Water treatment

Water treatment is any process that improves the quality of water to make it appropriate for a specific end-use. The end use may be drinking, industrial water supply, irrigation, river flow maintenance, water recreation, or many other uses, including being safely returned to the environment. Water treatment removes contaminants and undesirable components or reduces their concentration so that the water becomes fit for its desired end-use. This treatment is crucial to human health and allows humans to benefit from both drinking and irrigation use.

Wastewater treatment

Wastewater treatment is a process used to remove contaminants from wastewater or sewage and convert it into an effluent that can be returned to the water cycle with an acceptable impact on the environment, or reused for various purposes (called water reclamation). The treatment process takes place in a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), also referred to as a Water Resource Recovery Facility (WRRF) or a Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) in the case of domestic wastewater. Pollutants in wastewater are removed, converted, or broken down during the treatment process.