Development of A Water Supply Scheme with Reference to the Ampara Project

Every living creature needs clean and safe drinking water. How much do you need? It depends - your size, activity level and the weather, all make a difference. The water you drink is a combination of surface water and groundwater. Surface water includes rivers, lakes and reservoirs. Groundwater comes from underground. Presently it is hard to find clean supplies and water quality can vary from place to place. It depends on the condition of the source water and the treatment it receives. Treatment may include screening, filtering, chemical dosing, adding fluoride and chlorine to kill germs. There is no such thing as naturally pure water. Naturally, all water contains some impurities. As water flows in streams, sits in lakes, and filters through layers of soil and rock in the ground, it dissolves or absorbs the substances it touches. Some of these substances are harmless. In fact, some people prefer mineral water precisely because minerals give it an appealing taste. However, at certain levels, minerals, just like man-made chemicals, are considered contaminants that can make water unpalatable or even unsafe. Some contaminants come from erosion of natural rock formations. Other contaminants are substances discharged from factories, applied to farmlands or used by consumers in their homes and yards. Sources of contaminants might be in your neighborhood or might be many miles away. Therefore, in spite of its availability in abundance, water has to be treated for human consumption and this could be costly. Drinking water treatment plants, sewer lines, drinking water distribution lines, and storage facilities ensure protection of public health and the environment. As a nation, we have built an extensive network of infrastructure to provide the public with access to water and sanitation. Therefore it is a challenge for the engineer to design and construct feasible schemes keeping the cost to a minimum. In this project the designers have taken the challenge of designing most of the structures in nontraditional manner to expedite construction and to optimize the construction cost.