Is the recycling of purified water from the Ain El Arbaa region for agricultural purposes possible?

Abstract

The region of Ain El Arbaa, like all Algerian municipalities, suffers from a water shortage crisis. The main objective of this work is to investigate the possibility of reusing treated water from the region. For this purpose, we have examined the quality of the water treated by the D'Ain El Arbaa treatment plant. The analyzes carried out on the incoming sewage and outgoing waste water from the lagoon focused on the following parameters: (pH, total suspended solids (TSS), biological oxygen demand (BOD5), chemical oxygen demand (COD), NH4, electrical conductivity). This during the period from January 2021 to May 2021 with a sampling frequency of twice a month. The results obtained show that this purification process using two sectors (pre-treatment, secondary treatment) is insufficient and does not meet the quality standards required for agricultural use for the parameters: TSS, COD, and electrical conductivity. For the preservation of the receiving environment, the results did not comply with the standards for the parameters TSS, DOC, NH4. The abatement yields of the lagoon treatment plant studied were average for all the parameters studied. So according to this work we can conclude that natural lagooning alone is not sufficient to have purified water that complies neither with the quality required for agricultural reuse, nor with the quality required for discharge into the natural environment. Then the addition of a complementary tertiary treatment, such as filter basins planted with macrophytes is necessary.