De La Salle Sewage Treatment Plant

De La Salle Sewage Treatment Plant

Introduction

Definition:

Sewage treatment is the process of removing contaminants from wastewater. Its objective is to produce an environmentally safe fluid waste stream and a solid waste suitable for disposal or reuse. With suitable technology, it is possible to re-use sewage effluent for drinking water, although this is usually only done in places with limited water supplies, such as Windhoek and Singapore.

-            http://en.wikipedia.org/

On 11th day of December 2014, Thursday, we visited the Sewage Treatment Plant in De La Salle University – Dasmariñas. Sewage treatment is the process of removing contaminants from the wastewater. It is done before the water will be reuse in any form. De La Salle Sewage Treatment Plant in Dasmariñas, Cavite was built to serve the requirements and to reuse and save used water from consuming too much inside the campus. The plant process consist of lift station, collecting tank, aeration tank, settling tank, sludge digestion, chlorine contact tank and a sludge drying bed and it has 180 cum/day, average capacity. It started in 1997 and it has been consistently producing water with quality that is better to what the government set as parameter.

Process

We have a huge environment here in DLSU-D and students are reaching up to an average of thousands and thousands. We are using water in our daily activities and it is very essential; causing our water consumption to increase at every rate possible.

That is why we have our STP. Waste water from flushing the toilets, washing and cleaning goes down to a larger sewer pipe, the larger pipe also joins a major pipe that lead to the STP. It is cleaned and filtered before it can flow to rivers and other water areas. However, there are stages to undergo before our waste water is properly disposed.

The first part is where the collection removal happens. It involves the separation of organic solid matter from water. Unwanted objects are removed and undergo thru the activated sludge where it is pumped away for further treatment. The rest of the water is the moved to the next treatment stage.

Next is where the water is put into large tanks wherein air is pumped into the water to encourage bacteria to breakdown the tiny bits of wastes that were not removed during the previous stage. Then, the ‘almost’ treated water is passed through another tank. Again, the sludge is scrapped and collected for treatment. The water at this point is almost free from different unwanted substances. Thus, the filtered water is then released into the river.

Sewage Treatment Plant

Sewage Treatment Plant process is similar to Septic Tank mechanisms but it provides a process to help break down solids to produce a cleaner, more environmentally friendly waste.

Advantage

1. Save water

2. Recycling of water

3. Ground water, surface water source is safe from pollution due to treatment of waste water.

4. Treated water is used for vegetation.

5. Cost of transportation of polluted water is saved.

6. Air pollution is limited to treatment plant.

Disadvantage

1. Space.

2. Money is used for construction of waste water treatment

3. Handling of dry sludge, cake.

4. Food chain is missed for various organisms, life cycle river animals.

5. Various chemicals are produced to treat the waste water

6. Nature capacity (river capacity is remains un-utilized to treat the waste water during flowing) to treat the water remains un-utilized.

Source: Yahoo Answers

Water Pollution

WATER POLLUTION

Introduction

  

   Water pollution is the contamination of water bodies, directly or indirectly. Water covers 71% of the Earth's surface and what if this percentage of water is little by little being polluted? Are we aware of it? What will be the effect especially to all living things? What are the possible solutions to it?
    Many years ago, natural water bodies in the whole world even in the Philippines are very clean, clear and can be use as drinking water, can swim there or even you can wash clothes too. But take a look now, most of our natural water bodies are being polluted as time pass by. You can see a lot of garbage floating everywhere like plastics, containers, dead bodies of animals and even toxic wastes. All of that can harm the health of everyone most especially the living things that live in water.

Causes of Water Pollution

    Water pollution occurs when an overwhelmingly large amount of chemicals and substances harmfully affects our natural water bodies. It has affected many lives on earth and will probably continue if we do not take care of our own environment. There are many causes of water pollution and of them is oil spill. Oil is usually spilled form tankers and ship travels. As we all know, oil is one of the world’s biggest pollutants, primarily because it does not dissolve in water. It just forms a thick layer on the water surface. Plastics also cause water pollution. Plastics take a long time to decompose and once it is disposed in any of our water bodies, it can cause harm to the different creatures underwater especially fishes. Wastes from factories are also one of the causes; it contaminates water with different chemicals and substances.
    In my own opinion, we alone are causing water pollution. We might not notice it but some of our daily tasks and activities cause harmful effect to our environment; because of the different factories, industrial wastes, businesses, and different human wastes are being congested into the water.

