Water Quality

Welcome to the Water Quality Team!

The overall objective of the water quality team is to design an efficient system which will keep the borehole water supply free of contamination.
 

Leader: Benjamin Finnegan, finnmccoy [at] gmail [dot] com (Registered for both EWB-USA and Mondialogo)

Representative: Brian Schaefer, bschaef2 [at] uiuc [dot] edu (Registered for Mondialogo)

Members: Claire Joseph, cjoseph2 [at] uiuc [dot] edu (Registered for both EWB-USA and Mondialogo)

                Martin Page, mapage [at] uiuc [dot] edu

                Nadja Serak, serak [at] uiuc [dot] edu

“Water is life” the Adu Achi Water Project Committee reminded the Engineers Without Borders team from the University of Illinois in Summer 2006.  As the Nigerians understand, clean water is essential for the health and economic development of any community.  Adu Achi currently has no improved water source.  We, as the water quality group aim to develop a sustainable water quality initiative in order to prevent waterborne disease and maintain a healthy community.

Water treatment is achieved through multi-barrier processes, which aim to effectively eliminate waterborne pathogens, contaminants, and suspended particles. Water quality is improved through various physical, chemical, and biological treatment processes which can be implemented on a large scale, such as in the developed world, or can be put in place at the point of use level in the developing world. 

Our primary goal was to provide a continuous source of water by extracting groundwater from an aquifer using a borehole.  Currently, we are also assessing the possibilities of implementing a point of use treatment strategy until the borehole can be constructed.  We hope to provide the residents the education and skill necessary for point of use treatment.  Once the borehole is constructed, we plan to install a tablet-fed chlorinator which applies a free-chlorine residual to the borehole water to effectively remove pathogens and ensure a safe residual for storage of drinking water. 

The project has involved design and cost considerations with the overall goal of improving the health of the Adu Achi community.  But it is crucial to consider the sustainability of our final design.  This is why we have reviewed several case studies of both centralized and point of use treatment initiatives in the developing world.  The results of this research have indicated that the system we plan to implement is effective in the short-term and the results seem promising for the long-term. 

Please follow the following links for more information: