Name: Importance of Sanitation
Uploaded: 2019-07-19
Duration: 3 min 22 s
Description: It's important to wash our hands before eating food, irrespective of the pandemic or fear of coronavirus. What is the result of eating with unclean hands? Wa...

Question

Explain the steps involved in wastewater treatment plant with the help of a flow chart.

Accepted Answer

There are three steps to treat wastewater-primary, secondary and tertiary.
Primary treatment: Primary treatment of sewage happens in three stages.
(i) Screening removes materials that can be easily collected from the wastewater before they clog the pipes of the primary treatment tank.
(ii) Grit removal is done after screening. The screened wastewater is passed through settling tanks called a grit chamber where the speed of the incoming wastewater is adjusted to allow the settling of sand, grit, stones and broken glass.
(iii) Sedimentation is performed after grit removal by passing water through large tanks, commonly called sedimentation tanks. Sludge and scum are removed in these tanks.

Secondary treatment: Secondary treatment is used to decompose the biological content or organic waste with the help of bacteria. This process is done in open tanks called aeration tanks. Air is blown into these tanks to speed up the action of aerobic bacteria. Bacteria consume organic contaminants such as food waste and faeces of animals. This process is called digestion. During this process, biogas is produced, which can be used as a fuel.

Tertiary treatment: This is a chemical process in which the water is treated with different chemicals such as chlorine and sometimes ultraviolet light is also passed through it. This practice is used to kill disease-causing microorganisms. The cleaned water is then released into rivers or seas.

The following diagram represents the flow chart of the wastewater treatment plant:

Explain the steps involved in wastewater treatment plant with the help of a flow chart.

Important Questions on Management of Wastewater

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