Looking for new horizons in water treatment at Thuruwila Lake

Even though, the developed countries have put a great attention on the formation of disinfection by-products in chlorinated water, the developing countries still have to play a significant role on this. Consequently, the consumers are at a hidden threat, which has to be exposed. This paper talks about the possibility for formation of by-products in water treatment systems in Sri Lanka, giving special attention on formation of Trihelomethane. The Thuruwila Water Treatment Plant has been designed to provide water for the Anuradhapura Township and its suburbs. Even though the plant is equipped with advance water treatment technology, it faces many complex issues which are common for all the treatment plants, extract raw water from lakes or tanks at tropical conditions. However, there are many possible ways of contamination due to many anthropogenic activities such as excessive use of agro-chemicals, improper settlements, etc. The chemicals, consist of nitrogen and phosphorous, provide appropriate conditions to toxic algae for blooming at dry zone temperatures. This results very complex situation in water bodies, leading unknown health effects at the end. The writers of this paper expect to review the capability of advance water treatment technologies in surface water treatment and make critical evaluation on the available water treatment options to open new directions, regard to more convenient and acceptable water related infrastructure development in dry zone of the country.