Treatment of aricultural drainage water: technological schemes and financial indicators

Treatment and application of agricultural drainage water (ADW) has become mandatory to cope with the shortage of potable water. In Egypt, current water supply plans comprise increasing utilization of the ample resource of ADW. The current limitations facing wider utilization of secondary sources in general and, ADW of particular, need extensive funding requirements. Best available technologies and consequently high level of capital have been required to implement treatment works. This paper presents techno-economic aspects of treatment and reuse of polluted surface water resulting from mixing river water with ADW. Proposed technological treatment schemes are first discussed. Further, the selected integrated treatment scheme based on conventional and advanced physicochemical techniques is elucidated. Membrane separation has been incorporated to achieve removal of residual pollutants as well as salinity reduction. Further, the paper is concluded with a techno-economic assessment of the proposed treatment train for 110,000 m3/d treatment facility. The results indicate promising features of the proposed scheme. Complementary studies are needed to assess potential environmental impacts under normal conditions.