Water Conservation and Wastewater Treatment: 

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.

How can wastewater treatment contribute to clean water access?

• Basic Requirement: Clean Water Access: Clean water is a basic need of human beings. 
  • 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. 
  • 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”. 
  • All efforts made during this decade aim to reduce by half the number of people who do not have access to safe drinking water.

How does wastewater treatment contribute to sustainable water management?:

• Meaning: Wastewater is dirty water that is rich in lather, mixed with oil, and black or brown in colour. 
  • 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.

How is wastewater treatment changing in response to sewage issues?

• Sewage Treatment: Significance of Wastewater Treatment This is the process of wastewater treatment. 
  • 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. 
  • 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. 
  • 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.

Clearing the Currents: Wastewater Treatment processes and Sustainable By-products

• 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. 
  • 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.

Sanitation challenges and waterborne diseases in India’s rural landscape:

• 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.

Can On-Site solutions and Swachh Bharat mission revolutionize sanitation with wastewater treatment?

• 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.

Public Spaces with Hygiene and Wastewater treatment initiatives:

• 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.