The objective of this dissertation is to identify and evaluate treatment objectives for electro-chlorination as an alternative to commonly applied oxidant dosing. The aim is to develop a simpler and more reliable method for oxidization whenever required to assure long term safe supply of drinking water in rural areas. This shall also include an evaluation of its technical and economic feasibility under different source water conditions.

The focus of the utilization of the oxidant produced will be put on

1. The disinfection of the water and
2. The removal of dissolved and suspended solids, which are of common concern in off-grid water treatment such as iron, arsenic and manganese.

As described above, the adjustment of redox conditions alone can generally be only one out of several required treatment steps. In order to allow a larger area of application the electro-chlorination process shall be combinable with different pre- and post-treatment steps:

1. Prior to active oxidant/chlorine production:
2. Riverbank Filtration (RBF) and Soil Aquifer Treatment (SAT)
3. Media and membrane filtration

for turbidity/ particle removal and partly disinfection

1. After oxidant/chlorine production:
   1. Media filtration using e.g. GSP and AFM

for iron, manganese and arsenic removal

All pre-and post-treatments steps are widely accepted treatment technologies.

Along this dissertation work electro-chlorination will be combined for the first time with these treatment steps. Treatment performance will be evaluated under given conditions using WHO guidelines. In some of the settings no sufficient background chloride concentration may be available or higher chlorine concentrations are required to achieve treatment targets. Due to that, operational strategies for low chloride/high chlorine regimes will also be developed. It is expected that electro-chlorination, in combination with these processes, allows that a multitude of water quality challenges can be specifically addressed. Positive performance data may allow that electro-chlorination becomes an alternative treatment step for rural water supply systems in the future.