Assessment of river water quality improvement due to riverbank filtration (RBF) mechanism

Abstract

Abstract Riverbank filtration (RBF) is a natural process where river water is induced to flow through riverbed soils to pumping wells located on the banks. It is a well-established and proven natural water treatment technology by having a series of physical and chemical processes during subsurface passage. This paper aims at the measurement of physical and chemical characteristics of river water and groundwater from riverbank filtration wells at Kg. Jenderam Hilir, Selangor and to assess the effectiveness of riverbank filtration through Water Quality Index (WQI) for both river water and groundwater. The riverbank filtration is able to improve quality of water such as reducing the turbidity to 0 NTU, Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) to 3.67 mg/l, Suspended Solids (SS) to 6.33 mg/l and several other contents that existed in the river. In addition, the effectiveness of RBF is also proven based on the improvement of Water Quality Index (WQI) for Langat river from Class IV to Class III.