Weighted factors in groundwater treatment in Falcón state

Abstract

This research was based on applying the method of weighted factors to characterize a treatment scheme that allows adapting the characteristics of the groundwater of the Buchivacoa municipality. The laboratory analyzes showed that the wells have concentrations in different ranges of total dissolved solids, hardness, iron, manganese, and chlorides that are above the limit allowed by the Venezuelan standards. Likewise, the water from the wells is brackish. The different group sessions with the researchers and technicians of the municipal government of the Buchivacoa municipality allowed the weighting of the established factors for the selection of treatment processes and technologies, the established treatment scheme is contained in conventional and non-conventional purification processes: disinfection, filtration, softening, aeration, and desalination. The selected technologies that had the highest score when applying the method were softening with lime, pressure aeration-filtration, reverse osmosis and chlorination. It is recommended to validate the proposed treatment scheme on a pilot scale to certify the treatment processes and/or include other additional processes. Within the socio-economic implications, this research constitutes an essential contribution for the benefit of water consumers in the community and in other localities, which at the present time is being distributed in an unconventional way and whose sanitary prescription is not known.