Urban Waste Water Treatment

Page Last modified 07 Nov 2018

1 min read

Topics: Water and marine environment

This page was archived on 02 Jul 2018 with reason: Content is outdated

Discharges from wastewater treatment plants cause pollution through oxygen consuming substances, nutrients and hazardous substances. The adverse impacts depend strongly upon the degree to which (if at all) such discharges are treated before reaching waterways.

This content has been archived: See here for updated content on Water

Today most of the EU population is connected to sewage networks. Over the last twenty years, marked increases have occurred both in the proportion of the population connected to wastewater treatment as well as in wastewater treatment technology. In central Europe and the Nordic countries most wastewater now receives tertiary treatment (i.e. removal of organic matter and nutrients), while in southern and some central European countries most wastewater receives secondary treatment (removal of organic matter). Some large cities still discharge their wastewater nearly untreated.

Uwwt

This map shows the locations of agglomerations (usually equal to communities of homes, shops, hospitals and certain industries) classified by treatment type.

The size of each segment of the pie charts is proportional to the number of agglomerations and their method of treating their waste water by type. The segments are coloured according to the different treatment types.