REPORT ON SITE VISIT Title Prepared by Matric No Prepared for Date : Ulu Kinta Water Treatment Plant : : : : 10 May

2012

On 9th May 2012, a site visit was conducted to Ulu Kinta Water Treatment Plant, Perak. The objectives of the site visit are to enhance the knowledge among students regarding the important water treatment process as well as to expose students to the operations and real work processes of water treatment. In the first part of visit, the students were being revealed with valuable information of the Sultan Azlan Dam construction by the operational engineer. In fact, the knowledge regarding construction processes, stage, structural material used, design criteria and requirement of the dam and others were successfully discussed in the brief. After that, the students were be introduced to the some main purposes of water treatment in Ulu Kinta water treatment plant that can be summarized to produce a supply of water that is chemically and bacteriologically safe for human consumption. Then, the students were be discussed and briefed by the operational engineer about the main water treatment processes involve for instance; Aeration, chemical mixing, flocculation, filtration, fluoridation, conditioning/PH correction, wash water/sludge removal and others. At the end of the brief, the students were given an opportunity to ask questions and discuss about each important elements in water treatment processes to operational engineer. This would provide students with in-depth understanding on the processes involved. After be informed and embedded with essential knowledge, theory and concepts, the group of students were allowed to observe lively of the each crucial treatment operation involved starting from the reservoir which impound supply water from Sungai Kinta to be treated of water catchment of 146 km2 with water storage of 29900 ML and free water surface of 101 ha. Next, next went to the Energy dissipaters which control the water energy, Aerator and static mixer where involves addition of potassium permanganate and chlorine. Then, the students were being guided to observe the flocculation and filter from which the wash water and sludge be removed by pushing out the water from the bottom filter. In filtered water channel, the treated water is added with specified amount of fluoride for healthy teeth growth purpose. Last but not least, the clear water was being stored in reservoir tank before it will be ready to be distributed to users.

INTRODUCTION Ulu Kinta Water Treatment Plant, Perak was establishing in 2009. The water treatment plant was design to treat raw water from the Sultan Azlan Shah Dam which is located 2km from the plant and the treat water will be delivering to Tasek, Tanah Hitam, Jalan Kuala Kangsar area and Tanjung Rambutan. Sultan Azlan Shah Dam could sustain 50MGD or (227.300m 3) per day with the capacity of water consume of 70,000m3 per day. Since the dam and the plant were situated in hilly area the delivery was done by the gravity. WATER TREATMENT PROCESS Raw water storage from (1) Sungai Kinta dam was transfer to the energy separator and being treated with pre lime and potassium permanganate. The purpose of this process is to reduce manganese and iron contents in the raw water, to make a Ph correction and to prepare the raw water for the process of coagulation and flocculation. Then the water was transferred to the (2) aerator. A cascades aerator has been used to develop a process of adding the oxygen into the water so that the water will be more palatable. Aeration will release carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulphates and also precipitation of metal form of iron and manganese thus minimizing odor, corrosiveness and color. (3)Coagulation and (4)flocculation process was then take place, coagulant such as alum is added to dissipate the small particle or known as colloid and other floating material from the water. A collection of colloidal particles held together is known as floc which has a little strength and a density close to the density of water. At the inlet distribution the polymer has been added to make the floc stick with each other and then form a larger floc. The larger flocs will be easily removed by sedimentation and filtration. The water is then injected with air bubble from the saturation system to push those flocs to the surface of water which is known as (5) DAF or Dissolved Air Floatation. (6) Rapid sand filter is used for the filtration process as it has higher filtration rate of 3 to 6 m/hour. Rapid sand filter consist of 4 layers of sand and rock, the uppermost layer consist of fine sand and also rough sand from 0.45-0.95 mm in size with a depth between 0.6 -1.0 m; the lower layer of gravel and cobbles or pebbles with from 3-50 mm with depth between 0.1-0.45 m. The rapid sand filter will trap and remove a small particle, carry over floc and micro-organism. Maintenance should be done after 24 48 hours of operating to maintain the water quality. The washing can be made when the head loss more than 2.5-3 m by using the filtered water. This process is called backwashing. There are 3 types of backwashing: using water only, air followed with water and finally combination of water and air to the filter layers. As for backwashing of air followed with water the air flow rate used is at 27-35 m3/hr/m2 for 4 minutes and water flow rate is at 45m3/hr/m2. The process is done when the backwash water reaching <5 NTUs. In the meantime, when the tank is full the floated flocs will form a sludge which will overflow to the sludge drain and to sludge lagoon. If the sludge is not too much and not dangerous to the aquatic life, it will be threw to the river while the contaminated sludge will be plant in the earth. The pre-treatment water will be transfer to the (7) filtered water channel. At this stage, the pre- water will be added with (8) post lime to correct the pH, chlorine within 1.52.5 ppm to kill the germ in the water and fluoride within 0.35-0.36 ppm to protect teeth. The treatment water will be kept in the (9) clear water tank. The full treatment water will be clarified to follow the standard requirements by Kementerian Kesihatan Malaysia (KKM)/ World Health Organization (WHO) before it was safely release or supply to the consumers.

TREATMENT PLANT PROCESS OVERVIEW