Turbidity In Water

existence of turbidity in water will affect its acceptability to consumers and it will also affect markedly its utility in certain industries (EPA, 2001). Turbidity has been used for many decades as an indicator of drinking water quality and as an indicator of the efficiency of drinking water coagulation and filtration processes (AWWA, 1999).

Depending on the water source, turbidity can be the most variable of the water quality parameters of concern in drinking water supplies (Crittenden et al., 2012). Turbidity measurements are useful for comparing different water sources or treatment facilities and are used for process control and regulatory compliance. Increases in turbidity measurements are often used as an indicator for increased concentrations

The excess nutrients available will encourage microbial breakdown, a process that requires dissolved oxygen. In addition, excess nutrients may result in algal growth. Although photosynthetic by day, algae respire at night, using valuable dissolved oxygen. Oxygen depletion adversely affects aquatic life and the concentration of dissolved oxygen is crucial to fish production, and fish kills often result from extensive oxygen depletion (Bitton, 2005). Nephelometer is the instrument that is used to measure turbidity and it gives stable readings in all sensitivity ranges (Crittenden et al., 2012). In lakes or reservoirs, turbidity is frequently stable over time and ranges from about 1 to 20 NTU, excluding storm events. Turbidity in rivers is

Increase in ions concentration enhances the electrical conductivity of water, and the conductivity of water is an expression of its ability to conduct an electric current. Generally, the amount of dissolved solids in water determines the electrical conductivity. Electrical conductivity (EC) is actually measures the ionic process of a solution that enables it to transmit current, and it is measured in micro-siemens per centimeter (μS/cm). According to WHO standards EC value should not exceeded 400 μS/cm (micro-siemens per centimeter) (Mohsin et al., 2013). It is related to the ionic content of the sample which is in turn a function of dissolved solids concentration, the relevance of easily performed conductivity measurements is apparent. In itself conductivity is an invaluable indicator of the range into which hardness and alkalinity values are likely to fall, and also of the order of the dissolved solids content of the water. While a certain proportion of the dissolved solids (for example, those which are of vegetable origin) will not be ionized and hence will not be reflected in the conductivity figures (Crittenden et al., 2012; Gorde & Jadhav,