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Water Conservation and Wastewater Treatment
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Water plays a vital role in sustaining life. From personal hygiene to agriculture, this precious resource is essential for survival, emphasizing the need for conservation.
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How can wastewater treatment contribute to clean water access?
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- Basic Requirement: Clean Water Access: Clean water is a basic need of human beings.
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- It has been reported that more than one billion people have no access to safe drinking water.
- This accounts for a large number of water-related diseases and even deaths.
- Ensure Availability: Impact on Human Dignity: People, even children, walk for several kilometres to collect clean water.
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- It is a serious matter that affects human dignity.
- Factors Responsible: Population Growth, Pollution, etc.: There is increasing scarcity of fresh-water due to population growth, pollution, industrial development, mismanagement and other factors.
- United Nations Resolution: International Decade for ‘Water for Life’ (2005–2015): On 22 March 2005, the General Assembly of the United Nations (UNGA) proclaimed the period 2005–2015 as the International Decade for action on “Water for Life”.
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- All efforts made during this decade aim to reduce by half the number of people who do not have access to safe drinking water.
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How does wastewater treatment contribute to sustainable water management?
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- Meaning: Wastewater is dirty water that is rich in lather, mixed with oil, and black or brown in colour.
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- It flows down the drains from sinks, showers, toilets, and laundries.
- Utility: Reusing wastewater can save on water-use and reduce the use of clean drinking water for uses such as gardens and toilets.
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How is wastewater treatment changing in response to sewage issues?
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- Sewage Treatment: Significance of Wastewater Treatment This is the process of wastewater treatment.
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- Cleaning of wastewater involves removing pollutants before it enters a water body or is reused.
- Origins of Sewage from Diverse Urban Sources: It is wastewater released by homes, industries, hospitals, offices and other users.
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- It also includes rainwater that has run down the street during a storm or heavy rain.
- Intricate Mix of Elements in Sewage Waste: Sewage is a liquid waste.
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- Most of it is water, which has a complex mixture of suspended solids, organic and inorganic impurities, nutrients, saprophytes and disease causing bacteria and other microbes.
- These include the following:
- Organic Impurities –Human faeces, animal waste, oil, urea (urine), pesticides, herbicides, fruit and vegetable waste, etc.
- Inorganic Impurities – Nitrates, Phosphates, metals.
- Nutrients – Phosphorus and Nitrogen.
- Bacteria – Such as vibrio cholera which causes cholera and salmonella paratyphi which causes typhoid.
- Other Microbes – Such as protozoans which cause dysentery.
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Clearing the Currents: Wastewater Treatment processes and Sustainable By-products
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- Removal of Contamination: Triple action in Wastewater treatment processes: Treatment of wastewater involves physical, chemical, and biological processes, which remove physical, chemical and biological matter that contaminate the water.
- Bar Screens in action for cleaner wastewater: Wastewater is passed through bar screens.
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- By doing so large objects like rags, sticks, cans, plastic packets, and napkins are removed.
- Water then goes to a grit and sand removal tank.
- The speed of the incoming wastewater is decreased to allow sand, grit and pebbles to settle down.
- The water is then allowed to settle in a large tank which is sloped towards the middle.
- Solids like faeces settle at the bottom and are removed with a scraper.
- This is the sludge.
- A skimmer removes the floatable solids like oil and grease. Water that is cleared is called clarified water.
- Air is pumped into the clarified water to help aerobic bacteria to grow.
- Bacteria consume human waste, food waste, soaps and other unwanted matter still remaining in clarified water
- After several hours, the suspended microbes settle at the bottom of the tank as activated sludge.
- The water is then removed from the top.
- The activated sludge is about 97% water.
- The water is removed by sand drying beds or machines.
- Dried sludge is used as manure, returning organic matter and nutrients to the soil.
- The treated water has a very low level of organic material and suspended matter.
- It is discharged into a sea, a river or into the ground.
- By-products of wastewater treatment are sludge and biogas.
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Sanitation challenges and waterborne diseases in India’s rural landscape
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- Poor sanitation and contaminated drinking water is the cause of a large number of diseases.
- The WHO-UNICEF data shows at least one-sixth of India’s rural population still defecates in the open and a quarter doesn’t have even basic sanitation access.
- Open defecation is an important issue because untreated human excreta is a health hazard.
- It may cause water pollution and soil pollution.
- Both the surface water and groundwater get polluted.
- It becomes the most common route for water borne diseases.
- They include cholera, typhoid, polio, meningitis, hepatitis and dysentery.
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Can On-Site solutions and Swachh Bharat mission revolutionize sanitation with wastewater treatment?
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- Waste generation is a natural part of human activity. But we can limit the type of waste and quantity of waste produced.
- To improve sanitation, low cost onsite sewage disposal systems, such as septic tanks, chemical toilets, composting pits.
- Septic tanks are suitable for places where there is no sewerage system.
- Some organisations offer hygienic on-site human waste disposal technology.
- These toilets do not require scavenging.
- Excreta from the toilet seats flow through covered drains into a Biogas plant.
- The Biogas produced is used as a source of energy.
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Public Spaces with Hygiene and Wastewater treatment initiatives
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- Thousands of people visit the public space daily and a large amount of waste is generated there.
- Cleanliness and hygiene should be maintained in these facilities.
- Adequate number of toilets equipped with handwashing facilities and soap is a must.
- Adopting Behavioral Practices to Promote a Culture of Cleanliness and Health: We all have a role to play in keeping our environment clean and healthy. Adopting good sanitation practices should be our way of life.
- As an agent of change your individual initiative will make a great difference. Influence others with your energy, ideas and optimism. A lot can be done if people work together. There is great power in collective action.
- There should be an adequate number of dustbins.
- Posters, hoardings, and other forms of advertising in public places should promote health and hygiene in an appealing and simple manner.
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