Since
most chemical reactions take place in water based medium, water plays a
major role in industrial world. With the polar nature of water it easily gets
polluted from those chemical and biological ingredients use in manufacturing
process. This polluted water is called industrial effluents or simply the
wastewater. Since industrial wastewater contain toxic chemical compounds like
Cyanides, biological waste like plant materials and pathogens, toxic heavy
metals like Cadmium, Lead, exceeding the accepted levels for human use. When
this wastewater released in to natural water bodies it may result social and
health problems to the people living around the water resource and also to the
people who use it for day today work.
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In
early days people tends to release this waste water to natural water bodies without
a proper treatment. Therefore in early days outbreaks due to hazards waste were
common. Minamata outbreak in Japan is such a disaster coursed by not having a
proper treatment for wastewater. Wastewater treatment is an expensive process,
if we are using conventional methods like chemical precipitation, Ion exchange;
Reverse Osmosis and Electro dialysis. Not only they are expensive but also they
produce toxic sludge therefore small industries won’t consider about having a
wastewater treatment plant within their manufacturing plants due to the high production
cost. Instead they release wastewater to the nearby water stream without
treating it.
