Wastewater - An overview

Waste water generation is one of the major complex causing water pollution. Water a natural resource is used by different sectors of society for various activities like drinking, diluting wastes, manufacturing goods, food production, energy generation and usage and so on to fulfil national demands. Generation of wastewater is highly unavoidable, in the last 3 decades the wastewater generation rates increased multifold. According to the Central Pollution Control board, during 2015 approximately 61754 MLD of wastewater is generated out of which only 22963 MLD is treated before release while the remaining 38791 MLD i.e. 62% of wastewater is drained into water bodies without meeting the standards, thus making the water bodies ultimate dumping grounds carrying high loads of pollution. According to the national water quality monitoring programmed identifies 302 polluted rivers stretches and 275 rivers out of 445 rivers as polluted, because of decrease in water quality due to increased organic and bacterial pollution. Thus, the urban India is polluting its own lakes and rivers and thus intense pressure on source water.  The plaguing of water scarcity is a human made problem and prevention of this threat is a collective responsibility of every citizen, industries, government and the scientific society. It is high time to control water pollution, and becomes essential to treat wastewater generated before discharging and reuse the treated water and ultimately protect our water bodies. In this report, the authors discussthe diverse types of wastewaters, their generation and treatment rates, laws governing wastewater. The authors also focuss on the effects on wastewater discharge on water bodies in India and on the objectives of wastewater treatment.