Water treatment is a process similar to water purification, intended to make contaminated water safe for people to drink.
Harmful particles and bacteria are removed from the water during an intense filtration process, and then the water is safe for human consumption. Water from many sources can be treated during these processes, including sewage water. This is a valuable recycling process, as it is important not to let this water go to waste.
A simple method of treating water is to boil if for a certain amount of time, removing any impurities and killing harmful bacteria in the water. This is a useful method for treating water that may have been contaminated by being left in an open container for a period of time, but it is not suitable for water that has been exposed to higher levels of contamination. Water can be taken from a variety of sources, and each will require a different degree of treatment to render it pure. Water taken from mountain streams will won’t require as thorough a treatment as sewage water of other forms of wastewater for example.
Before water is treated, it must be collected from it’s source and stored in preparation for purification. Water with a small amount of contamination such as river water or collected rainwater can be stored in small reservoirs. These reservoirs allow the water to be naturally purified to an extent, and keep the water handy in case it is urgently required.
The first step of water treatment is to remove larger items in the water such as branches or rubbish. These items may damage the machinery used to further filter the water. The contaminated water then goes through a process called flocculation, which involves removing all impurities that colour the water. This clears the water, and the results is transparent, filtered water. It may still contain many impurities, but the larger particles have been removed at this stage.
The water is then filtered through filters with tiny holes that remove almost all unwanted particles. After this stage the water is almost entirely pure, and is safe for human consumption. There are many different methods of filtration, some of which rely on natural methods such as filtering the water through sand banks. The whole water treatment process is a costly one, but it is essential that it is performed smoothly and efficiently to ensure a constant clean supply of drinking water for the public.