Water Recycling - Uses and Process - Research Paper Example

Aware of this crisis, several steps have already been taken to try to alleviate this problem and to perhaps provide a permanent solution to exceeding demand vs. available water supply. In a publication released by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, they presented four technologies that can possibly help different countries in the world in dealing with the present and the impending water crisis. These are desalination, aquifer storage and recovery, water recycling and reuse, and improved irrigation technology including remote sensing and hydrodynamic gates.

One technology, water recycling and reuse, is one of the most hopeful methods of maximizing water use. WateReuse Association is a nonprofit organization whose purpose is to improve benefits and efficiency of water supply through education, sound science, and technology to benefit the environment and the public through the use of reclamation, recycling and reuse, and desalination. Water recycling is defined as “the reuse of treated wastewater for beneficial purposes such as agricultural and landscaping irrigation, industrial processes, toilet flushing, or replenishing a groundwater basin”.

The typical treatment of wastewater makes use of a combination of chemical, physical, and biological procedures to remove solids, organic matter, and even nutrients from the water. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, describes the different levels of general wastewater treatment. These are Preliminary Treatment, Primary Treatment, Secondary Treatment, and the last level, which is the Tertiary or Advanced Wastewater Treatment.