    We need to change our ways or else we are the ones who will suffer in the future. Water is the main source of our everyday tasks. Without water, we will not live. We must take part and give our efforts in preserving and maintaining our water clean.

Effects of Water Pollution

1. Human Health

People often get water disease such as cholera and tuberculosis as a result of poor screening and distillation of water that we drink.

2.  Ecosystems

Water pollution may be a cause of destruction of ecosystems. Areas being affected by careless human pollution and that pollution comes back to hurt humans in many ways.

3.  Death of animals

The main problem caused by water pollution is that it kills life especially the aquatic animals.Animals are also affected by solid waste thrown on water.

4. Food chain

Pollution may result as distraction of food chain. Pollutants such as lead and cadmium are eaten by tiny animals.

For example: Little fishes eat tiny organic particles> Big fishes eat tiny fishes> Humans also eat fish.

5.  Economic cost

Financial claims that will result from water pollution. 

Solution

  Water pollution is one of the major problems of the Earth as of today. Maybe some of us thinks that this problem don’t have any solution or some are losing their hopes to resolve this problem but that is not right. There are lots of solutions that we can do but the problem is there are only few persons who knows and tries to resolve it.
And last but not the least, we should practice Discipline in ourselves. We must take responsibilities in everything we do. We should have the initiative to do our best to make it happen. It’s not too late to make a move. We must work together to continuously lessen the problem and rebuild a better place for all of us.  

We can summarize those solutions into three major aspects. First solution that we can have is Education. Many of us are not aware of the problems we have in terms of Water Pollution. So the first thing to we need to do is to give them awareness and knowledge about Water Pollution. Educating them will serve as the first step in resolving our problems. Schools should develop their teachings and lessons in the field of conserving and preserving the environment. Even the government should make a way to teach the people on how they can help to eliminate the Water Pollution.

The Law and the Government is also a great help in resolving water pollution. We have lots of law regarding the conservation of the environment but why we cannot minimize the ongoing problem? It is simply because most of us didn’t know that there are existing laws about it and some are ignoring and violating these things. That’s why the government should make an action to resolve this. They need to strengthen and reinforce these laws so that people will know and will follow these certain regulations. It is important also that the implementation of these laws are strict, unbiased and effective to achieve a better result.   

Water pollution is one of the major problems of the Earth as of today. Maybe some of us thinks that this problem don’t have any solution or some are losing their hopes to resolve this problem but that is not right. There are lots of solutions that we can do but the problem is there are only few persons who knows and tries to resolve it.

We can summarize those solutions into three major aspects. First solution that we can have is Education. Many of us are not aware of the problems we have in terms of Water Pollution. So the first thing to we need to do is to give them awareness and knowledge about Water Pollution. Educating them will serve as the first step in resolving our problems. Schools should develop their teachings and lessons in the field of conserving and preserving the environment. Even the government should make a way to teach the people on how they can help to eliminate the Water Pollution.

The Law and the Government is also a great help in resolving water pollution. We have lots of law regarding the conservation of the environment but why we cannot minimize the ongoing problem? It is simply because most of us didn’t know that there are existing laws about it and some are ignoring and violating these things. That’s why the government should make an action to resolve this. They need to strengthen and reinforce these laws so that people will know and will follow these certain regulations. It is important also that the implementation of these laws are strict, unbiased and effective to achieve a better result.   

And last but not the least, we should practice Discipline in ourselves. We must take responsibilities in everything we do. We should have the initiative to do our best to make it happen. It’s not too late to make a move. We must work together to continuously lessen the problem and rebuild a better place for all of us. 

Wildness reminds us what it means to be human, what we are connected to rather than what we are separate from.

