Estimating The Amount of Total Dissolved Salts and Electrical Conductivity in The Water Produced from Well Water Desalination Plants Located within The Municipality of Tajoura

Abstract

Tajoura represents an example of the hardship that the people suffer in order to obtain safe drinking water. Commercial desalinated bottled drinking water shops have been spread intensely in recent years as one of the alternative solutions for the shortage of drinking water in the city of Tajoura. The source of this sold water may be a small desalination plant, works with reverse osmosis technology (RO), located inside the shop itself or transported in tanks from relatively large desalination plants that produce and sell desalinated water as a kind of commercial activity.

This study seeks to study some of chemical properties of water produced from well water desalination plants located within the municipality of Tajoura, and its contribution to the provision of potable water within the municipality. Through repeated field visits to these stations, a number of samples of produced water have been collected, and the amount of total dissolved salts has been measured, as well as conductivity and P^H at similar temperatures, using a device measuring conductivity and total dissolved salts. By getting three readings from each station, the average readings for each station can be calculated and this average used in calculating the general average for these samples, as the general average of the total amount of dissolved salts in all samples was (49.60) ppm, and this amount is considered very low. Water with low total dissolved solids may has a negative impact on the health of citizens. The general average of the conductivity was in the range of (91.71) microsimens/cm, while the general average of the P^H was in the range of (6.37).

It is recommended that the responsible authorities take actions regarding monitoring and evaluating the operating conditions of the local brackish water desalination plants, because of the quality of this water directly affects the health of citizens. The researchers also recommend the need to conduct other studies on this subject that are comprehensive for all the physical, chemical and biological properties of the water produced from these stations, depending on the sites that were identified in this study.