Water monitoring and treatment for drinking purposes in 2004 tsunami affected area – Ban Nam Khem, Phang Nga, Thailand

University of Brescia and Mahidol University
of Bangkok developed a project in Phang Nga province
(Thailand), the most damaged by 2004 tsunami. In
particular, the study, performed between April and May
2006, dealt with the surface and ground water monitoring
in Ban Nam Khem village and the experimental
evaluation of possible drinking treatment alternatives.
The monitoring highlighted that saline content in the
tsunami affected area is decreasing but still very high
(conductivity presented values up to 2,600 and
6,230 μS/cm in ground and surface water, respectively);
hence, advanced and complicated processes such as
reverse osmosis should be adopted to treat suchwater for
drinking purposes. Waiting for ground water salinity to
assume acceptable values, activities for the reduction of
its organic and microbiological contamination will be
started. However, it has to be underlined that the
diffusion of drinking water to a greater part of
population can be obtained only through the realization
of new centralised treatment plants and the
improvement of existing ones (serving at the moment
about 20% of inhabitants).