How Is Wastewater Harmful?: Blackwater
How Is Wastewater Harmful?: Blackwater
How Is Wastewater Harmful?: Blackwater
Blackwater
This is wastewater that originates from toilet fixtures, dishwashers, and food preparation sinks. It is
made up of all the things that you can imagine going down the toilets, bath and sink drains. They
include poop, urine, toilet paper and wipes; body cleaning liquids, anal cleansing water and so on.
They are known to be highly contaminated with dissolved chemicals, particulate matter and is very
pathogenic.
Graywater
This is wastewater that originates from non-toilet and food fixtures such as bathroom sinks, laundry
machines, spas, bathtubs and so on. Technically it is sewage that does not contain poop or urine.
Graywater is treated very differently from Blackwater and is usually suitable for re-use.
Yellow water
This is basically urine collected with specific channels and not contaminated with either blackwater
or graywater.
Water pollution:
Fresh water bodies and marine waters into which wastewater is discharged may be
polluted and rendered unsafe for human use. Depending on what is discharged,
aquatic life may be harmed too.
Water security:
There is water scarcity in many places in the world. Wastewater discharged on lands
can leach into underground water tables and potentially contaminate aquifers and
underground water. If discharged in freshwater bodies, it may render water sources
unsuitable for use.
Ecosystem services:
All ecosystems are connected and they all ultimately
depend on water. Similarly, all water (surface and
underground) is connected. This means careless
wastewater discharge can have some serious ripple
effect. One common effect of wastewater is the
eutrophication of fresh water bodies and oceans. If one
part of the ecosystem chain is destroyed, it can upset
its entire food chain.
Agriculture / Fisheries / Tourism:
Wastewater for irrigation may contain unsuitable chemicals and higher
concentrations of nutrients needed for crops. This can result in delayed and under
yielding. Wastewater used for animal farming may also contain harmful things and
chemicals dissolved in them. Animals may die, and there is a chance that humans
that eat such animals may be harmed too. In some places, faecal sewage is
discharged directly into the sea. The discharge contains pathogens and harmful
dissolved chemicals which can affect fishing in that area. The smell and such
behavior does not encourage tourism to that area.
Good wastewater management efforts will enforce existing policies and introduce
new and relevant policies, funding, legislation, encourage voluntary agreements,
engage private and public sectors and expand education on the issue.
1. Preventive practices:
Laws, policies and advocacy should be designed to encourage all stakeholders to
reduce the generation of wastewater. This will reduce the volume of wastewater that
we have to eventually deal with.
3. Treatment:
In many rural dwellings all over the world, the sun, vegetation, soils and bacteria
are able to take care of wastewater naturally if discharged into the environment with
little or no treatment. It is possible because the volumes are very small. In urban
centers the amounts of wastewater produced is staggering and simply impossible for
nature to take care of. This is why we need to treat wastewater using appropriate
and relevant technology before discharging into the environment.
In the US state of California, 31% of reclaimed water is used for crop or landscape
irrigation. In Mexico, most of the wastewater from Mexico City is used in irrigation
districts surrounding the city, notably the Tula valley.
Note that sludge from treatment sites are also used in composting sites and also
sent to rural agricultural fields.
Note that there are different types of sludge. Sludge could be faecal (from human
and animal poop flushed down the drains) and regular sludge, from rubbish and
garbage that get into drains and sewage systems. Faecal sludge is high in
contaminants and must be treated well before discharge.
Household:
Smart thinking by rural and urban dwellers can offer some real benefits to
households too. For example, water use in the kitchen can be collected and used to
water flowers and lawns. A couple of gallons each day means a significant saving on
water by the end of the year! Families can also reduce the amount of wastewater
they produce by smart use of bathrooms.
Once wastewater is treated and the sludge is collected, then begins the production
of biogas. The sludge is heated and compressed in large vats. The temperatures
required range from 160 to 165 degrees Celsius and the pressure required is
anywhere from high pressure 7 – 11 or 12 bars.
There are two thermal hydrolysis technologies: batch – or biothelys – and Exelyis.
Biothelys Technology requires large tracts of land for each plant and must be
supplied with large quantities of wastewater every day in order to produce enough
biogas to remain viable. However, for large municipalities, neither requisite is
generally an issue and the production of biogas can be a considerable revenue
stream.
Exelys Technology can be productive on less space and requires a smaller volume
of wastewater to maintain viable. In addition to Exelys Technology requiring
considerably less area, it produces 130 percent more biogas than the next most
productive thermal hydrolysis systems using the same amount of sludge. The
amount of end-waste is also reduced.
The development of an Exelys Plant is expensive, the operating costs are far less
than those of other thermal hydrolysis systems.
One of the biggest obstacles with respect to treating wastewater is deciding what to
do with the sludge produced. Solar photocatalytic wastewater treatment can reduce
sludge amounts by over 80 percent compared to traditional wastewater treatment
systems.