Water treatment
Water treatment
Water treatment (/ˈwɔːtər ˈtriːtmənt/) refers to the process of improving the quality of water to make it suitable for a specific end-use. The end-use could be drinking, industrial water supply, irrigation, river flow maintenance, water recreation, or many other uses, including being safely returned to the environment.
Etymology
The term "water treatment" is derived from the English words "water" and "treatment". "Water" comes from the Old English "wæter", from Proto-Germanic "*watōr", and "treatment" comes from the Latin "tractare", meaning "to handle, manage, deal with, conduct oneself towards, frequentative of trahere "to pull, draw"".
Process
Water treatment involves several processes, which may include physical processes such as settling or filtration, chemical processes such as disinfection and coagulation, and biological processes such as slow sand filtration.
Related terms
- Potable water: Water that is safe enough for drinking and food preparation.
- Wastewater: Water that has been used and must be treated before it is released back into the environment.
- Desalination: The process of removing salt and other minerals from seawater to make it suitable for human consumption and irrigation.
- Water purification: The process of removing undesirable chemicals, biological contaminants, suspended solids, and gases from water.
- Waterborne diseases: Diseases caused by pathogenic microorganisms that are directly transmitted when contaminated fresh water is consumed.
External links
- Medical encyclopedia article on Water treatment
- Wikipedia's article - Water treatment
This WikiMD dictionary article is a stub. You can help make it a full article.
Languages: - East Asian
中文,
日本,
한국어,
South Asian
हिन्दी,
Urdu,
বাংলা,
తెలుగు,
தமிழ்,
ಕನ್ನಡ,
Southeast Asian
Indonesian,
Vietnamese,
Thai,
မြန်မာဘာသာ,
European
español,
Deutsch,
français,
русский,
português do Brasil,
Italian,
polski