A Model for Quantitative Performance Evaluation of Water Treatment Plants

Nowadays at the same time with population growth in urban areas, healthy potable water supply has become a challenge especially in  arid and semi-aris countries who intend to fulfil a sustainable development. Due to the increasing importance of water treatment and its key role throughout the world, improvement of water treatment plants is becoming more visible. In this research, the criteria and effective factors influencing the quantitative performance evaluation of three treatment plants were investigated using AHP approach.   The three treatment plants used in this study were selected from three provences in Iran including  Hamedan, Ilam and Kermanshah. The  model performance were quantitatively evaluated by using  the physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of effluent data. Model performance evaluation revealed that E. Coli; turbidity;  ammonia, nitrate and nitrite is most important microbilogical, physical, and chemical water quality parameters when assessing the performance of effluent quality of treatment plants. Based on the the evaluated results, the performance of treatment plants in Kermanshah was better than the other two treatment plants. It will also be equaliy important to indicate that if any of the treatment plants met the effluent standards set by the Iranian authorities.