DEDAN KIMATHI UNIVERISTY OF TECHNOLOGY

PROJECT PROPOSAL FOR FINAL YEAR OF STUDY IN

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN CIVIL ENGINEERING

PROPOSAL TITLE

RAW WATER QUALITY MONITORING AND ASSESSMENT OF NYEWASCO

WATER TREATMENT PLANT, KAMAKWA, NYERI COUNTY

BY

PRUDENCE CHEPNGETICH

E024-01-0829/2017

AND

TABITHA KARANI

E024-01-1525/2017

Supervisor: DR. MBURU

A Research Proposal Submitted to the Department of Civil Engineering in the School of

Engineering in Partial Fulfillment of requirement for the Award of Degree in Civil
Engineering in Dedan Kimathi University of Technology.
 DECLARATION

We, Tabitha Karani and Prudence Chepngetich do hereby declare this proposal is our original
work and has not been presented for a degree in any university.

Signature …t……………… Date………………….

Tabitha Karani

E024-01-1525/2017

Signature …………………. Date……………………

Prudence Chepngetich

E024-01-0829/2017

This project proposal has been submitted for examination purposes with my approval as their
supervisor.

Signature ………………….. Date………………

Dr Mburu.
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Turbidity is a measure of the degree to which water loose its transparency due to the presence of
suspended particulates. These can be: clay, silt, finely divided organic and inorganic matter,
plankton and other microscopic organisms which cause light to bounce off and scatter. Treatment
of water before drinking is a major requirement in order to:

 Remove suspended particles carried along with the surface water

 Remove dissolved organic and inorganic matter
 Remove disease causing micro-organisms in the water to ensure safety for drinking.

A typical drinking water treatment plant for treating surface water consists of unit processes for
the unit operations starting by screening where large particles are removed in the water intake; a
coagulant such as alum is added to coagulate the suspended particles that escaped screens. This
is immediately followed by flocculation process wherein the floccs are allowed to grow into
larger and denser floccs for easy settling in the sedimentation units. The water from
sedimentation units is reduced in suspended solids and can now pass through filter units to
remove turbidity and microorganisms. The water then flows to contact tanks where chlorination
is done to disinfect it before it is taken to storage tanks for distribution to the consumers.

Turbidity is important to control for bot aesthetic and health reasons since suspended matter can
contain toxins such as heavy metals and biocides and can also harbor microorganisms, protecting
them from disinfection while eventually can cause outbreak of diseases. Turbidity can be used as
a parameter to indicate the safety of water leaving a filtration system or the performance of the
treatment plant as a whole since the filtration unit is highly dependent on the other preceding unit
processes.

Limitations such as sampling techniques and instrument calibration can affect the turbidity
results. Turbidity is the most practical physical parameter with which to gauge filtration plant
performance, while other parameters such as pH and alkalinity can indicate optimal performance
of chemical or individual major unit process, but they do not serve as adequate surrogate for
particle and microbial removal.
Study area

Nyeri is situated in the central highlands of Kenya at about 150km north of Kenya’s capital
Nairobi in the country densely populated and fertile central highlands lying between the eastern
base of Aberdare (Nyandarua) Range which forms part of the eastern end of the Great Rift
Valley and western slopes of Mount Kenya. Nyeri is located 0*25’S36*7’E.

Due to insufficient and unreliable infrastructure as well as failing clean water supply service
delivery, the health of approx. 130000 inhabitants of Nyeri was increasingly exposed to great
risks and during heavy rainfall the growing ratios of diseases such as typhoid and diarrhea
clearly indicated worsening situation. Nyeri water & sanitation company limited (NYEWASCO)
owned by municipal council of Nyeri was incorporated on 23rd Sep 1997 and it’s largely
supported by cooperation through GTZ in its establishment. NYEWASCO provides water and
sewerage services to Nyeri residents. After substantial consolidation in its operations, also
supported by GTZ, NYEWASCO was well prepared to host important infrastructure
rehabilitation and expansion investments provided by German Financial cooperation.

Water treatment plant of a capacity of 21000m3/day was designed and constructed at Kamakwa
trading center in the western part of the Nyeri Municipality. This caters for current and future
water demands. This treatment plant comprises of chemical dosing building incorporating stilling
well and inlet works, flocculation basins (23mx19m), horizontal flow sedimentation tanks, rapid
gravity sand filters, filter gallery and pipe work, pumping station, reinforced concrete clear water
tank with a capacity of 5,000m3, chlorine dosing and pH correction room, backwash collection
pond and sludge drying beds, elevated steel tanks and an administrative building.

OBJECTIVES

General objectives

To access the quality of raw water relative to cost of treatment in NYEWASCO water treatment
plant, Nyeri county.

Specific objectives

 Identification of sampling point

  Test the turbidity and pH of raw water for a period of 60days
 To recommend both short term and long term solutions and operation and maintenance
alternatives aimed at improving the plants performance.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

Water is considered as the most essential element on earth for all kinds of living creatures to
maintain life. Provision of safe drinking water to the people is essential as up to 80% of all
sickness in the world is caused by poor sanitation or unavailability of safe water for domestic use
according to WHO. Treatment or purification of water is considered as a critical challenge
especially in developing countries since this treatment is essential facility to conserve the public
health and environment by eliminating waterborne diseases and pathogens.

The rapid population growth in Nyeri means increased human activities along rivers and water
catchment areas and an increased clean water demand. Nyeri also being in the highlands
experiences heavy rainfalls that in turn results in turbidity and pH values of the raw water being
affected and therefore large fluctuation in values. Fluctuation in values of these parameters
means supply of poor quality of water at times. This calls for high cost of treatment.

