Estimation of Optimum Alum Doses of Mountain Water for Water Supply Treatment in Hill Tribe Villages in Chiang Rai Province, Thailand

Abstract

Suntorn Sudsandee and Natthathida Patthanacheroen

Hill tribe villages are located in mountainous and remote areas. Primary water supply and drinking water sources are mountain water from a small weir on the mountain. Most mountain waters found turbidity higher than 1 NTU, and water quality was unclean to use and drink. This research applied different concentrations of alum doses to observe turbidity reduction. Optimum alum does apply to reduce turbidity for mountain water samples from Hmong, Karen, Lahu, and Lisu for three seasons.

The optimum alum dose is between 20 - 40 mg/l in rainy seasons and 10 – 40 mg/l in summer. The cold season was low optimum alum dose at 10 mg/l for all hill tribe villages. Therefore, alum coagulants can be used to treat the mountain water supply and drinking that can implement the main problem of mountain water in hill tribe village.

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