Water acquired from natural sources like streams, rivers and lakes is unfit for human consumption as it contains microbes, dissolved chemicals and other toxins, and must undergo different types of water treatment to make it potable.

Many of the pollutants are natural whilst others are man-made, and in order to make this water suitable for irrigation, drinking water or various other purposes, it must be treated to remove these contaminants.

Different Types of Water Treatment

There are several purification methods that are used to remove pollutants, such as sedimentation or settling, boiling, chemical disinfection and filtration and several different types of water treatment methods such as:

Membrane Water Treatment

Membrane Water Treatment is done by making use of a semi-permeable membrane to remove water impurities. There are two kinds of membrane water treatment; pressure-driven treatment like reverse osmosis, and electrically driven treatment. In reverse osmosis, hydraulic pressure is used to drive the water across the membrane, and the other method achieves the same results via electrical power. Membrane water treatment can remove virtually all organic and biological contaminants, but it could turn out to be costly to maintain.

Ozone Water Treatment

Ozone Water Treatment makes use of a colourless and unstable gas called ozone, which is highly effective in killing the biological contaminants, and is a better alternative to chlorination, especially for drinking water. Ozone also reduces odour problems and concentrations of sulphur, manganese, iron, and other dissolved chemicals. Ozonation can also be rather costly and can create some carcinogenic by-products.

Reverse Osmosis Water Treatment

Reverse Osmosis (RO) Water Treatment is one of the most effective methods of water treatment. RO is generally used more for home water treatment in order to remove organic contaminants, chemical toxins, microbes and pesticides. Pressure is used to force the water through a dense membrane filter that prevents impurities passing through. Reverse osmosis is an excellent water treatment method because it removes all toxins and microbes without altering the taste or smell of the water, but the downside is that it also removes all the useful minerals.

Ultraviolet Water Treatment

In Ultraviolet Water Treatment, the water is passed through germicidal ultraviolet (UV) light set up inside a low pressure lamp. The biological contaminants are exposed to UV light as the water passes the ultraviolet purifier, killing the microbes. Unfortunately one drawback of this type of water treatment is that it does not effectively remove dissolved chemicals and some other particulate matter.

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