WASTE WATER MANAGEMENT

R.Ragavi, UG student, PSGR Krishnammal college for Women

ABSTRACT:
Wastewater management in India has become an extremely important area of focus due to
increasing health awareness and population pressure. The treated wastewater is being effectively
used in Agricultural irrigation, Landscape irrigation like parks, school yards and Industrial
irrigation in heavy construction, cooling water, etc… New technologies like Nanotechnology
This paper aims to understand and analyze the concept of wastewater management in order to
achieve Sustainable development
 INTRODUCTION:
Waste water refers to all the affluent from households, commercial establishments and
institutions, industries, hospitals and so on.

Wastewater comes in three main types namely Black water – wastewater that originates from
toilet fixtures, dishwashers and food preparation sink and Grey water – wastewater that
originates from non-toilet and food fixtures such as bathroom sinks, laundry machines, spas,
bathtubs and so on. Types of wastewater include: domestic wastewater from households,
municipal wastewater from communities (also called sewage) or industrial wastewater from
industrial activities. Sources of wastewater include washing water, Rainfall collected on roofs,
yards, urban runoff from highways, roads, car parks, pavements. To make wastewater acceptable
for reuse or for returning to the environment, the concentration of contaminants must be reduced
to a non-harmful level, usually a standard prescribed by the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency.

WASTEWATER IN INDIA:
The wastewater treatment and management market has picked up pace during the last decade and
is in a building stage. Only 21 percentage of wastewater generated is treated in the country and
the treated wastewater does not meet the norms and standards for effective reuse.

It is estimated that about 38.254 million liters per day of wastewater is generated in urban
centers. The major chunk of wastewater treated is reused Industrial sector and

 There are 35 metropolitan cities (more than 10 Lac Population), 15,644 Millions Liter per Day
(MLD) of sewage is generated from these metropolitan cities. The treatment capacity exists for
8040 MLD i.e. 51% is treatment capacity is created.
 Among the Metropolitan cities, Delhi has the maximum treatment capacity that is 2330 MLD
(30% of the total treatment capacity of metropolitan cities) Next to Delhi, Mumbai has the
capacity of 2130 MLD, which is 26% of total capacity in metropolitan cities.

WASTEWATER TREATMENT:
Supply of clean, safe and potable water to meet human needs is a great challenge in this era. To
achieve this objective wastewater treated and reused. Wastewater treatment is the process of
converting wastewater- water that is no longer needed or is no longer suitable for use - into the
water that can be discharged back into the environment. There are two wastewater treatment
plant namely Chemical/Physical treatment plant and Biological treatment plant. The physical
waste treatment plant use chemical reactions as well as physical processes to treat wastewater.
These plants are mostly used to treat wastewater from industries, factories and manufacturing
firms. Biological waste treatment plants use biological matter and bacteria to break down waste
matter. Biological treatment systems are ideal for treating wastewater from households and
business premises.

PROCESS OF TREATING WASTEWATER:

Untreated or improperly treated wastewater contains biological contaminants that can pose
health and safety problems. To purify the wastewater, following steps are taken:

1. Wastewater collection:
Collection systems are put in place by municipal administration, home owners as well as
business owners to ensure that all the wastewater is collected and directed to a central
point. This water is then directed to a treatment plant using underground drainage
systems or by exhauster tracks owned and operated by business people.

2. Odor control:
At the treatment plant, odor control is very important. Wastewater contains a lot of dirty
substances that cause a foul smell over time. To ensure that the surrounding areas are free
of the foul smell, odor treatment processes are initiated at the treatment plant. All odor
sources are contained and treated using chemicals to neutralize the foul smell producing
elements. It is the first wastewater treatment plant process and it’s very important.

3. Screening:
Screening involves the removal of large objects for example cotton buds, plastics, rags,
sanitary items, bottle tops that in one way or another may damage the equipment. Failure
to observe this step, results in constant machine and equipment problems. Specially
designed equipment is used to get rid of grit that is usually washed down into the sewer
lines by rainwater. The solid wastes removed from the wastewater are then transported
and disposed off in landfills.

4. Primary and Secondary treatment:

This process involves the separation of macrobiotic solid matter from the wastewater.
Primary treatment is done by pouring the wastewater into big tanks for the solid matter to
settle at the surface of the tanks. The sludge, the solid waste that settles at the surface of
 the tanks, is removed by large scrappers and is pushed to the center of the cylindrical
tanks and later pumped out of the tanks for further treatment. The remaining water is then
pumped for secondary treatment. The secondary treatment stage involves adding seed
sludge to the wastewater to ensure that is broken down further.
5. Bio-solids:
The solid matter that settle out after the primary and secondary treatment stages are
directed to digesters. The digesters are heated at room temperature. The solid wastes are
then treated for a month where they undergo anaerobic digestion.

6. Tertiary management:
This stage is similar to the one used by drinking water treatment plants which clean raw
water for drinking purposes. The tertiary treatment stage has the ability to remove up to
99 percent of the impurities from the wastewater. This produces effluent water that is
close to drinking water quality.

7. Disinfection:
The disinfection process is an integral part of the treatment process because it guards the
health of the animals and the local people who use the water for other purposes. The
wastewater must be disinfected for at least 20-25 minutes in tanks that contain a mixture
of chlorine and sodium hypochlorite.

8. Sludge treatment:
The sludge that is produced and collected during the primary and secondary treatment
processes requires concentration and thickening to enable further processing. It is put into
thickening tanks that allow it to settle down and later separates from the water. This
process can take up to 24 hours. The sludge is then treated and sent back into the
environment and can be used for agricultural use.

ADVANTAGES OF REUSE OF WASTEWATER:

By using wastewater as a resource rather than a waste product you can:

 Economically beneficial
 Addressing the water demand
 Use fewer water resources & save more water
 Diminishes the volume of wastewater discharged, resulting in beneficial impact for
aquatic environment
 Irrigate the garden during drought or water restrictions
  In most cases, the quality of the wastewater, as an irrigation supply, is superior to that of
well water
 Cut down the amount of pollution going into waterways
 Help save money on new infrastructure for water supplies and wastewater treatment.

GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES:

The Government has taken effective measures to manage and treat the wastewater. Some of the
initiatives are as follows:

 Initiating Waste Management Programs - Government has setup JNNURM program to

fund cities for developing urban infrastructure and services.
 The Government has launched a web application in 2016 to track the status of various
kinds of wastes generated in India.
 Solid waste policy – It specifies the duties and responsibilities for hygienic waste
management for cities and citizens in India. This policy was framed in September 2000,
based on the March 1999 Report of Committee for Solid Waste Management
 Budget expansion – Plan outlay for the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has
increased by 61 percentage from 99M ( Euro ) in 2009-10 to 160 ( Euro ) in 2010-11

CONCLUSION:

This paper gives an overview of what and how is wastewater managed. Wastewater management
is relatively low in India compared to other countries. But it is necessary to adopt the approach of
Reuse, Recycle and Discharge to decrease environmental pollution and to reach the water
demands.