Complex use of resources in the regional water supply systems. Regional water supply systems have expanded the range from county to regional level. These are complex works meant to serve the customers from several counties. Viable sources of underground water have become lower in number, quality and volume, due to pollution. Also, the quality indicators of surface water have downgraded because of the pollution. This paper will analyze a typical case of regional system, the water supply system of Iasi, which lately has expanded on the territory of three counties: Iasi, Botosani and Vaslui. This system takes water from underground and surface sources

F. TĂMĂŞANU

S. A. ALEXANDRESCU

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 526COMPLEX USE OF RESOURCES IN THE REGIONAL WATER SUPPLY SYSTEMS   S. A. ALEXANDRESCU1, F. TĂMĂùANU2    ABSTRACT. – Complex use of resources in the regional water supply systems.  Regional water supply systems have expanded the range from county to regional level. These are complex works meant to serve the customers from several counties. Viable sources of underground water have become lower in number, quality and volume, due to pollution. Also, the quality indicators of surface water have downgraded because of the pollution. This paper will analyze a typical case of regional system, the water supply system of Iasi, which lately has expanded on the territory of three counties: Iasi, Botosani and Vaslui. This system takes water from underground and surface sources.   Keywords: surface source, underground, complex usage, maintaining water quality.    1. INTRODUCTION   Water is very important because it takes part in almost all of the processes that form and shape the Earth. Also, the water is essential to support all ecosystems (Lerner and Lerner, 2005). Everyone must have access to clean water for drinking, hygiene and energy production. In order to satisfy these basic needs, the water supply should be done in plentiful quantities, with reasonable costs and in harmony with nature (Gabor and Tecuci, 2005).  Water is the subject of numerous treaties, laws and agreements between nations, states and communities. Because water is an increasingly important resource, there are often complex political and legal issues regarding the use of water. There have been many wars and court cases over who owns a body of water, who has a right to use it, how water should be divided and used among those who claim it (Lerner and Lerner, 2005).  After income, the availability of water ranks as the second most important factor in surveying the welfare of different countries. The lack of water, of satisfactory quality and quantity, is a major factor in poverty, disease, economic development and in geopolitical conflict (Hoffmann, 2009).  To illustrate the differences in the distribution of water to people who live in various parts of the world, in figure 1 is shown the average water use per person in one day in 2006, for some of world’s countries.                                                    1  "Gheorghe Asachi" Technical University, Faculty of Hydrotechnics, Geodesic and Environmental Engineering,  700050 Iasi, Romania, e-mail: alexandrescuadina@yahoo.com 2  "Gheorghe Asachi" Technical University, Faculty of Hydrotechnics, Geodesic and Environmental Engineering,  700050 Iasi, Romania, e-mail: tamasanufabian@yahoo.com  527 Fig. 1. Average water use per person per day     „Water business is the third largest industry in the world, behind oil and gas production and electricity generation. Water is transitioning to an economic good, but it is also a resource with paramount ecological significance” (Hoffmann, 2009). At this stage it is necessary to change the attitude toward water. It must be considered a raw material that includes a lot of energy and it must be managed with the same care as other energy-intensive raw materials (Sarbu, 1997).  To ensure a sufficient water supply and to meet the needs of people throughout the world, long term plans must be created for the conservation of water sources and to improve their quality (Lerner and Lerner, 2005).  This paper aims to present the evolution of water quality from the river basins located in Iasi County, in recent years. It will also describe the regional water supply system of Iasi County, how it has been extended, and the variation of water quantity distributed to population and industry, in the last few years.   2. EVOLUTION OF WATER QUALITY IN SIRET AND PRUT RIVER BASINS   The report on water quality in Romania during 2009 states: “water quality in Romania is monitored according to the methodological principles of Integrated Monitoring System in Romania, restructured in accordance with the requirements of European Directives”. Figure 2 illustrates the variation of surface water quality in Romania in recent years. Compared with the water situation in 2005, in 2009 has been a considerable improvement in its quality. Depending on their quality, there are assigned categories of quality to surface waters according to Order no. 161 of  52816 February 2006. The 1st category means that water quality is very good, and the 5th category means that water quality is the worst.    Fig. 2. Evolution of surface water overall quality in Romania   Figures 3 and 4 present the evolution of water quality of Siret and Prut river basins (r.b.). It may be noted that in Siret r.b., water quality remains relatively constant between 2004 and 2009, with an improvement in 2006. But in Prut r.b., surface water quality has increased in recent years.    Fig. 3. Variation of surface water quality in Siret r.b.    Fig. 4. Variation of surface water quality in Prut r.b.   529Water quality variations of Siret (Lespezi), Moldova (Timisesti) and Prut Rivers, in recent years is shown in Figures 5, 6 and 7. On Siret (Lespezi), the monitored river length has increased by 23 km in 2009. There is a general tendency to improve its water quality in recent years. Moldova (Timisesti) maintains good water quality in the last three years (Category I). The monitored length of rivers from Prut r.b. in Iasi County has increased by 303 km. In this case there is an improvement of water quality.   