Supply network
Introduction
A drinking water supply network is a system of concatenated engineering works that allow drinking water to be brought to the homes of the inhabitants of a city, town or rural area with a relatively dense population.
Origin of water
Drinking water supply systems can be classified by the source of the water from which they are obtained:
Depending on the origin of the water, to transform it into drinking water it must be subjected to treatments, ranging from simple disinfection and filtration to desalination.
Components of the supply system
Contenido
El sistema de abastecimiento de agua potable más complejo, que es el que utiliza aguas superficiales, consta de cinco partes principales:.
Water collection
The collection of a spring must be done with great care, protecting the place of outcrop from possible contamination, delimiting a closed protection area.
The collection of surface water is done through intakes, in some cases filter galleries are used, parallel or perpendicular to the water course to capture the water that results in preliminary filtering.
Groundwater is collected through wells or filter galleries.
Raw water storage
The storage of raw water becomes necessary when the water source does not have a sufficient flow rate throughout the year to supply the necessary amount of water. To store water from rivers or streams that do not guarantee the necessary flow at all times, reservoirs are built.
In systems that use groundwater, the aquifer functions as a true storage tank, most of the time with natural recharge, however there are cases in which the recharge of the aquifers is done through special hydraulic works.