Groundwater treatment in the Central Region of Saudi Arabia

✍ Scribed by Abdulrahman I. Abdula'aly; Ali Abdellatif Chammem

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1994
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 687 KB
• Volume: 96
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0011-9164
• DOI: 10.1016/0011-9164(94)85172-7

✦ Synopsis

Groundwater is the main supply of water used in the Central Region of Saudi Arabia. With the exception of the capital city Riyadh, major cities in the region depend entirely on treated groundwater for drinking purposes. The groundwater of the region is characterized by high levels of TDS, with calcium, chloride, sodium, and sulfate being the dominant ions.

Treatment of groundwater in three of the major cities of the region is accomplished in three reverse osmosis (RO) treatment plants. The capacity of these plants ranges from 8,700 to 51,000 m3/d. The plants serve the cities of Unayzah, Al-Zulfi, and Al-Majmaah with a population of nearly 150,000.

This paper intends to describe the RO water treatment plants in those three cities in terms of their operating process as well as performance. Information on ground and product water quality will be presented.