Summer heat affects tap water production

This excerpt from today's Bangkok Post:

"In the Northeast, the summer heat has affected tap water production in Udon Thani.

Tap water has been contaminated with algae and more than 53,000 homeowners have been told the problem could last another week.

The provincial waterworks office said the dry season and strong sunlight had accelerated the growth of algae in raw water and contaminated tap water production.

The office had tweaked its production process to solve the problem."

The rest of the article is at bangkokpost.com/news/local/34225/water-shortage-crisis-worries-king-queen Include the www. at the beginning.

I don't understand at all as tap water producers are supposed to use Reverse Osmosis which cleans the water totally.

Then a solution of minerals/chemicals is added to make it tap water.

If they cannot even take care of algae growth I fear the quality of the tap water is not according to any standard as it seems they use raw water, which makes "tap water" the same as well water.

Joe

I don't think tap water necessarly goes through reverse osmosis. I really don't know crap about Thai municipal water treatment but I am guessing they are using chlorine sand/carbon filtration and permanganate. I always thought RO was mostly for salt water treatment or other specialty treatments. I almost never drink regular Thai tap water except when I let my standards slip when Im drinking booze, its funny how neither mess with you much after a while possible its the combo .

The 'water sales points' (the blue kiosks) that are dotted about town use Reverse Osmosis to clean the water sold - or so it says on the box. I am quite happy to buy & drink water from them (& have done so for a long time) I would nor purposely drink tap water in Udon - although I do use to clean my teeth.
My understanding is that Reverse Osmosis is quite a slow method of cleaning water and only recovers something like 50% of the treated water as a drinkable product.

BobHelm wrote:The 'water sales points' (the blue kiosks) that are dotted about town use Reverse Osmosis to clean the water sold - or so it says on the box. I am quite happy to buy & drink water from them (& have done so for a long time) I would nor purposely drink tap water in Udon - although I do use to clean my teeth.
My understanding is that Reverse Osmosis is quite a slow method of cleaning water and only recovers something like 50% of the treated water as a drinkable product.

Over here in the rural part of Udon province the water producers use RO. It takes out ALL contamination, salts, minerals and thus leaves a "dead" water. If you would measure conductivity it's zero.
In order to make this "dead" water tap water they add a solution of salts, minerals and bottle it.
No way algae can be found in this water so it is safe and drinkable. I usually mix it with soda water to have a little bubble effect

Perhaps Udon municipal water is left outside after (non RO) treatment and algae can grow in it?

Joe

I had heard that Udon plans to make the water from the municipal water system potable, but doubt they would use RO because RO is an expensive way to go. Usually sand filtering and the addition of chlorine or Chloramine is sufficient, according to my limited understanding.

However, having said that, i doubt they have had time to implement the improvements, and even if they did, there is plenty of filthy sludge and suspended matter in the system. Over here, on the East side of the Ring Road, because of some expansion of the water system, a huge amount of soil got into the water system -tap water came out of the tap brown. Most of us had to purge our water tanks and clean out as much as possible, but there is still a lot of silt in my tank as well as in the pipes. Perhaps if they were to run chlorinated water through the system for a few months, it would kill off any living organisms.

In the mean time, the ceramic water filter, which use to require weekly cleaning to maintain sufficient production for the family is now cleaned daily because of the increased rate of scum build-up.

Am i complaining? Yes.

Ro water is relatively expensive. In most countries, tap water is created by treating water by means of settlement, filtration and 'sterilization'. All these techniques depend on a compromise between cost, speed and safety. I will ignore well water, which is hopefully somewhat cleaner to start with.

First, settlement: the water is abstracted from a reservoir or river and depending on its level of suspended solids, may spend a period in a reservoir or holding pond to allow some of these solids to settle; sometimes river water is held in large reservoirs for some time to allow pollution and infectious organisms to naturally decline. Second water from the holding ponds is filtered; these filters can be high tech strainers (a bit like giant flour sieves, but finer), or sand, either coarse or fine. Coarse sand filters much faster but not as well as fine sand. After filtering, water is 'sterilized'; either chemicals or UV can be used, but this does not produce water with no bugs, just an 'acceptable' level. Other chemical treatments may be used to help settle solids or change the water chemistry.

Ok, that is how your town water is produced in many parts of the world. I suspect that Udons problem is that due to increased demand the process is being speeded up, and algae which should be settled/filtered is getting through; there could also be an algal bloom in the water source. It is a compromise, do you want people complaining they have no water at all or do you accept a higher level of complaints about the quality of the water?