Fig. 5. Evolution of surface water quality in Siret (Lespezi), Iasi County      Fig. 6. Evolution of surface water quality in Moldova (Timisesti), Iasi County      Fig. 7. Evolution of surface water quality in Prut r.b., Iasi County   530On the Romanian territory there are 142 groundwater bodies. These can be classified according to quantitative and chemical status in two grades: good and poor. According to the report on Romania’s water quality in 2009, to assess groundwater chemical status, the concentrations determined in the established monitoring points are compared with the threshold values. To do this, the following indicators must be measured: NO2, NH4, chlorides, sulfides, lead, cadmium, mercury, arsenic, etc., where appropriate, for each body of water considered.  To highlight how groundwater quality has evolved in the country in recent years, there are presented as a percentage from total number of stations monitored the cases where they have exceeded the permitted maximum thresholds for nitrates, phosphates, organic substances and ammonium (Figure 8). From this one can be deduced that from 2005 until 2009, the amount of organic substances and ammonium in groundwater has declined significantly.      Fig. 8. Evolution of underground water quality from Romania   Qualitative and quantitative assessment of water bodies made in 2009 for river basins of the Siret and Prut rivers has led to the following conclusions: in Siret r.b. 5 out of 6 bodies of water and in Prut r.b. 5 out of 7 bodies of water were in good condition.  Among the causes of groundwater contamination there are mentioned the surface water pollution, excessive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides in agriculture, lack of sanitary facilities in some regions and poor operation of irrigation systems. These and many others must be prevented and combated in the future, to ensure a good quality groundwater.  Romania must reach by 2015, a good water quality, according to the commitments with the European Union. This means that all water bodies form the Romanian territory must be at least in the 2nd quality category by 2015.   5313. REGIONAL WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM OF IASI COUNTY   "The county strategy for accelerating development of public utilities services" on 2010 stated that the regional water supply system distributes water to people and industry from Iasi County in all 5 cities and in 47 out of the 93 villages. The main sources of Iasi water supply system are the groundwater and river water, collected near Timisesti village, from Moldova River, the Prut River which supplies the cities of Iasi, Targu Frumos and Podu Iloaiei, water boreholes from Motca for Pascani city and Lake Parcovaci for Harlau.  Timisesti intake is made of two drains located in the lower terrace from the right bank of Moldova River, upstream from Timisesti village. The old drain is a 900/1200 ovoid of 1631 m length and nominal flow rate of 300 l/s. The new drain is a visitable gallery of 1250X2800 section, 4000 m length and with the nominal flow rate of 1200 l/s. Another groundwater intake is represented by the 20 boreholes drilled along a length of 4000 m located near the town Verseni. Water catchment from Prut River is realized by pumping the water from two caissons, near Tutora village.  Water is transported from Timisesti intakes to the city of Iasi by two adductions and from Tutora water catchment by 5 pipelines which feed Chirita Lake and the water treatment complex Sorogari. The water supply system has 8 water treatment plants: Moldova and Chirita which are cleaning the water for Iasi, Targu Frumos, Podu Iloaiei cities, Harlau water treatment plant for the town with the same name and other plants which treat water for the water supply systems of Belcesti, Gorban, Tibanesti, Victoria and Vladeni. In figure 9 is illustrated the water supply system of Iasi County.      Fig. 9. Water supply system of Iasi County   From 2000 to 2009, the length of Iasi County water supply network had been increased from 832.9 km to 1433.89 km. Also, from only 16 villages supplied in 2000, 158 villages were being supplied in 2009. In 2010, 372000 out of 814000  532inhabitants were connected to the water network. However, the volume of water distributed has decreased from 52066620 m3 in 2006 to 25700300 m3 in 2009.  "County strategy for accelerating the development of public utilities services of Iasi" for 2010 states that “in 72 out of 93 villages the nitrate level measured in public wells is above the legal limits. In order to conform to the water supply regulations, all these villages must have adequate water supply systems by 2015”. Thus, it is required that the regional water supply system of Iasi County to be extended.   4. CONCLUSIONS   In general, Romania’s water quality, the groundwater and the surface water, has improved in recent years. But, in order to comply with the European Union’s regulations, all water bodies form the Romanian territory must be at least in the 2nd quality category by 2015.  Although the regional water supply system has been expanded, the volume of distributed water is lower than in previous years.  To comply with regulations on water supply, all villages where the nitrate level measured in public wells is above the legal limits must have water supply systems by 2015.    REFERENCES  1.  Gabor, O., Tecuci, I. (2005), Calitatea apelor-problemă esenĠială a secolului XXI, Revista Hidrotehnica. Vol. 50, Nr. 2-3, 20-31.  2.  Hoffmann, S.J. (2009), Planet Water Investing in the World’s Most Valuable Resource. Ed. John Wiley & Sons, Inc, SUA.  3.  Lerner, L., Lerner, B.W. (2005), Encyclopedia of water science Volume 1. Ed. Thomson Gale, SUA.  4.  Sârbu, I. (1997), Optimizarea energetică a sistemelor de distribuĠie a apei. Ed. Academiei Române, Bucureúti.  5.  ***(2010),  Strategia judeĠeană privind accelerarea dezvoltării serviciilor comunitare de utilităĠi publice Iaúi.  6.  ***(2006) Ordin nr. 161 din 16 februarie 2006 pentru aprobarea Normativului privind clasificarea calitatii apelor de suprafata in vederea stabilirii starii ecologice a corpurilor de apa.  7.  http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/HDR06-complete.pdf accesat în data de Februarie, 01, 2011. 8.  http://www.mmediu.ro/gospodarirea_apelor/rapoarte_ape.htm accesat în data de Februarie, 02, 2011.  9.  http://apmis.anpm.ro/files/APM%20Iasi/Rapoarte%20anuale/ accesat în data de Februarie, 02, 2011.  10.  http://www.apavital.ro/ accesat în data de Februarie, 02, 2011.   This paper was supported by the project: "Studii doctorale pentru performante europene in cercetare si inovare (CUANTUMDOC)" ID 79407.  

COMPLEX USE OF RESOURCES IN THE REGIONAL WATER SUPPLY SYSTEMS

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