EVALUATION OF MICROBIAL AND PHYSIOCHEMICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF INFLUENT AND EFFLUENT WATER ENTERING TO POINT OF USE WATER TREATMENT SYSTEMS IN GOLSAR COMPLEX, RASHT

Background and Aim::Drinkingwater can be contained necessary, unnecessary and noxious constituents. Good water treatment process should be able to preserve necessary ingredients and remove others. The purpose of this study was to evaluate point of use water treatment systems in providing above purposes.Methods:Random sampling was conducted from 8 blocks in GolsarComplex (Guilan, Rasht) for 3 months. Physiochemical and microbial analyses were conducted for systems influent and effluent. Also, statistical analyses were performed on obtained results.Results:Average of turbidity, total hardness and TDS in effluents were0.26 NTU, 56.4 mg/L and 78.9 mg/L, respectively. Although the systems could decrease turbidity (necessary to remove), but they remove total hardness and TDS (necessary for humans) to unsafe levels. Also, average of total coliforms, fecal coliforms an HPC in effluents were 0.9, 0.2 and 324, respectively. The use of activated carbon for removal of organic and inorganic contaminants, can be used as microbial beds and deteriorate microbial quality of effluents.Conclusion:Point of use water treatment systems could remove both unnecessary (turbidity, Fe, Mn) and necessary constituents of water (total hardness, TDS, fluoride and residual chloride), unselectively. So, the selection of systems steps should be controlled to gain a safe water in effluent.

Keywords:

Point of use water treatment systems , Turbidity , Total coliforms , Fecal coliforms , Heterotrophic plate count