TITLE:
Demineralized Drinking Water in Local Reverse Osmosis Water Treatment Stations and the Potential Effect on Human Health
AUTHORS:
Hussein Janna, Mukhtar D. Abbas, Mukhlis H. Mojid
KEYWORDS:
Reverse Osmosis, Human Health, Water Treatment, Calcium and Magnesium, Al-Diwaniyah
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection,
Vol.4 No.2,
February
25,
2016
ABSTRACT: Water is important for life and its elements are
very useful for human body to some extent. Reverse Osmosis (RO) is a very
effective method in minimizing the concentrations of some elements in drinking
water treatment. Therefore, the goal of this study is to measure the
concentrations of some important parameters for human body and the role of
Reverse Osmosis (RO) method in the local drinking water treatment stations in
minimizing these constituents. This goal was achieved by comparing the effluent
of five local drinking water treatment stations that depends on Reverse Osmosis
as a primary treatment for the water produced from the Al-Diwaniyah water
treatment plant. These parameters are PH, EC, TDS, Ca, Mg, and TH. Therefore,
samples were collected and tested in Al-Qadisiyah Environmental Authority for
these local drinking water treatment stations for seven weeks, in order to
compare the effluent with the minimum concentrations required for human body
according to the health studies and guide lines. The results show that all the
drinking waters produced by these stations were below the WHO and Iraq
standards. The concentrations of Calcium were in the range from 5.3 to 25 mg/l,
while the concentrations of magnesium were in the range from 9.5 to 18.2 mg/l. Therefore,
drinking water produced from RO stations should be remineralised to increase
the concentrations of necessary constituents in order to minimize the risk of
the potential influence of low level concentrations containing calcium
carbonate or by adding calcium compounds to the water.