Wastewater treatment is important to manage contaminated water and protect human health. There are various stages of treatment - preliminary to remove solids, primary to remove 60-70% of settleable solids, secondary using microorganisms for biological treatment, and tertiary to further reduce nutrients. Rio de Janeiro upgraded its treatment plant using Dutch Nereda technology, which treats wastewater from 480,000 people in a sustainable three-stage process without chemicals. Challenges include odor, aging infrastructure, and funding, which require strategic planning like creating standards, awareness, learning from other countries, and developing new technologies.

1. SUSTAINABLE WASTEWATER TREATMENT

2. WASTE WATER
• Wastewater is any water that has been affected in quality. It can be
described as contaminated water or “sick Water”.
• Wastewater can originate from homes, industrial and factory waste,
commercial or farming activities, surface runoff or storm water.
• Surface run off can include anything from harmful substances that wash
off from roads, parking lots or rooftops.
• Wastewater is harmful to human health if not treated properly after being
disposed into the environment.

3. WASTE WATER
• Sewage is usually treated at a wastewater treatment plant.
• Wastewater begins from toilets, shower room, laundry room and
kitchen sinks.
• Also, water used for washing and cleaning purposes such as for
gardens, swimming pools, washing machine and storm water is
included in wastewater but not specifically sewage water.

4. Wastewaters can be categorised as
• DOMESTIC WASTEWATER :
Used water discharged from the residential, commercial and industrial
area of a city and collected though the sewage system.
• INDUSTRIAL WASTEWATER:
Generated from medium to large scale industries
Manufacturing industries produce a large volume of wastewaters

5. WASTEWATER MANAGEMENT
• Water is one of the most important natural resources that we have on
Earth. Water is used for not only homes, but also for businesses,
institutions and industries and many more.
• The increase in human population and boom in industry all over the world
means the discharge of wastewater is also increasing at a rapid level
• Therefore the management of wastewater should be more sustainable
and efficient.

6. WASTEWATER MANAGEMENT
• Effective wastewater management means to reduce the level of
pollutants in wastewater before it is being discharged into the
environment without harming human health or to the natural
environment
• In rural settings, water is discharged naturally by the sun,
vegetation and soils
• In urban settings water needs to be discharged by appropriate
technology because of natures inability to handle large volumes of
wastewater

7. Types of Wastewater collection
There are two types:
• Centralised System:
Centralised system is a large scale water collection system that collects water
from many types of users for treatment at one or multiple sites.
• Decentralised System:
Decentralised system is an on-site system which collects wastewater from
individual users or small groups of users from neighbourhoods or residential
areas.

8. SUSTAINABILITY
• A sustainable approach gives many benefits to not only the
environment but also improve food security, health and a country’s
economy as a whole
• A sustainable way to manage wastewater is to recycle and re-use
water.
• For eg: waste water can be used over and over again for a cooling
plant, also recycled wastewater can be used for construction and
concrete mixing.

9. AWARENESS & PREVENTION
• Big companies & stakeholders should take initiative to raise awareness
for wastewater management.
• Water is a scarce resource and therefore needs to be used with care,
strict rules and regulations need to be put in place by authorities in
order for there to be no waste.
• It is also important to assess, monitor and manage for reuse in order to
avoid negative impacts on human health.

10. PROCESS OF SUSTAINABLE WASTEWATER
TREATMENT

11. Flow diagram of a typical treatment plant

12. Treatment system
Normally, a wastewater treatment plant is designed for either,
• Preliminary Treatment System
• Primary Treatment System
• Secondary Treatment System
• Tertiary Treatment system.

13. Preliminary Treatment System
• To remove any floating materials and large inorganic particulate
matters
• This treatment is also known as Pretreatment in common treatment
system.
• Approach channel : Convey and dampen the flow of wastewater
pumped to the treatment plant
Screen chamber : Removes large size of floating materials
Grit chamber : To remove suspended settle able solid
Skimming tank : Remove excessive oil and grease
Sump and pump unit : Waste water is collected in a sump and
pumped into higher level of treatment

14. Flow diagram of a preliminary treatment system

15. Primary Treatment System
• Removes solid and organic material
• Screen chamber : Removes most of large floating material
Grit chamber : Separate most of heavy suspended solids
Primary sedimentation : Reduce 60%-70% of fine settle able
suspended solids

16. Flow diagram of a primary treatment system

17. Secondary treatment system
• Secondary treatment is also known as a biological treatment
because biological process take place in this treatment
• By the use of microorganism, primary bacteria to covert
biodegradable organic matter contained in wastewater
• The oxygen level in the wastewater will be changed in order to
produce aerobic and anaerobic environment
• The common type used in our country is oxidation pond.

