A good Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) is influenced by several factors. When designing a WWTP, considerations such as the type of water source, desired finished water quality, skill of facility operators, and topography of the plant location are crucial.

Criteria for Successful Design of a Water Treatment Plant

• Talent: Developing mental abilities to deduce and find quick solutions to design problems
• Creativity: Presenting new ideas in all stages of design implementation
• Experience: Number of successfully completed projects and solutions provided to various problems
• Tools: Ensuring the latest tools and technologies are selected
• Commitment: Meeting agreed delivery dates and designs, and providing unexpected results for the better

Criteria and Considerations for Successful Design of a Water Treatment Plant

• Suitability of the plant for the quality of water to be reused
• Design capacity of the station to match the actual need for its use
• Efficiency of the plant to achieve the highest yield of treated water
• Efficiency of the station to achieve high-quality water produced in accordance with specifications
• Suitability of the station for the site and the number of users
• Low cost, ease of operation, and maintenance

Public Relations for Wastewater Treatment Plants

• Having a good public relations program for acceptance of the project by citizens
• Understanding the technologies that the plant will use, the odour-causing potential of these technologies, and ways in which this important issue was addressed by other plants in the past
• Giving tours of the plant to concerned citizens to address their concerns
• Encouraging questions and addressing concerns during the tours

• Providing good landscaping and area lighting to soften the appearance of the treatment facility

Other Important Factors

• Chemical scrubbers: Using sodium hydroxide and sodium hypochlorite or other oxidants to oxidize hydrogen sulphide and other odour compounds
• Masking agents: Using fragrant chemicals or perfumes to mask odours
• Confining, capturing, and transporting odours to scrubbers: Enclosing and/or covering the odour-causing processes, withdrawing the foul air by fans, and transporting it to the scrubbers in high-density polyethylene ducts
• Preventing scale formation: Injecting an acid into the incoming water, softening the water, or injecting chemical scale inhibitors to prevent scale formation
• Maintenance: Replacing activated carbon media annually, or based on increasing total organic carbon effluent concentration, to prevent leakage of biological particles into the reverse osmosis system