Sunday, June 24, 2018

A Few Points On Municipal Water Treatment In Kenya

By Betty Murray


To ensure that water is safe for consumption by a human being, it needs to be treated. Apart from undergoing the treatment process for it to be safe for human consumption, safety is also needed in case it is to be used for washing, bathing and carrying out other domestic duties. Failure to observe safety can result in skin diseases and allergic reactions. Additionally, washing of clothes using hard untreated water can be very difficult given the inability to form lather easily. It is crucial for municipal water treatment in Kenya to be given the attention it deserves so as to prevent the various undesirable events from happening.

Filtration, sedimentation, aeration, use of disinfectants and chlorination are some of the methods involved in the treatment process. As to what technique will be employed in a given situation, it should be stated that it largely depends on the type of substance being treated against.

To reduce the amount of waste that goes to the environment, various used materials can be treated and reused for the same purpose or for any other use. Recycling not only keeps the environment clean but also reduces the cost of manufacturing. Failure to treat the waste water makes it expensive to maintain industrial machinery because of tendency to form scales that result in increased heat resistance. This also causes blockage of pipes. Treatment aims at regulating oxygen and alkalinity levels.

Treatment on an industrial scale is crucial. It mainly ensures that dispensing too much waste into the environment is minimized. This is because treated water can easily be recycled. Clean water also keeps industrial machinery from scaling. Scaling is bad because it increases resistance to heat. This means that more heat will be required to produce steam thereby increasing production costs.

Management of effluent utilizes electricity for effectiveness in a large scale setting. Running electricity is expensive in the long run and thus may not be affordable for the low social economic class. For this reason, the government and its citizens should be creative enough to come up with an alternative cheaper source of energy.

Sewage material should be treated before being discarded to the environment. The process here entails separation of solids from the liquid part. Common steps involved in effluent management include slow sand filtration, activated sludge and aerated ponds. Aerated lagoons, also known as ponds utilize oxygen to facilitate oxidation of microbes. Activated sludge equally works in the presence of oxygen. At the end of day, solids are carefully isolated from the liquid.

Slow sand filtration does not exactly rely on the sand as a filter. As a matter of fact, the sand only acts as a carrier. It contains a biofilm which serves as the natural filter. Typically, the filter system is about one and a half meters deep. It can be created to be cylindrical or rectangular in shape.

In a nutshell, safety in utilization of water is of utmost importance. It not only keeps communities from acquiring various diseases but also serves to keep the environment clean. Bearing mind that every method available for has its own advantages and disadvantages. Use of electricity suffers the disadvantage of being expensive and therefore not affordable to developing nations. Biological techniques are better because they are cheaper and easy to use. These, however, may not be sustainable when treating large volumes.




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