Industrial Effluents as a Source of Drinking Water Contamination

In our area industrial effluent is acting as source of drinking water contamination. We even can not use this water for irrigation purpose as it tends to clog the irrigation infrastructure, how to stop this contamination? Is their any way to treat the water and make it safe to drink'

4 Answers

1. Hello All; There is only one fairly sure and safe way to stop this pollution; drive your respective government to legislate very strong pre-treatment laws and regulations which mandate the industries to legally treat their waste stream until it meets or exceeds the quality of the receiving waters. These laws must have "teeth" which the industries will pointedly feel if they do not maintain compliance. This is a good solid place to start when trying to improve and restore your most needed basic natural resource; good quality clean water; the basic and most necessary key to the survival of all life. REMEMBER; this is a human right; not a privelage to be squandered for capital gain interests. Stand up; take action; protect your children's right to life; now and for all our future generations.

2. Industrial waste consists of both organic and inorganic substances. Organic wastes include pesticide residues, solvents and cleaning fluids, dissolved residue from fruit and vegetables, and lignin from pulp and paper are among some of them. Effluents can also contain inorganic wastes such as brine salts and metals. The Clean Water Act has standards for the permitted release of a limited amount of contaminants into waterways for every country. there is a rule for every industry to pre-treat their water by neutralizing the chemically active components, recycling, dilution or extraction and collection for proper disposal.If this is not happening in your area then you can file a complaint against this. Once the aquifers are contaminated they are next to impossible to clean.

3. Water treatment
   
   Industrial water water has to be treated according the local laws. I am also curious to know what is the type of contamination you are having in your area. the industrial waste water treatment on large scale can be categorised in 3 diff types, 1. physical 2. chemical and 3. biological. Physical methods include processes where no gross chemical or biological changes are carried out and strictly physical phenomena are used to improve or treat the wastewater. Chemical treatment consists of using some chemical reaction to improve the water quality. Probably the most commonly used chemical process is chlorination. Chlorine, a strong oxidizing chemical, is used to kill bacteria and to slow down the rate of decomposition of the wastewater. Bacterial kill is achieved when vital biological processes are affected by the chlorine. Another strong oxidizing agent that has also been used as an oxidizing disinfectant is ozone. Biological treatment methods use microorganisms, mostly bacteria, in the biochemical decomposition of wastewaters to stable end products. More microorganisms, or sludges, are formed and a portion of the waste is converted to carbon dioxide, water and other end products. Generally, biological treatment methods can be divided into aerobic and anaerobic methods, based on availability of dissolved oxygen. Does this help? I work in industrial waste water treatment, give me detail analysis I my be of some use.

4. Hello Agap, what is the source of contamination? and have you ever did any chemical analysis of the water? Making industrial waste good for drinking seems to be a challenge to me. but it depends on the source industry and type of contamination.