What is wastewater treatment?
Wastewater treatment, also called “black water”, consists of reusing the water we consume so that, once it is purified again, it can serve as clean water or, at the very least, that it does not cause damage to flora and fauna. ,Because of the waste.
In this way, the most valuable and scarce resource available to us is reused and conserved.
How wastewater treatment works
Wastewater treatment works by passing “black water” through various processes that purify the liquid.
These are:
- A pre-treatment : where the residual water is filtered in order to eliminate the largest solid waste that the liquid may contain.
- Treatment for the elimination of sediments and solids in suspension of smaller size. This can be done by chemical or physical processes (such as leaving the water in tanks so that the floating sediments settle and can be easily removed). With this we proceed to the purification of any solid.
- Secondary treatment by biological methods . Here the wastewater comes into contact with biological matter that purifies the liquid. Activated sludge, biological filters, stabilization ponds and other methods are used in this phase.
- Tertiary treatment . Sometimes it is necessary to further purify the water, which is done in tertiary treatment. This involves disinfection, removal of detergents, algae, and other organic compounds that may still be present.
Once the water is passed through these treatments, it is carefully analyzed so that it can be used again with guarantees.
All these processes contribute to conserving and reusing water, and require specialized industrial facilities. However, we can also contribute to the treatment of wastewater at home, although this is a fairly unknown process.
Wastewater treatment at home
In our particular case, we can also do our bit in conserving water at home. For this, there are so-called systems of:
- Recycling of «gray water».
- Domestic wastewater treatment.
- Use of rainwater.
1. Treating greywater at home
Gray water is polluted water, but not as much as the black water we have seen before. In this case, they are those that come, for example, from showers and sinks. This water is not drinkable, but it can be used for some things, such as the bathroom cistern . In this way, we save drinking water and, incidentally, also consumption on the bill.
Greywater treatment systems can be installed by a plumber and allow recycling.
2. Treatment of domestic wastewater
Going one step further, a home can carry out a wastewater treatment similar to the industrial one we have seen, but on a smaller scale.
By using a home treatment plant, the water can be made drinkable again . This not only allows savings on the bill, but also a certain independence from the drinking water supply, for example, in the event of service outages.
3. The use of rainwater
Finally, in our home you can also install a rainwater harvesting system on our roof. Of course, it depends on the type of house we live in, but it is possible to collect, purify and use that rainwater at home.
As we can see, wastewater treatment is essential for the conservation of the environment, due to how scarce and how valuable this resource is.
With the incidence of climate change and the droughts that it brings, water management must be, more than ever, a central point on the agenda of governments, companies and individuals.
Especially in the driest areas, this procedure becomes essential, but it does not only exert the function of providing clean water again. The sewage treatment also has the mission that the water that is released again after use, does not harm in any way the flora and fauna of our environment