Historically, society has shown a great lack of interest in the protection of the environment and water resources in particular. For years, we were able to dump our wastes with little or no treatment back into the nearest watercourse. As long as there was enough dilution water, nature took care of our disposal problems.

As waste loads increased, the natural purification processes could no longer do the job with many waterways looking like open sewers. In the last 50 years and more recently in most areas, society has realized that we must give nature a hand by treating wastes before returning them to the environment.

We have come to realize that treating our wastes properly not only protects the public’s health; it can also increase property value, protect wildlife and water life and allow many recreational activities to be enjoyed on the water or in the surrounding environment.

With water shortages plaguing the world, water scarcity has become one of the largest threats facing society today, making it one of the UN’s main millennium development goals. Therefore governments have begun to develop new projects and technologies to mitigate its effects on the world. Such projects and technologies include rain harvesting, water location transfers, desalination, and wastewater treatment. Unlike the rest, wastewater treatment presents a sustainable short-term and long-term solution to water scarcity. Wastewater is the water used by residences and commercial/industrial establishments that has become too polluted for further use. The combination between these different types of wastewater causes the resulting wastewater mix to contain both suspended and dissolved organic and inorganic substances such as carbohydrates, fats, soaps, synthetic detergents, as well as various natural and synthetic organic chemicals.