If your apartment is not installed with STP or if you are looking forward to construct a new apartment then environmental laws have made it mandatory for all to set up and operate Sewage Treatment Plants. If the word “Sewage Treatment Plant” is confusing to you, you might consider it as "wastewater treatment”. Here, we let you know about what is Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) or Sewage Treatment System.

1. What is Sewage Treatment and why is it required ?

In general, the wastewater discharged from domestic premises like residences, institutions, and commercial establishments is termed as sewage or wastewater. It includes waste liquid from toilets, baths, showers, kitchens, and sinks draining into sewers. Sewage treatment refers to the process of removing contaminants, micro-organisms and other type of pollutants from wastewater, primarily from household sewage. Sewage treatment includes physical, chemical, and biological methods to remove contaminants and produce environmentally safe treated wastewater to make it usable again.

However, liquid and solid wastes produced by human settlements and industrial activities pollute most of the water bodies throughout the world. Due to the trends in urban development, sewage treatment deserves greater emphasis. Its objective is to produce an effluent that is suitable for discharge or release back to the environment. The main purpose of a sewage treatment system or sewage treatment plant is to remove wastewater from points of origin to a treatment facility or place of disposal.

2. Sewage Treatment Process :

Treating sewage/wastewater from your apartment has the aim to produce an effluent that will do as little harm as possible when discharged to the surrounding environment, thereby preventing pollution compared to releasing untreated wastewater into the environment.

Sewage from your apartment can be treated by implanting Sewage Treatment System or Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) which involves following stages :

1. Preliminary Treatment

2. Primary Treatment

3. Secondary Treatment

4. Tertiary Treatment

Conventional block diagram for Sewage Treatment Plant for Apartments is shown below :

3. How Sewage Treatment Plant useful for your apartments :

If wastewater that is coming out from your apartment is not properly treated, then the environment and human health can be negatively impacted. Hence, installing Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) in all types of apartments is very much useful. Why because :

Sewage treatment plant is simple and affordable treatment plant to maintain in apartments.
Installation of STP in apartments/flats will upgrade the quality of life.
STP treats the water that goes down drains before releasing it back into the environment.
Usage of STP in apartments yields clean reusable water that can be used for other purposes like washing, toilet, watering plants and outdoor floor cleaning etc., so that you can save water.

Using STP the amount of waste from the apartments that is usually released into the environment is reduced thus improving environment’s health.

4. Types of Sewage treatment plant :

There are various types of sewage treatment plants that are available based on their treatment towards wastewater and are as follows :

Activated sludge plant (ASP)

Rotating disc system (RDS)

Submerged aerated filter (SAF)

Suspended Media Filters (SMF)

Sequencing batch reactor (SBR)

Non-electric filter

Trickling filter