SELECCIÓN DE UN SISTEMA DE TRATAMIENTO DE AGUAS RESIDUALES PARA SU APLICACIÓN EN PAISES EN VÍAS DE DESARROLLO

Abstract

The water deterioration and its pollution is one of the most important environmental problems that the humanity suffers nowadays, due to the intensive water use and overloading of natural waters to be self-treated. In order to reduce water’s pollution before its final disposal, it is necessary to install sewage treatment systems, which allow to obtain water for disposal o reuse back, without compromising the overall ecology of the receiving water. While in developed countries wastewater treatments have a high degree of implementation, in developing countries, 2,600 million of people live nowadays without access to adequate sanitation. In fact, the Millennium Development Goals include reducing by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to sanitation by 2015. In order to reach this objective in developing countries, it is necessary to design wastewater treatment systems characterized by its simplicity, effectiveness and easy of implementing, based on sustainable technologies that require small and compact facilities. This paper includes the updating of existing wastewater treatments and basic criteria to design the most appropriate treatment, taking into account the resources available in the area where has to be located. Keywords: Sanitation, developing countries, wastewater treatment, wastewater, Millennium Development Goals