INTRODUCTION

Domestic wastewater is the water that has been used by a community and which contains
all the materials added to the water during its use. It is thus composed of human body
wastes (faeces and urine) together with the water used for flushing toilets, and sullage,
which is the wastewater resulting from personal washing, laundry, food preparation and
the cleaning of kitchen utensils.
Fresh wastewater is a grey turbid liquid that has an earthy but inoffensive odour. It
contains large floating and suspended solids (such as faeces, rags, plastic containers,
maize cobs), smaller suspended solids (such as partially disintegrated faeces, paper,
vegetable peel) and very small solids in colloidal (ie non-settleable) suspension, as well
as pollutants in true solution. It is objectionable in appearance and hazardous in content,
mainly because of the number of disease-causing (pathogenic) organisms it contains.
In warm climates wastewater can soon lose its content of dissolved oxygen and so
become stale or septic. Septic wastewater has an offensive odour, usually of hydrogen
sulphide. The composition of human faeces and urine is given in Table 1.1, and for
wastewater, in simpler form, in Figure 1.1.
The organic fraction of both is composed principally of proteins, carbohydrates and fats.
These compounds, particularly the first two, form an excellent diet for bacteria, the
microscopic organisms whose voracious appetite for food is exploited by public health
engineers in the microbiological treatment of wastewater. In addition to these chemical
compounds, faeces and, to a lesser extent, urine contain many millions of intestinal
bacteria and smaller numbers of other organisms. The majority of these are harmless
indeed some are beneficial but an important minority is able to cause human disease.
Sullage contributes a wide variety of chemicals: detergents, soaps, fats and greases of
various kinds, pesticides, anything in fact that goes down the kitchen sink, and this may
include such diverse items as sour milk, vegetable peelings, tea leaves, soil particles
(arising from the preparation of vegetables) and sand (used to clean cooking utensils).
The number of different chemicals that are found in domestic wastewater is so vast that,
even if it were possible, it would be meaningless to list them all.
For this reason wastewater treatment engineers use special parameters to characterize
wastewaters.

WASTE WATER COLLECTION

Domestic wastewaters are collected in underground pipes which are called sewers. The
flow in ewers is normally by gravity, with pumped mains only being used when
unavoidable. The design of conventional sewerage (the sewer system used in
industrialized countries and in the central areas of many cities in developing countries) is
described in several texts (eg Metcalf and Eddy, Inc, 1986) and is detailed in national
sewerage codes (eg for India, Ministry of Urban Development, 1993). However, it is
extremely expensive. A much lower cost alternative, which is suitable for use in both
poor and rich areas alike, is simplified sewerage, sometimes called condominial
sewerage. The design of simplified sewerage is fully detailed by Mara et al (2001a*).

WHY TREAT WASTEWATER?

Untreated wastewater causes major damage to the environment and to human health.
Almost always, therefore, wastewater should be treated in order to:
reduce the transmission of excreta-related diseases.

 reduce water pollution and the consequent damage to aquatic biota.