ABSTRACT
The principal objective of wastewater treatment is to allow
municipal and industrial effluents to be disposed without
risks to human health or unacceptable damage to the natural
environment. An effective form of wastewater disposal is
irrigation with treated wastewater. Although raw municipal
wastewater may be used as such in some instances, e.g., in
slow-rate land treatment, most aquaculture or agricultural/
landscape irrigation situations require some degree of treat-
ment of wastewater before use. The operation and perfor-
mance of the wastewater treatment is strongly influenced by
the quality of treated water needed. In the case of irrigation,
the degree of treatment will depend on the crop to be
irrigated, the soil conditions, and the system of effluent
distribution adopted. Especially for developing countries,
unsophisticated treatments are particularly desirable due to
cost considerations and lack of support facilities needed to
operate complex systems reliably. This entry explains the
basis for conventional wastewater treatment processes and
design parameters.
