Post a comment on the text below

4.2        Re-thinking “urban waste water treatment”

As a society, we have gone to considerable lengths to address the harm that our untreated sewage causes to human and environmental health. The 1991 UWWTD required that Member States provide collection systems and treatment of waste water, which has led to significant improvement in Europe’s water quality.

But, this has come at considerable cost – financial, in pollutants to water and greenhouse gas emissions, and, as we look ahead to a changing climate, with new challenges. More intense rainfall in parts of Europe is leading to more frequent surface water flooding and discharge or runoff of pollutants. In other areas, lack of water resources is becoming a key concern. Demographic change can lead to over- and under-capacity in water utilities such as UWWTPs, reducing their efficiency.

Practically, we have built a system which requires dilution of a nutrient and energy-rich natural resource by clean water, mixing that with other potentially harmful substances, then draining or pumping this mixture through an extensive pipeline network to a central point. Here, energy is used to aerate and pump “waste water” through various filters and treatment facilities, dry out the solid material and then discharge the cleaned water. Disposal of the sewage sludge faces continual challenges for politically-acceptable and economically-viable routes. This linear approach focuses on water quality, giving much lower priority to other environmental dimensions.