Assessment of drinking water quality in new halfe settement villages and the town

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to assess the drinking water quality in the New Halfa area settlement villages and the town”. The study area \vater samples were divided into three types: Water from ground well (village”l5”)- treated surface water from the town —untreated surface water from the villages, this was divided spatially as (southern sector villages”7,lO”, middle sector villages “5,l l,l2”, northem sector villages “2l,22,24”). These locations were chosen to cover the whole area. Four sources for each site were selected (priciptation well-storage and suppling tank-taps at first and end of the distribution net), samples from this sources were collected for physical, chemical and bacteriological analysis in the winter and the summer season to see any variation during these seasons .The physical and chemical parameters which investigated were(temperature,turbidity, pl-l, E.C, TDS, T.l-l, T.Alk, sci" ,Cl',Ca2', M g’*,Na*,1<*,re,cu,cr“*, NH3, NO2',NO_{,F',COD,and residual chlorine in case oftreated water. The bacteriological analysis detennined were : total colonies, total coliforms, thermotolerant coliforms, faecal coliform, and faecal streptococci. The study showed that there was no faecal pollution in the ground water tapped from boreholes and the treated water of the town at taps, whilein the untreated surface water samples from the sectors villages, showed huge faecal pollution, where there is no-treatment or due to bad conditions surronding the stations and the distribution- nets. The bacteriological pollution increases more in winter season than in summer, Probably due to enhanced activities of bacteria in the winter. Also the study confirmed that unplanned houses “kanabi” play a major role in polluting the surface water, in addition to mismangement of the drinking water. The study also showed that the concentration of the chemical parameters were in the permissible levels of the (WI~lOl995) standards, except that, the nitrites were in high levels particularly in winter. This may be due to the use of nitrogen compounds in agricultural activities. The study recommended the following solutions: - To maintains all drinking water stations in the villages and the town. - To urgently excavate boreholes where village's geology permits as an alternative to surfilce water, which is subjected to pollution. - To provide the unplanned houses (kanabi) with latrines to avoid