UNIVERSITY OF ZIMBABWE

B.Sc. (Engineering) Honours - Level IV

WATER AND PUBLICH HEALTH ENGINEERING

DECEMBER 2012 Engin. CE 408

Answer any Five questions. Time allowed: 3 hours

All questions carry equal marks.

Start each question on a new page.

This examination paper consists of 8 pages.

QUESTION 1

a) Give any three reasons why the pH of a water sample is important in water quality analysis
[3 Marks]

b) Using appropriate diagrams and sketches, explain the theory and practice of the determination
of total dissolved solids concentrations of water samples using a conductivity meter.
[4 Marks]

c) Briefly explain why the BOD test is run in the dark. [3 Marks]

d) Explain what is meant by “seeding” of a BOD sample, and give one example of a situation when this
may be necessary. [2 Marks]

e) Why is it necessary to inhibit nitrate bacterial activity in the BOD bottle? [3 Marks]

f) What is the fraction of the ultimate BOD that remains in the BOD bottle after 4 days, assuming a
decay coefficient of 0.13 and that the test is run at 20oC? [5 Marks]

1
QUESTION 2

a) Using appropriate diagrams and sketches, give a detailed explanation of the link between the number
of vehicles on the World’s roads today, and the melting of ice at the Earth’s Polar Regions and
droughts in Sub-Saharan Africa. [3 Marks]

b) If you were the new District Engineer for a local Rural District Council (RDC), give five factors that
you would advise the RDC to consider before locating/siting its new landfill site. [3 Marks]

c) A septic tank treats the solid and the liquid components of domestic sewage mainly by anaerobic
digestion. Briefly explain this statement using sketches. [4 marks]

d) List three main sources of drinking water in Zimbabwe’s rural areas, and in each case, one main type
of pollutant you would expect from each source. Briefly explain how you would remove these
pollutants using simple low cost technologies (if feasible to remove) . [6 marks]

g) List two main factors that affect water consumption in rural setups. [2 marks]

h) What is the major advantage of groundwater over surface water as a source of drinking water?
[2marks]

QUESTION 3

a) What options are there to remove algae during water treatment? [2marks]

b) What are the factors which determine the quantity of water to be treated? Write an equation which
incorporates these factors to determine the quantity of water to be treated (define your symbols and
terms). [3 marks]

c) What factors determine the treatment method for drinking water from a surface source?
[3 marks]

d) Chlorine as a disinfectant is now discouraged especially in the developed world. What is the reason
for this? [2 marks]

e) What is the range of filtration rates for slow and rapid sand filters? [2 marks]

f) Name at least four ways in which pathogens are removed in a slow sand filter. [2 marks]

2
g) Name the major advantage and disadvantage of pre-sedimentation in water treatment.
[2 marks]

h) What is the area of sedimentation tanks that would ensure sedimentation of a target particle of 0.13
mm, whose specific gravity is 1.08, at a water temperature of 10oC. You are given that the flow is
120m3/hr. [4 marks]

QUESTION 4

a) Effluent from two sewage works enter a river at point X from opposite banks. Determine the
concentrations of the parameters immediately downstream of the river. (Table Q4-1).

Table Q4-1

Parameter Effluent 1 Effluent 2 Concentration in river

immediately upstream of
X
BOD 75 60 10
Total Nitrogen (TN) 20 15 5
TDS 250 300 100
Temperature 20 22 18
Flow 10,000 15,000 20,000
[5 marks]

b) Between Summer and Winter, when are the impacts of effluent discharge to a river body more
severe? Give your reasons for this. [3 marks]

c) What is self purification of a river? [2 marks]

d) With the aid of a diagram explain the DO sag curve . [4 marks]

e) Sludges from water treatment may present challenges of a different nature compared to those from
wastewater treatment. Name two such challenges. [2 marks]

f) What is the required dosage of chlorine given that the amount of chlorine required to react with
impurities in the water is 1.2 mg/l, and that the expected level of free residual chlorine is 0.3 mg/l.
After dosage with chlorine, the levels of ammonia and other impurities in the water result in
combined chlorine of 0.5 mg/l. You are further required to determine the chlorine requirements in
kg/d to treat 15,000 m3/day of filtered water. [4 marks]

3
QUESTION 5

A sewage treatment plant receives 50,000 m3/d of sewage with raw sewage BOD5 of 250 mg/l and
TSS of 300 mg/l. After primary treatment, the activated sludge bioreactor has a volume of 35,000m3
and is operated at an MLSS of 3,500 mg/l with an SVI of 120 mL/g.

a) Calculate the F/M ratio for this activated sludge treatment plant when treating settled sewage.
[2 marks]
b) From your results on F/M ratio in (a), comment on the sludge loading rate of the design and the
performance implications of this plant. [3 marks]

c) Comment on the possibilities for nitrogen removal assuming the design sewage temperature is
15 oC. [2 marks]

d) Explain the difference between Solids Retention Time and Hydraulic Retention Time in an
Activated Sludge treatment plant. Why should the two be different? [2 marks]

e) Explain, using sketch diagrams, the difference in the operation between the final clarifier of an
Activated Sludge system and that of a Trickling Filter plant. [2 marks]

f) Activated Sludge plants are normally operated at DO levels of 1.5 to 2.0 mg/l. Explain the
reasoning for this. [2 marks]

g) Explain why trickling filters in a two-stage process are placed in series and not in parallel.
What would be the added benefit of this? [2 marks]

h) What are the three main stages or processes in sludge treatment? [2 marks]

i) Give three sludge treatment/disposal methods that would be applied for sludge with high
concentrations of pathogens. [3 marks]

4
QUESTION 6

A City in Zimbabwe has recently developed a Masterplan which includes strategies on how to tackle
the prevailing wastewater management problems. As a recent graduate of the BSc Civil Engineering
programme, you are tasked to develop the Strategy further. You are therefore requested to prepare
four short reports of approximately 1 hand-written page EACH on the following issues:

a) Development of baseline data to be used to estimate loads and to carry out preliminary designs
[5 marks]

b) Development of a strategy for onsite sewage management for both domestic and industrial areas,
using appropriate strategies and technologies [4 marks]

c) A strategy for the decentralised management of wastewater in the city which should minimise
discharge of pollutants to the environment. [4 marks]
d) A pollution prevention strategy for all areas in the city with focus on wastewater.
[3 marks]
e) Give four principal removal and transformation mechanisms in wetlands and explain these briefly
[2 marks

f) List and explain two sources of oxygen in a free-water-surface constructed treatment wetland.
[2 marks]

5
 DATA and FORMULAE

g
vo   (  sg  1)  d 2
18

1.31 106

0.72  0.028T

k1, t  k1, 20  1.04 T  20

k 2, t  k 2, 20  1.02 T  20

L  Lo (1  e  k1t )

1  k   k  k 
tc  ln 2 1  Do  2 1 
k2  k1  k1   k1Lo 

k1
Dc  Lo e  k 1t c

k2

k1Lo
D
k 2  k1
 
e  k1t  e  k 2 t  Doe  k 2 t

6
 Data (Cont..)

Table 2 Oxygen concentration vs temperature

Temperature (oC) Saturation Value of (O2 mg/l)

10 11.3

11 11.0

12 10.8

13 10.5

14 10.3

15 10.1

16 9.9

17 9.7

18 9.5

19 9.3

20 9.2

21 9.0

22 8.8

23 8.7

24 8.5

25 8.4

26 8.2

27 8.1

28 7.9

29 7.8

30 7.6

7
Figure 1. Relationship between  and F/M ratio for municipal sewage

END OF THIS EXAMINATION