORITIES FOR COMPARATIVE STUDY 4.1 Background………………………………………………………………..……… 56 4.1.1 Muara Tebas Water Supply Authority, Kuching Division……………. 56 4.1.2 Lundu Water supply Authority, Kuching Division………..……..…… 59 4.1.3 Triboh Water Supply Authority, Samarahan Division……..……..…… 63 4.2 Photographs of Water Supply Systems……………………………….…………… 65 4.2.1 Muara Tebas Water Supply System…………………………………… 65 4.2.2 Lundu Water Supply System……………………..………….……….. 68 4.2.3 Triboh Water Supply System………………………………….……… 72 4.2.4 Muara Tebas Water Catchment Area…………………….…………… 74 4.2.5 Lundu Water Catchment Area………………………………………… 75 4.2.6 Triboh Water Catchment Area……………………..……………...…… 76 4.3 Water Supply Authority Standing Orders………………………..………………… 77 CHAPTER FIVE: RESULTS AND ANALYSIS 5.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………………..… 81 5.1.1 State Health Department Water Quality Data……….…………..…..… 81 5.1.2 State Health Department Water Quality Data Results & Analysis….. 83 (a) Gravity-feed Systems in Lundu District…………………………..… 84 (i) Physical Property: Turbidity Measurement……………………… 85 (ii) Microbiological Property: Faecal Coliform…………………….. 85 (iii) Chemical Property:Ammonia/Fluoride/Manganese………….… 86 (b) Gravity-feed Systems in Serian District……………………………… 88 (i) Physical Property: Turbidity Measurement………………….…… 89 (ii) Microbiological Property: Faecal Coliform……………………… 90 (iii) Chemical Property: Iron/Manganese…………………………… 91 (c) Gravity-feed Systems in Betong District……………………..……… 93 (i) Physical Property: Turbidity Measurement………………..….… 94 (ii) Physical Property: Conductivity Measurement…………..……… 95 (iii) Microbiological Property: Faecal Coliform………………..…… 96 (iv) Chemical Property: Nitrate/Iron/Manganese………………..… 97 5.1.3 Public Works Department Water Quality Data…………………….… 99 5.1.4 Public Works Water Quality Data Results & Analysis…………….… 100 (a) Physical Property…………………………………………………….. 101 (i) Turbidity Measurement…………………………………..….… 102 (ii) Colour Measurement…………………………………………….. 102 vi (b) Microbiological Property…………………………………………… 103 (c) Chemical Property……………………………………………….…… 104 (i) Total Dissolved Solid (TDS) Measurement………………….….. 106 (ii) Ammonia Measurement…………….…………………….…… 106 (iii) Iron Measurement…………………………………..…………… 106 (iv) Aluminium Measurement……………………………………… 107 (v) Manganese Measurement……………………………………… 107 5.2 The Comparative Study Results…………………………………………………… 108 CHAPTER SIX: DISCUSSION 6.1 State Health Department: Water Quality from Gravity-Feed System……………… 110 6.2 Pubic Works Department: Water Quality from Gravity-Feed System…….………. 111 6.3 Choices of Water Treatment Processes…………………………………..………. 112 6.3.1 Appropriate Technology for the Community………………….…… 114 6.3.2. A Pilot Study: Use of Chlorine Dispenser Unit…………………..… 114 6.4 Issues and Challenges of Sarawak Gravity-Feed System…………………….…… 116 CHAPTER SEVEN: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 7.1 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………..…… 119 7.2 Recommendations…………………………………………………………………... 121 (a) Water Quality Database Network System…………………………….…..… 121 (b) Development of Geographical Information System (GIS)…………….……. 121 (c) Filtration System as Basic water Treatment…………………………..…..… 122 (d) Community Water Quality Surveillance Programme……………………...... 122 (e) Guidelines for Sustainable Gravity-Feed Catchment Management……..….. 123 (f) Education and Environmental Awareness Programmes………………..…… 123 (g) Participation of NGOs…………………………………………………..….. 123 (h) Extension Study on Gravity-Feed Systems of Eastern Sarawak………..… 123 REFERENCES ……………………………………………………………… ….125 - 130 vi i APPENDICES Appendix I Map of Sarawak – Area of Study……………………………………………………………….. 131 Appendix A Drinking Water Quality Standards & Frequency