Assessment of drinking water quality of Borg el-Arab water purification plant

Borg El-Arab drinking water purification plant takes its raw water from El-Noubaria Canal at the kilometer 95. EI-Noubaria canal gets its water from the Nile at two points. The main bulk of water comes from El-Riah El-Behiery, while the second source of water coming from El-Riah El-Nassery. There are four agricultural drains at the kilometer 53.0, 66.0, 71.9 and 85.4 which return back to the canal and represent the sources of pollution of the canal. Chemical, physical and trace elements analysis were carried out for raw and treated water of Borg El-Arab drinking water purification plant. It was found that the quality of treated water for the different parameter, are in agreement with the Ministry of Health Decree No 108/1995 for drinking water. Regarding total dissolved solids level, the quality of water was fair during Autumn and Summer as its value was 876.7 mg/l and 701.2 mg/l respectively, it was poor during spring as it reached 1113 mg/l, while during winter it was unacceptable (1312.7 mg/l) which exceed the higher permissible limit of the Ministry of Health Decree No 108/1995. This high TDS values make objectionable tastes in the public water supplied to Borg El-Arab city and the North West coast summer resorts. This taste of water provides no assurance to the public that such water is free of pathogens or toxic inorganic chemicals. So, we recommend El-Hager canal as new intake source for providing Borg El-Arab drinking water purification plant with raw water free from pollutants and low in total dissolved solids concentration.