18. OXIDATION POND

19. Oxidation pond
• Oxidation pond also known as lagoon
• Large and shallow ponds designed to treat wastewater through the
interaction of sunlight, bacteria and algae
• Temperature in our country is suitable for aerobic bacteria as bacteria
which can only survive in warm temperature

20. Tertiary treatment system
• Tertiary treatment is also known as an advance treatment system
• The main purpose in this treatment is to reduce nitrogen and
phosphates which can cause problems when they get into water
body by enhancing the growth of algae blooms

21. This treatment is provided when :
1. Quality of standard treated waste water (secondary) is inappropriate for
final disposal requirement
2. The concentration of leftover organic material or suspended solids require
further removal of specific reuse of wastewater
3. Concentration of nutrient is high for final disposal

22. Case Study: Rio de Janeiro’s Wastewater
treatment plant

23. Rio De Jeneiro
• Is the 2nd most populated area in
Brazil
• Is the 3rd biggest metropolis in South
America
• Rio hosted 2 mega events over the
past couple years which are the FIFA
World Cup and the Olympics in 2014
and 2016 respectively.
• Due to the events, they have
upgraded their wastewater treatment
plant which is more sustainable than
the previous one.

24. Problems faced in Rio
• The level of water cleanliness is at a critical point.
• The wastewater from homes and commercial buildings are left untreated and
they bypass into the sea.
• It is said the beaches in Rio contain virus 1.7 million times more than in the
Californian beaches which are considered to be hazardous.
• Raw sewage and garbage can be seen floating in the water.
• The growth of super bacteria has increased.

25. Solution to the problem
• Rio has decided to upgrade their infrastructure by building a new water waste
treatment plant based on a Dutch technology known as the Nereda technology.
• Its main priority was to cater the visitors during the Olympics in 2016.

26. Nereda waste water treatment plant
• It was built to cater up to 480,000 people.
• It costed 164 million Euros to build.
• The project began in 2012 in preparation of the Olympics.
• It is located in a place called Deodoro where the Olympics sport complexes
are located.
• The capacity of this plant is 10 times bigger than the original one.

27. Treatment process
• There are 3 steps in this process.
• First phase – Simultaneous fill and draw will be carried out.
• Second phase – Aeration
• Third phase – Sedimentation

28. Benefits of having Nereda waste water
treatment plant
• Cost effective
• Uses less equipments
• Low maintenance cost
• A sustainable way to treat water
• It is a chemical-free process
• Highly energy efficient
• Productive
• Allows the citizen to live in a more sustainable
condition

29. SUSTAINABLE WASTE WATER TREATMENT
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES
Improving the quality of life High capital and operating cost
Preserves environment. People repelled by ‘purified sewage’
water.
Waste minimization High energy consumption
Recovers energy
Conserves nutrients and reduce the
need for artificial fertilizer

30. POSSIBLE PROBLEMS WITH THE
WASTEWATER TREATMENT.

31. Nuisance from odor.
• Induce public interference
• All treatment system emits odorous emission.

32. Aging infrastructure and workforce.
• Aging of the system’s infrastructure would cause many problems and failures
to the system:
 Cracking
 Collapsing
 Clogging
• Lack of professional workers and experience would affect management
system.

33. Funding concern.
• Important factor to run, maintaining and
improvise the system.
• A huge capital is needed for the sector of
sustainable wastewater treatment system.
 Building Cost
 Operational and Maintenance Cost
 Workforce
 Research & Development
• Government intervention is required.

34. STRATEGIC PLANNING FOR FUTURE
DEVELOPMENT.

35. Create awareness amongst society.
• Make more public campaign and talk.
• Social media advertisement

36. Learn from other countries the management
system of wastewater treatment.
• Follow the standard from other countries that had successfully
used the system.
• Improve control strategies in terms of the process and
effectiveness of system that have been implemented.

37. Create water quality standard.
• Set a target to achieve In a period of time.
• Use more biodegrable chemical

38. Hire professional workers to operate the
system.
• Transfer high quality scientist to
train domestic workers.
• Hiring more experienced
workers in operating the
system.

39. Develop a new technology
• New high technology and asset
• Benefit to country in a long run

40. Conclusion