BHE 314 Case Study

Running head: wastewater treatment Students name: Tutor: Institution: Date of submission: Running head: wastewater treatment Introduction Waste water treatment can be defined as the process of taking used water and making possible to be used again. In short it can be said it is recycling water. Used or wastewater is obtained from taking showers, washing of clothes and utensils, the toilet and at times rainwater. The most important thing is that used water contains chemicals and bacteria that might be harmful to a person’s health thus recycling or treating it kills the bacteria’s making it possible to use the water again. By treating this water, it helps reduce the risk of contamination that is standardized for human consumption and suitable to be used in the environment. There are four levels of wastewater treatment namely: primary, high rate primary, secondary and tertiary level. Primary level is usually the initial stage of treatment that involves filtration of solid materials from the water (Henze, 2002). High rate primary helps in removing smaller and finer solids. Secondary level removes the dissolved inorganic and organic solids through decomposition of bacteria (Drechsel, 2010). Tertiary level helps in further removing the inorganic compounds and other substances. Ground water basin is usually an underground reserve of water that takes the form of an aquifer. They are very important when it comes to water storage and treatment. Secondary wastewater treatment This is the second stage of wastewater treatment after the primary treatment process. This second stage involves the removal or reduction of things that may contaminate the water or any form of growth or particle that has been carried forward to this level through decomposition (Asano, 2007). More often than not, a biological method is used to treat the water in this level because it is believed to be the best and most effective method (Henze, 2002). This process removes up to 90 percent of organic matter that is found in w...