This study therefore will help assess the performance of NYEWASCO water treatment plant
using turbidity and pH of raw water relative to cost of treatment.

Limitation of the study

 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Water quality parameter

The water condition in terms of chemical, physical and biological characteristics, usually
concerning its suitability concerning a particular purpose (domestic or recreational purposes),
is described as water quality.

Water quality can be classified into raw and treated parameters(Yan et al., 2010). Whereas
raw water quality parameters determines the treatment procedures, the treated water quality
parameters assess the safety of use in river flow maintenance, drinking, industrial water
supply, water recreational, irrigation and many other services. This research discusses the
main parameters of raw water: Turbidity and pH.

2.1.1 Turbidity

This is the measure of relative clarity of a liquid. It is an optical characteristic of water and is
a measurement of amount of light that is scattered by material in water when a light is shined
through the water sample. Materials that cause water to be turbid include silt, clay, very tiny
inorganic and organic matter, algae, dissolved colored organic compounds and planktons and
other microscopic organisms(Janna, 2016).

Turbidity can indicate the presence of high bacteria levels, pathogens, or particles that can
shelter harmful organisms from disinfection processes. Turbidity can be used as a quality
control measure to monitor the efficiency of treatment(Gaya et al., 2017).

Factors that affect turbidity include natural factors and human factors.

Natural factors:

 Geology: types of materials in the area where the stream flows affects turbidity, eg banks with
loose soil will cause more erosion, hence more turbidity.
 Stream size: large rivers may have many microscopic plants that increase turbidity
 Seasonal weather: rainy seasons have high runoff which generally increases turbidity.
 Plant root systems: roots help hold soil in place and out of the river. Fires, floods, windstorms
and other natural events may take out this vegetation which would increase erosion and
turbidity.

Human factors:

 Bank stabilization
 Overgrazing
 Development
 Deepening and dredging channels

2.1.2 pH

This is a measure of how acidic or basic the water is. It is the measure of the relative amount
of free hydrogen and hydroxyl ions in the water. It is an important indicator of water that is
changing chemically(Gradilla-Hernández et al., 2020).

2.2 WATER CONVENTIONAL TREATMENT

Water treatment of any particular use entails a conventional method of two screening stages:
Raw water section( primary screening) and treated water section(secondary) (Geriesh et al.,
2019). Preliminary section entails two main parameters: turbidity and pH. While secondary
entails several other parameters: residual chlorine, electrical conductivity and oxygen
reduction potential.

Primary screening is the most fundamental stage as t determines the treatment process. The
amount of treatment chemicals input for coagulation, flocculation and sedimentation
procedures is determined by the measurement obtained from these two parameters(Bouaouine
et al., 2020). The most widely used coagulant is Aluminum Sulphate commonly referred to as
alum.
 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

3.1 INTRODUCTION

This section presents an overview of the method used in the study area and the various sources where
data will be obtained.

3.2 DATA COLLECTION

3.3

TURBIDITY

Regents and apparatus: water sample, nephelometer

Procedure: Nephelometric measurement procedure

i. Collect a representative sample in a clean container. Fill the sample cell to the line
( approximately 30ml). Take care to handle the sample cell by the top. Cap the sample
cell.
ii. Hold the sample cell by the cap, and wipe to remove water spots and fingerprints.
iii. Apply a thin bead of silicon oil from the top to the bottom-just to enough coat the cell
with a thin layer of oil. Using the oiling loth provided, spread the oil uniformly. Then
wipe off the excess. The cell should appear nearly dry with little or no visible oil.
iv. Place the sample cell in the instrument cell compartment, and close the cell cover
v. Insert the EPA filter, select manual or automatic ranging by pressing the RANGE key.
vi. Select the appropriate SIGNAL AVERAGE setting (on or off) by pressing the SIGNAL
AVG key.
vii. Select the appropriate ratio setting by pressing the RATIO key.
viii. Select the appropriate measurement unit (NTU, EBC or NEPH) by pressing the
UNITS/EXIT key.
ix. Read and record the results.

pH

Reagents and apparatus:

 REFERENCES

Bouaouine, O., Bourven, I., Khalil, F., & Baudu, M. (2020). Reuse of olive mill wastewater as a
bioflocculant for water treatment processes. Journal of Cleaner Production, 246.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.119031

Gaya, M. S., Zango, M. U., Yusuf, L. A., Mustapha, M., Muhammad, B., Sani, A., Tijjani, A.,
Wahab, N. A., & Khairi, M. T. M. (2017). Estimation of turbidity in water treatment plant
using hammerstein-wiener and neural network technique. Indonesian Journal of Electrical
Engineering and Computer Science, 5(3). https://doi.org/10.11591/ijeecs.v5.i3.pp666-672

Geriesh, M. H., Mansour, B. M. H., & Farouk, H. (2019). Assessment of drinking water quality
along Port Said Canal treatment plants, Suez Canal corridor, Egypt. Arabian Journal of
Geosciences, 12(23). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-019-4875-1

Gradilla-Hernández, M. S., de Anda, J., Garcia-Gonzalez, A., Meza-Rodríguez, D., Yebra Montes,
C., & Perfecto-Avalos, Y. (2020). Multivariate water quality analysis of Lake Cajititlán,
Mexico. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 192(1). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-
019-7972-4

Janna, H. (2016). Effectiveness of Using Natural Materials as a Coagulant for Reduction of Water
Turbidity in Water Treatment. World Journal of Engineering and Technology, 04(04).
https://doi.org/10.4236/wjet.2016.44050

Yan, H., Zou, Z., & Wang, H. (2010). Adaptive neuro fuzzy inference system for classification of
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