Waste Water Treatment

Wastewaters are waterborne solids and liquids discharged into sewers that represent the wastes of
community life. Wastewater includes dissolved and suspended organic solids, which are "putrescible" or
biologically decomposable. Two general categories of wastewaters, not entirely separable, are
recognized: domestic and industrial. Wastewater treatment is a process in which the solids in
wastewater are partially removed and partially changed by decomposition from highly complex,
putrescible, organic solids to mineral or relatively stable organic solids. Primary and secondary
treatment removes the majority of BOD and suspended solids found in wastewaters. However, in an
increasing number of cases this level of treatment has proved to be insufficient to protect the receiving
waters or to provide reusable water for industrial and/or domestic recycling. Thus, additional treatment
steps have been added to wastewater treatment plants to provide for further organic and solids
removals or to provide for removal of nutrients and/or toxic materials. There have been several new
developments in the water treatment field in the last years. Alternatives have presented themselves for
classical and conventional water treatment systems. Advanced wastewater treatments have become an
area of global focus as individuals, communities, industries and nations strive for ways to keep essential
resources available and suitable for use. Advanced wastewater treatment technology, coupled with
wastewater reduction and water recycling initiatives, offer hope of slowing, and perhaps halting, the
inevitable loss of usable water. Membrane technologies are well suited to the recycling and reuse of
waste water. Membranes can selectively separate components over a wide range of particle sizes and
molecular weights. Membrane technology has become a dignified separation technology over the past
decennia. The main force of membrane technology is the fact that it works without the addition of
chemicals, with relatively low energy use and easy and well-arranged process conduction. This paper
covers all advanced methods of wastewater treatments and reuse. (Sonune & Ghate, 2004)

A set of indicators that incorporate environmental, societal, and economic sustainability were
developed and used to investigate the sustainability of different wastewater treatment technologies, for
plant capacities of < 5 million gallons per day (MGD) or 18.9 × 103 cubic meters (m3 / day). The
technologies evaluated were mechanical (i.e., activated sludge with secondary treatment), lagoon
(facultative, anaerobic, and aerobic), and land treatment systems (e.g., slow rate irrigation, rapid
infiltration, and overland flow). The economic indicators selected were capital, operation and
management, and user costs because they determine the economic affordability of a particular
technology to a community. Environmental indicators include energy use, because it indirectly measures
resource utilization, and performance of the technology in removing conventional wastewater
constituents such as biochemical oxygen demand, ammonia nitrogen, phosphorus, and pathogens.
These indicators also determine the reuse potential of the treated wastewater. Societal indicators
capture cultural acceptance of the technology through public participation and also measure whether
there is improvement in the community from the specific technology through increased job
opportunities, better education, or an improved local environment. While selection of a set of indicators
is dependent on the geographic and demographic context of a particular community, the overall results
of this study show that there are varying degrees of sustainability with each treatment
technology.(Muga & Mihelcic, 2008)
ExperimThis research is concerned with study and check the suitability of waste stabilization ponds
(WSPs) for treating wastewater in Al-Dewaniyah province by taking a sample of community of 10000
population.ental work had three cases depending on many considerations such as economical and
specification of final effluent. A model of two ponds (facultative and aerobic) in series was used as first
case of experimental work. Then third pond with aeration process to aerobic pond were added to the
series as second case to improve the effluent. At last, sand filter was used to polish the final effluent
from aerobic pond. The three ponds had the same surface area (5.75m*2m) but with different depths,
where it was 2m for anaerobic pond, 1.5m for facultative pond and 0.75m for aerobic pond. From the
tests taken for the three cases, the results obtained for the last two cases were much better when
compared with first case. Sand filter contributed in improving final effluent by decreasing total
suspended solid (TSS) also in increasing removal efficiency of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and
chemical oxygen demand (COD). At the end, the results of this work could be an invitation to use waste
stabilization pond for wastewater treatment in rural areas or even small communities but it may need
more examinatThe qualities of the treated final effluents of a wastewater treatment plant located in a
rural community of the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa were assessed over the duration of 12
months. Parameters measured include pH, temperature, electrical conductivity, salinity, turbidity, total
dissolved solid, dissolved oxygen, chemical oxygen demand , nitrate, nitrite and orthophosphate levels
and these were simultaneously monitored in the treated final effluents and the receiving watersheds
using standard methods. Unacceptably, high levels of the assayed parameters were observed in many
cases for chemical oxygen demand (7.5-248.5 mg/L), nitrate (1.82-13.14 mg/L), nitrite (0.09-1.3 mg/L),
orthophosphate (0.07 -4.81 mg/L), dissolved oxygen (4.15-11.22 mg/L) and turbidity (3.68-159.06 NTU)
during the study period and are severally outside the compliance levels of the South African Guidelines
and World Health Organization tolerance limits for effluents intended for discharge through public
sewers into receiving watersheds. The study has revealed that there was an adverse impact on the
physico-chemical characteristics of the receiving watershed as a result of the discharge of inadequately
treated effluents from the wastewater treatment facility. This poses a health risk to several rural
communities which rely on the receiving water bodies primarily as their sources of domestic water.
There is need for the intervention of appropriate regulatory agencies to ensure production of high
quality treated final effluents by wastewater treatment facilities in rural communities of South
Africa.(Igbinosa & Okoh, 2009)

Discharge of untreated wastewater is one of the most general performances threatening the local
environment. Moreover, urban and rural regions are increasingly confronting challenges towards
managing access to clean water supplies. Contemporarily, the growing interest in development of green
buildings is observed while reflecting the necessity for creating environmentally responsive built
environments. The main purpose of sustainability in green buildings is to mitigate the negative impacts
of buildings and the respective lifecycle on the natural environment. It is essential to represent the
substantial impact of green building evaluations as an inherent part of future building policies for
creation of healthy living environments. Nevertheless, contemporary complex wastewater treatments
process requires significant energy resources resulting in elevated emission levels. Likewise, diverse
wastewater treatment practices may require considerable energy consumption deteriorating
sustainability provisions. Consequently, this article proposes utilization of hybrid membrane wastewater
treatment techniques to approach sustainable design of green built environments.(Rashidi et al., 2015)
 REFERENCES

Igbinosa, E. O., & Okoh, A. I. (2009). Impact of discharge wastewater effluents on the physico-chemical
qualities of a receiving watershed in a typical rural community. International Journal of
Environmental Science and Technology. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03327619
Muga, H. E., & Mihelcic, J. R. (2008). Sustainability of wastewater treatment technologies. Journal of
Environmental Management. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2007.03.008
Rashidi, H., Ghaffarianhoseini, A., Ghaffarianhoseini, A., Nik Sulaiman, N. M., Tookey, J., & Hashim, N. A.
(2015). Application of wastewater treatment in sustainable design of green built environments: A
review. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2015.04.104
Sonune, A., & Ghate, R. (2004). Developments in wastewater treatment methods. Desalination.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.desal.2004.06.113