Waste water reclamation in large scale industries is possible. Conventional physical-chemical treatment followed by biological treatment (activated sludge process-i.e aerobic suspended growth process) and followed by again chemical treatment (flocculation)-settling and then sand filtration -activated carbon filtration-disinfection will result in reclamation of water from waste water. Perhaps a lab. scale study will help in assessing the chemical requirements and sizing the treatment units.

Dear Velayutham, Thanks for your comment, but topic is about the fact that why wastewater reclamation is not practiced in small & medium size industries.

Dear Bilal,

You are right, the problem is national water and waste water policy and its effective implementation. Some countries has very strong implementation regarding the waste water treatment. the policy covers all type of industries and each company has to provide their own treatment system. None of the company can drain their effluent directly into the fresh water. If the company has no treatment plant because of the maintenance and running cost of the treatment plant, in that case company has to hire an approved (Municipality) contractor to carry their effluent and dispose it as per procedure or guidelines. If you need more details or clarification you can email me at [email protected] or call me at 00971504157894. I will let you know the details with examples.

Hi Bila,

I am not sure about your country, but here in Nepal we do have treatment plants even for small scale industry. Even industry with waste water of about 5000 to 10000 L are having waste water treatment plant basically biological treatment plant with no additional energy required for the operation. since we have lots of energy problem we prefer biological treatment especially constructed wetlands. but we do not prefer Activated sludge process, ABC because they need extra energy for aeration and proper mixing.I am currently designing waste water treatment plant for dyeing industry with waste water of 6000L/day. We also have treatment plant for grey water recycling even on house hold level with water of 500L/day.

Dear Uprety,

Thanks for valued addition to my topic. It would be really appreciated if you may provide me with some documented literature on reclamation of Wastewater in small industries.

What is the status of flour mills in Nepal?

hi

I agree with Grant !. The extent of treatment required for the waste water from a small scale industry , requires as much of technology as that required for large scale industries. As a process engineer designing ETP's ,its getting harder for us to offer competitive solution to the smaller sectors. Instead of focusing at the end point. industries can spend time and funds on waste minimization at source and total water management during the initial set up

Source reduction / control is always better for small industries. When water is available at lesser price, industries will be reluctant to spend money on waste water treatment and reuse. Time is not far off to think about recover and reuse the treated water since climate change is witnessed now a days. In our University campus (Hindustan University) we are treating the campus waste water and reusing the same for toilet flushing and gardening. If there is a will, there is a way.

Dear All,

Thank you very much for your valued comments / suggestions,.

Before talking about complex waste water streams (especially Industrial), a survey may be carried out to highlight those industries having very simple stream of waste water or an other way is to separate the waste water stream.

But actual problem we faced in Pakistan that Industrialist do not want any kind of treatment as they think a WWTP is waste of money....

Dear all,

As informed earlier, industries may not show interest in waste water treatment due to the following reasons:

1. Water is available for use at lesser price.

2. No enforcing authority acting stringently doe to political interference.

3. Lack of public awareness about the environmental resources.

4. If the industries / public are least bothered about environment now, they have to pay heavy penalty latter.

5. Water scarcity days are not far off!

Dr.V.Subbiah

Hi,

When we have mentioned "small scale industry", it does mean that their investment costs are lesser. Furthermore, the government has no appropriate regulation for waste water reclamation for small scale industries as it does for other industries with huge investments. The capitalists of the small scale industries have to think about such reclamation with a social motive.