Description: Publication date: Available online 26 October 2017 Source: Water Science Author(s): Mohamed Ahmed Saad ElFetyany The irrigation improvement program implemented by MWRI aimed to modernize Egypt’s irrigation system through improvement of infrastructure and establishment of Water Users Organizations WUOs. There is concern about the high cost of the IIP improvements, which has increased from about 2500 LE/fed in May 2000 to about 10,000 LE/fed May 2016. The concern focuses mainly on the mesqa improvement, which represents over 85% of the cost of the civil works. The modelling analysis discussed reducing mesqa design capacity (water duty), reducing the installed pump capacity, modifying the pump size, modifying the hydraulic design criteria, reducing the wall thickness of PVC pipes for pipeline mesqas, direct pumping of mesqa pipelines, and mesqa layout. Results show that using the revised approach brings down the cost of mesqa improvement from nearly 10,000LE/fed at present to about 6000LE/fed. These reductions based on the analyses of different mesqa modelling through the adoption of certain parameters such as feasibility of the revised design, effective application of continuous flow for water distribution, and downsizing of the capacity of improved mesqas.

Description: Publication date: Available online 22 July 2017 Source: Water Science Author(s): Michael Soakodan Aduah, Graham P.W. Jewitt, Michele L.Warburton Toucher Hydrological modelling is a challenge in the rainforest dominated Bonsa catchment (1482 km 2 ) in Ghana, West Africa, because of data scarcity and rapidly changing land uses. The objective of this study was to assess the suitability of the daily time step physical-conceptual ACRU model for hydrological modelling in the Bonsa catchment. Since the catchment is data poor, model calibration was conducted using a careful parameterization and sensitivity analysis, using initial values obtained from literature and field observations, as well as climate data for the period 1987–1999 and 1991 land use. The model performance during calibration and validation was satisfactory, with a monthly NSE of 0.6 and 0.5 and R 2 of 0.8 and 0.7, respectively. The model simulated the rise and the recession of the hydrograph well, but during the validation the accumulated monthly streamflows were underestimated by 10%. The main conclusion from this study is that the ACRU hydrological model is suitable for exploring basic hydrological responses to land use and climate in the Bonsa and similar catchments.

Description: Publication date: Available online 12 June 2017 Source: Water Science Author(s): Pankaj Kumar, Chander Kumar Singh, Chitresh Saraswat, Binaya Mishra, Tejal Sharma High fluoride (F − ) groundwater causes fluorosis which might at severe stages lead to deformation of bones, bilateral lameness. The concentration of F − ranged from 0.4 to 4.8 mg/L. This study suggests that high HCO 3 − and Na + in alkaline medium along with water–rock interaction plays important role in enrichment of F − in groundwater. Na-HCO 3 is the dominant water type followed by Ca-HCO 3 suggesting dominance of Na + , Ca 2+ and HCO 3 − ions in groundwater. Factor analysis of water quality parameters suggests that four principal components account for 74.66% of total variance in the dataset. Factor 1 shows higher positive loading for pH, HCO 3 − negative loading for F − , Ca 2+ , SO 4 2− depicting ion-exchange and HCO 3 dominant water type responsible for F enrichment in groundwater. Saturation index for selected minerals suggests that most of the samples are oversaturated with calcite and undersaturated with fluorite. Calcite precipitation leads to the removal of Ca 2+ from solution thus allowing more fluorite to dissolve. These released Ca 2+ ions combine with CO 3 2− ions to further enhance the precipitation of CaCO 3 .

Description: Publication date: Available online 12 June 2017 Source: Water Science Author(s): Anuradha Jabasingh S., Ravi T., Abubeker Yimam Magnetic materials have been extensively used for the extraction of heavy metal ions from contaminated aqueous streams. This inherent characteristic of the magnetic particles has received considerable attention in recent years. The external magnetic field employed in the sorption process overcomes many hindrances established during the application of conventional sorbents for metal ion removal. Recent studies illustrate the severity of arsenic toxicity to be a major environmental health hazard in the contaminated ground water. Available literature has been reviewed to highlight the problem, including its malignancies. Magnetic sorbents with demonstrated high specific surface area and specific affinity for metal ions have been exceedingly beneficial for removing the toxic arsenic ions. In addition to this, these sorbents have demonstrated a promising performance in practical applications also. This review paper aims to summarize the magnetic structures and all recent progress in the research of novel magnetic materials for arsenic removal making it a promising technique in the frame of engineering chemistry is showcased herein and reviewed scrupulously.

