الرئاسة العامة للأرصاد و حماية البيئة

Fresh Water

Introduction

The survival of the human race depends mainly on its ability to manage natural resources, to utilize them as efficiently as possible and to protect them from deterioration.
Water is one of the most important natural resources that affect all the aspects of development. Given Saudi Arabia's limited resources of water, it has become imperative to protect the available water resources from pollution, Saudi Arabia Government, in cooperation with legislative bodies, has adopted several laws that address the protection of waterways and the safeguarding of their water quality.
The Presidency of Meteorology and Environment "PME" plays a major role in protecting the quality of water by obliging industrial and urban enterprises to treat the effluents resulting from (their production processes),and to prevent the drainage of such effluents
into waterways.
It is noteworthy that estimating the cost of maintaining water quality represented by pollution-preventing projects, the construction of sanitary and industrial drainage treatment plants and conducting periodic monitoring programs of water quality is a most difficult task. Also, the calculation of the return of providing an environment suitable for the growth and procreation of the various types of living organisms without damaging biological diversity, while guaranteeing water resources suitable for the existing and coming generations, is also a most tough objective. This is because certain factors do not have specific physical values. Nevertheless, the availability of information about cost and return are most important, since development in general dependant upon such data.

Water Sample Analysis

1. Chemical Analysis: Subdivided into analyses that specify the quality of water. These include:
Color, taste, smell, pH, electrical conductivity, turbidity level, suspended solids and dissolved solids (chlorides, sulphates, etc).

Pollution indicator analyses. These include:
The concentration of dissolved oxygen, biological oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), fully dissolved salts and nutrients (nitrates, nitrites, ammonia, organic nitrogen, phosphates and silicates).

Analyses for Monitoring Toxic Substances such as:
Phenol, cyanide, residues of pesticides, heavy metals and hydrocarbons.

2. Bacteriological Analyses: Bacteriological pollution resulting from pollution by sanitary drainage is measured, especially total coliform and fecal coliform bacteria.

3. Biological Inspection: A total count of algae is conducted, especially at the intakes of potable water purification plants.