Sources of wastewater are households, industry, mining, and agriculture.
Water containing faeces, paper, cloth, soap, detergent, oil, grease, food scrap, etc. carried out of our houses through sewers or drains is called sewage.
A channel system of pipelines, known as the sewage system, carries sewage out of our homes to treatment plants.
A wastewater treatment plant is a facility that treats wastewater from domestic as well as industrial sources.
Inside the water treatment plant, wastewater is treated in three stages; primary, secondary, and tertiary.
The treated water is released into water bodies such as streams and rivers. This water can be used again for supplying drinking water, fertilizers for growing crops, and for aquaculture.
There are three ways of treating sludge; namely incinerating, dewatering, and composting. We all must make efforts to control generation of sewage.
Water pollution can be caused as a result of the discharge of untreated or partly treated sewage in water bodies, sometimes due to improper sewage handling processes of municipal bodies.
Leakages in several places in the main water supply line cause drinking water to get mixed with sewerage water. The dirt often flows out into the open and enters the water pipelines. Due to this, the water supply gets contaminated.
People consuming contaminated water may suffer from diseases like gastroenteritis, dysentery, and typhoid.
Used water is wastewater. Wastewater could be reused.
Wastewater is generated in homes, industries, agricultural fields and in other human activities. This is called sewage.
Sewage is a liquid waste which causes water and soil pollution.
Wastewater is treated in a sewage treatment plant.
Treatment plants reduce pollutants in wastewater to a level where nature can take care of it.
Where underground sewerage systems and refuse disposal systems are not available, the low cost on-site sanitation system can be adopted.
By-products of wastewater treatment are sludge and biogas.
Open drain system is a breeding place for flies, mosquitoes and organisms which cause diseases.
We should not defecate in the open. It is possible to have safe disposal of excreta by low cost methods.