Description: Publication date: Available online 25 May 2017 Source: Water Science Author(s): Rameen AbdelHady In 2012, the Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy (MERE); began promoting the system of ‘Feed-in Tariff’ in billing. The introduced system allows the user to generate electricity through solar panels mounted on the roofs of residential buildings and governmental organizations and tied to the grid. To benefit from MERE’s approach, the National Water Research Center (NWRC) (Qanatir, Egypt) set up a pilot rooftop 91 kW PV system. All the generated electricity is fed into the 220 V, 50 Hz low voltage grid serving NWRC premises. In this manuscript a MATLAB Simulink model is constructed mimicking a detailed representation of the system tied either to the local low voltage grid or to the national high voltage grid. The aim of such modeling effort is to provide early evaluation of the system performance. The economical savings of both scenarios are compared based on the new billing system. Results show that the current system saves 100 thousand L.E./year, while tying the system to the national grid will save 235.8 thousand L.E./year.

Description: Publication date: Available online 25 May 2017 Source: Water Science Author(s): Aruna Jyothi Kora, Lori Rastogi, Sunil Jai Kumar, B.N. Jagatap Hussain Sagar is a man-made lake originally designed for drinking water purpose that receives domestic sewage and industrial effluents through drainage canals due to rapid residential and industrial growth. Also, every year thousands of idols are immersed into the lake during festivals. In this context, a comprehensive study was initiated for monitoring the lake water quality. Various physico-chemical parameters such as temperature, pH, EC, TDS, COD and chlorophyll a were analyzed using APHA standard methods Water was also monitored for heterotrophic bacteria, total coliforms, Escherichia coli and antibiotic resistant bacteria. The average values for heterotrophs were found to be 8.6 × 10 4 and 2.8 × 10 4 CFU/mL before and after idol immersion, respectively. While the average values for total coliforms and E. coli were 5 × 10 4 and 5 × 10 2 ; 1.2 × 10 4 and 7.2 × 10 1 CFU/mL, for the respective sampling periods. The mean values for ampicillin and gentamicin resistant bacteria were 5.9 × 10 3 and 6.9 × 10 2 ; and 2.2 × 10 3 and 5.4 × 10 2 CFU/mL, respectively. It was found that TDS, COD and chlorophyll a values were decreased after idol immersion due to extensive cleaning. The statistical results showed no correlation between faecal bacteria and physico-chemical parameters and one way-ANOVA indicated statistically significant differences between the mean values of different sampling locations, with respect to COD and E. coli at 95% confidence. However, enormous load of coliforms and E. coli indicated severe contamination of the lake with domestic sewage and human excreta. Thus, the water is not suitable for human consumption/drinking purpose. Notably, incidence of antibiotic resistant bacteria in lake water is a potential threat to both public health and the environment. Thus, regular monitoring and applying appropriate corrective actions are needed to improve the water quality.

Description: Publication date: Available online 20 April 2017 Source: Water Science Author(s): Parveen Sihag, N.K. Tiwari, Subodh Ranjan Infiltration models are very helpful in designing and evaluating surface irrigation systems. The main objective of the present work is estimation and inter-comparison of infiltration models which are used to evaluate the infiltration rates of National Institute of Technology (NIT)-campus in district of Kurukshetra, Haryana (India) and for this study, field infiltration tests were carried out at ten different locations comprising of 109 observations by use of double ring infiltrometer. The potential of three infiltration models (Kostiakov, Modified Kostiakov and US- Soil Conservation Service (SCS)) were evaluated by least–square fitting to observed infiltration data. Three statistical comparison criteria including maximum absolute error (MAE), Bias and root mean square error (RMSE) were used to determine the best performing infiltration models. In addition, a novel infiltration model was developed from field tests data using nonlinear regression modeling which suggests improved performance out of other three models. In case of nonexistence of observed infiltration data, this novel model can be used to artificially generate infiltration data for NIT campus.

