Appropriate technologies for effective management of industrial and domestic waste waters: The decentralised approach

The increasing scarcity of clean water sets the need for appropriate manage ment of available water resources. Particularly regions suffering from a la ck of water urgently need integrated environmental protection and resource conservation (EP&RC) technologies in order to enable effective management o f the available water resources. EP&RC-concepts focus on a minimum of consu mptive use of energy, chemicals, and water and a maximum of reuse of treate d wastewater and of residues produced from the pollutants present in the wa stewater. Consequently, by implementing these concepts, instead of a social threat, waste(water)s like sewage and industrial effluents become an impor tant resource for water, fertilisers, soil conditioners and to some extent also energy. In addition, a bridge is made between environmental protection and agriculture practice, stimulating (urban) agriculture in the neighbour hood of large cities. Anaerobic treatment is considered as the core technology for mineralising o rganic compounds in waste(water) streams. Additional technologies are requi red to comply with the reuse criteria. Some examples of possible EP&RC conc epts, using the anaerobic treatment technology for the reclamation of domes tic sewage are discussed. (C) 1999 IAWQ Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.