Development of effective and low-cost water treatment method for micro systems in British Columbia, Canada

Abstract

In this study, an effective and low-cost water treatment system is developed.At first, an investigation combining published literature, available information through different health regions and raw water sample data from participating communities was done. Through that investigation, a critical water contamination problem, experienced by the rural, remote, First Nation communities was identified, which is Manganese. Then a treatment system was developed to effectively remove Manganese from the source water.Greensand plus was used as a filtration media and the prototype was designed to best suit the need of the community residents to remove Manganese in raw water. The lab scale and prototype experiments were designed using design expert software; adsorption isotherm and kinetics study were also conducted.The prototype was able to reach a removal efficiency 96.50% which can effectively treat source water levels found in the raw water sample. Therefore, a fit-for-purpose solution is developed to remove Manganese from raw water, which is cost effective, easy to use and maintain. Cost effectiveness is demonstrated through comparison of the developed system with available typical clean water supply strategies.