Description: Publication date: Available online 18 April 2017 Source: Water Science Author(s): Richa Bhardwaj, Anshu Gupta, J.K. Garg The objective of the present study is to investigate the current status of heavy metal pollution in River Yamuna, Delhi stretch. The concentrations of Nickel, Cadmium, Chromium, Copper, Iron, Lead, and Zinc in water samples have been studied during December 2013–August 2015. The overall mean concentration of heavy metals was observed in the following order Fe > Cu > Zn > Ni > Cr > Pb > Cd. Correlation analysis formed two distinct groups of heavy metals highlighting similar sources. This was further corroborated by results from principal components analysis that showed similar grouping of heavy metals (Ni, Zn, Fe, Pb, Cd) into PC1 having one common source for these heavy metals and PC2 (Cu, Cr) having another common source. Further, our study pointed out two sites i.e. Najafgarh drain and Shahdara drain outlet in river Yamuna as the two potential sources responsible for the heavy metal contamination. Based on heavy metal pollution index value (1491.15), we concluded that our study area as a whole is critically polluted with heavy metals under study due to pollutant load from various anthropogenic activities.

Description: Publication date: Available online 15 April 2017 Source: Water Science Author(s): Swapan Kumar Maity, Ramkrishna Maiti The lower reach of the Rupnarayan River has been deteriorated and incapacitated due to continuous sedimentation (26.57 million m 3 shoaling in last 25 years). Attempts have been made to explain the causes and mechanisms of sedimentation in connection to the seasonal fluctuation of shear stress. River depth and water velocity was measured by echo-sounder and current meter respectively. Textural analysis of grains was done by sieving technique. Available and critical shear stress (N/m 2 ) have been calculated following Du Boys (1879), Shield (1936) and Van Ledden (2003) formula. The lack of available energy to transport a particular grain size during low tide (in dry season) is the main reason behind the rapid sedimentation in this area. Most of the places (>75%) having negative deviation of shear stress (available shear stress lesser than critical shear stress), during low tide are characterized by deposition of sediments. The presence of mud (silt and clay) above the critical limit (15%) in some of the sediment samples generates the cohesive property, restricts sediments entrainment and invites sedimentation.

Description: Publication date: Available online 14 April 2017 Source: Water Science Author(s): Vipin Kumar, Pawan Kumar Bharti, Meenu Talwar, Ajay K. Tyagi, Pamposh Kumar In India, the district of Moradabad lies between 28°21′ to 28°16′ north latitude and 78°4′ to 79° east longitude in western Uttar Pradesh. The city is known for its export of brass handicrafts to various countries across the world including North America and Europe and is also known as Peetal Nagri (Brass City). A field survey was conducted in district Moradabad along with a public interaction program on water related problems. A total of 108 representative villages covering all eight blocks of Moradabad district were visited and interactions were held with the local population to find out the status of drinking water quality and associated problems. The previous studies on surface and groundwater quality assessment of Moradabad district did not cover the entire area or present the water quality awareness amongst the local population despite of the repeatedly complains about the yellow colour of water. Water quality of surface and groundwater has been assessed with respect to metal concentration using ICP-OES technique. Out of the 64 water samples collected, copper, arsenic, lead and chromium concentrations were always within the permissible limits. While iron concentration, more than 50% of the samples were beyond permissible limit. Maximum iron level in groundwater sample was 3820 ppb and that in surface water sample was 6294 ppb whereas the permissible limit is 300 ppb. The overload of iron may cause severe health problems such as liver cancer, diabetes, cirrhosis of liver, diseases related to heart and central nervous system, infertility etc. The presence of high concentration of iron leads to adverse changes in colour, odour and taste of water and it also stains clothes and utensils. However, the local health authority's records are not available.