Essay On Wastewater Treatment

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Literature survey
The concept of wastewater treatment first emerged in the 19th century (Esrey , 1998). The primary aim was to prevent the outbreak and spread of water borne diseases (Esrey , 1998). Pollution is a serious concern in the world and with the increasing population size and expansion industrialisation, it has become very control pollution naturally. One of the biggest contributors to pollution is domestic and industrial waste water (Esrey , 1998). Urbanisation and industrialisation has resulted in an increase in the amount of wastewater discharged into the environment.
The main objective of wastewater treatment is to enable the safe disposal of sewage/wastewater and to minimise the dangers wastewater can impose to the public and …show more content…

The methods used involved among others the heating of water in order to purify it. Other means of treating water involved sand and gravel filtration, boiling and straining. At the time the main objective was to make the water taste better since people at the time had no/little knowledge about micro-organisms or chemical contaminants found in water. The principle of coagulation was then discovered by the Egyptians after 1500 BC .In this process, solids were removed by sedimentation (settling) prior to filtration.
It is after 500 BC that the Hippocrates came up with the practice of sieving water and inventing the first bag filter which was named the Hippocrative sleeve. The filter bag was used to trap sediments which caused water to taste bad and have bad odours. Around 300-200 BC Rome built its first aqueducts and Archimedes invented his water screw, all of which helped drain and purify water.in 1657 Sir Francis Bacon began experimenting with seawater desalination where he used an unsophisticated form of sand filtration to remove salt particles. The process was not much success but it paved way for future

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