WATER TREATMENT

          Water occurs in nature "pure" and what ever be the source always contains impurities either in solution or in suspension. The determination of these impurities makes analysis of water necessary and removal and control of these impurities make water treatment essential.

Water sources:

The various sources of water can be broadly classified as:

          a) Rain water

          b) Surface water (River, Streams, Ponds, Lakes and Reservoirs)

          c) Ground water (Springs, Shallow wells and Deep wells)

of the above, logically rain water is the purest but even this collects and dissolves atmospheric gasses and impurities in air. Further, once in contact with the earth's crust, the rain water will gradually dissolve various materials.

Various (Majour) impurities:

The major impurities of water can be classified in three main groups:

          1) Non-ionic and undissolved

          2) Ionic and Dissolved

          3) Gaseous

          In this article we discusses briefly about the water treatment processes indicating the various impurities present in the water and the different types of treatment processes such as 'Filtration' and 'Demineralization', for treating the water for eliminating the suspended and dissolved impurities.

Table of contents

1) Water treatment -- Basic water chemistry

2) Importance of removal of impurities

3) Water softening process
4) Standard Operation Procedure (SOP) of Water treatment plant (for example purpose)