Waste Water Essay

1958 Words4 Pages

WHAT IS WASTEWATER? Wastewater is the combination of water-carried or liquid wastes starting in the sanitary conveniences of dwellings, industrial or commercial facilities. In addition to this, surface water, groundwater and storm water may also be present. It is any water that has been badly affected in quality by anthropogenic influence. It contains waste from residential, industrial and commercial processes. Municipal water contains industrial wastewater, sewage and gray water. Gray water is the water from sinks and showers. Large industries also produce wastewater. Wastewater can be a fancy term used for the water that has been adversely affected by human activity like dishwashing, fertilizing crops, bathing and flushing the toilet. . The above Pie-Chart shows the percentage of the contents of waste water. Wastewater mainly consists of the water wasted by toilet flushing which is highly contaminated with ammonia and urea. Secondly, the wastewater consists of water wasted by house cleaning which may consist of wastes like soaps and detergents. Thirdly, it consists of laundry waste and then there is wastage of water by bathing and kitchen use. WASTEWATER CONSTITUENTS: The contaminants may include: 1. Water (greater than 95 percent), added during flushing. 2. Non-pathogenic Bacteria. 3. Pathogens such as virus, bacteria, prions etc. 4. Soluble Organic material such as soluble proteins, fruit sugars etc. 5. Organic Particles such as food, paper fibers, plant material, vomit etc. 6. Soluble Inorganic material such as ammonia, cyanide, road salt etc. 7. Animals such as insects, arthropods, protozoa, small fish etc. 8. Gases such as methane, carbon-dioxide, hydrogen-sulfide. 9. Hormones. 10. Pharmaceuticals. 11. Macro-solids suc... ... middle of paper ... ...ends upon the oxygen affinity. Wetlands use secondary and tertiary steps to clean wastewater and also use chemical and physical processes.  Wetlands require less time and are also less expensive.  TERTIARY TREATMENT(ADVANCED) The terms secondary and primary treatment have been used to basically describe a degree of treatment; for example, biological wastewater treatment and settling. Tertiary treatment has been regarded as different from secondary and is the advanced one. It comprises of the use of sand filters to separate the solid particles from the wastewater. Tertiary treatment has also been regarded as the treatment involved to remove plant nutrients, primarily nitrogen and phosphorous. Improvement and upgrading of wastewater treatment processes and also the need to reduce the environmental factors make the use of tertiary wastewater treatment important.

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