Low cost water treatment in Malaysia: advanced design of River Bed Filtration

In a developing countries there are growing challenges for providing water supply of good quality, towards compliance with the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals. This is attributed to rising water demand (population and industry), increasing runoff pollution and unaffordable treatment costs. As utility companies are finding that surface water supplies are susceptible to contamination/pollution, they are increasingly developing River Bank Filtration (RBF). This method uses river bank sediments (sands and gravels) to naturally filter river water of particulates and contaminants prior to distribution or further treatment. However, RBF is still considered a “new” technology where research is urgently needed towards low-cost improvements in design efficiency.

Heriot-Watt University has been actively working in Malaysia to design, construct and monitor RBF systems. This research has identified the potential for (pre-)filtration efficiencies to vary with changing river levels and flows (including flood risk). The PhD project advertised will address this knowledge gap, via physical (lab-based) tracer studies to analyse permeability and efficiency of RBF under a range of flow and sediment scenarios. Results will be compared with available data from field sites in Malaysia and there is opportunity to expand analysis into numerical/computational study.

This work will indirectly benefit from collaboration with Air Kelantan Sdn Bhd, Malaysia and our current work funded by the British Council Newton Link.