Sewage Waste

Management/Treatment
 Sewage
• This is mainly human  
waste matter
contaminating water.
Sewage contains harmful
bacteria, toxic chemicals
and nutrients such as
nitrates, and phosphates.
This can be very harmful
to the environment. It is
very important that
sewage be treated and the
pollutants be removed so
that this waste water can
be returned to the river
and water bodies.
Four steps are involved in sewage treatment:

• Preliminary treatment
• Primary treatment
• Secondary treatment
• Tertiary treatment
 Preliminary Treatment
• This begins with the removal
of large pieces of solids,
plastics, paper, wood and
rags by passing the sewage
through screens that trap the
solid matter. The solid matter
is collected and washed,
dried and taken away for safe
disposal at sanitized landfills.
Grit and sand is also
removed and also disposed
in a similar way.
 Primary Treatment
• The sewage water is then transferred into a settling
tank so that any solid debris that was small enough to
pass through the screens will settle out to the bottom
of the tank. The solid that settles out in the settling
tank is called sludge. The sludge can be used as
fertilizer on farmland after it is treated in oxygen-free
tanks called digesters and heated to around 45 ̊ C to
stimulate the growth of anaerobic bacteria, which
feeds on organic matter in the sludge. Methane is
often a byproduct of this digestive process.
 Secondary treatment
• This involves a biological process that uses naturally occurring
micro-organisms to break down the organic matter in the
sewage in order to “purify” it. The oxygen-using micro-
organisms are often grown on stones over which sewage is
trickled. The slow trickle aerates the sewage, therefore
providing oxygen needed by the micro-organisms to survive as
they feed on any remaining organic matter in the sewage. The
trickling filtration method described above can be speeded up
by blowing air into tanks of sewage where the micro-
organisms float freely and feed on the bacteria. The tanks
used are often referred to as aeration tanks. The waste water
is then settled into tanks to separate the biological sludge
from the purified water.
 Tertiary Treatment
• When the effluent needs further
purification before being released into the
environment the use of other purification
methods may include the use of ultraviolet
light to kill bacteria. The use of chemicals
to remove nutrients such as nitrates and
phosphates, which would otherwise result
in the eutrophication of water source, is
also done.
 Asynchronous
• Review the PPT on sewage
treatment.
• Complete missing assessments