— Terry Tempest Williams

Arabian sea humpback whales isolated for 70,000 years

Arabian sea humpback whales isolated for 70,000 years

Date:

December 3, 2014

Source:

Wildlife Conservation Society

Summary:

Scientists have made a fascinating discovery in the northern Indian Ocean: humpback whales inhabiting the Arabian Sea are the most genetically distinct humpback whales in the world and may be the most isolated whale population on earth. The results suggest they have remained separate from other humpback whale populations for perhaps 70,000 years, extremely unusual in a species famed for long distance migrations.

A whale named 'Spitfire' swims in the waters off the island of Hallaniyah in southern Oman. Scientists from WCS, AMNH, and the Environment Society of Oman have found that humpback whales inhabiting the Arabian Sea are the most genetically distinct humpback whales in the world and may be the most isolated whale population on earth.

Credit: Copyright Tobias Friedrich

ientists from WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society), the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), the Environment Society of Oman, and other organizations have made a fascinating discovery in the northern Indian Ocean: humpback whales inhabiting the Arabian Sea are the most genetically distinct humpback whales in the world and may be the most isolated whale population on earth. The results suggest they have remained separate from other humpback whale populations for perhaps 70,000 years, extremely unusual in a species famed for long distance migrations.

The study appears in the online journal PLOS ONE. The authors include: Cristina Pomilla of the Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics at the American Museum of Natural History; Ana R. Amaral of the Universidade de Lisboa; Tim Collins of WCS; Gianna Minton of WWF-Gabon; Ken Findlay of the University of Pretoria; Matthew Leslie of AMNH and WCS; Louisa Ponnampalam of the University of Malaysia; Robert Baldwin of the Environment Society of Oman; and Howard Rosenbaum, Director of the Ocean Giants Program at WCS.

Known for its haunting songs and acrobatics, the humpback whale holds the record for the world's longest mammal migration; individuals have been tracked over a distance of more than 9,000 kilometers between polar feeding areas and tropical breeding areas.

"The epic seasonal migrations of humpbacks elsewhere are well known, so this small, non-migratory population presents a wonderful and intriguing enigma," said WCS researcher and study co-author Tim Collins. "They also beg many questions: how and why did the population originate, how does it persist, and how do their behaviors differ from other humpback whales?"

Previous studies on humpback whales, including several published by WCS, have revealed a great deal of population structure among humpback whales of the Northern Hemisphere and many areas of the Southern Hemisphere, particularly on breeding grounds. At the ocean basin scale, scientists are gaining an understanding of humpback whale gene flow, including in the Southern Indian Ocean. The dynamics and movements of animals in the Arabian Sea, however, are poorly understood.

"We have invested lots of energy working to clarify the population structure of several large whale species around the world," said Dr. Howard Rosenbaum, Director of WCS's Ocean Giants Program and senior author on the study. "The levels of genetic differences for Arabian Sea humpback whales are particularly striking; they are the world's most distinct population of humpback whales and might even shed some light on the environmental factors that shape cetacean populations."

To assess the origins of the Arabian Sea humpback whale population, the research team examined nuclear and mitochondrial DNA extracted from tissue samples that were collected as biopsies from 47 individual whales. The data were then compared to existing data sets from humpback whales in both the Southern Hemisphere and the North Pacific. All of the sampling was conducted in the Sultanate of Oman, a known hotspot for the animals. "We couldn't have conducted this study without the magnificent support of the Sultanate of Oman, and particularly our partnership with the Environment Society of Oman," said Collins

The authors have speculated that the 70,000-year separation might be linked to various glacial episodes in the late Pleistocene Epoch and associated shifts in the strength of the Indian Monsoon. The separation is likely reinforced by breeding cycles that are asynchronous; humpback whales in the Arabian Sea breed on a Northern Hemisphere schedule, whereas the closest whale populations in the Western Indian Ocean (below the equator) breed during a different season. The population's known range includes Yemen, Oman, the UAE, Iran, Pakistan and India, and possibly the Maldives and Sri Lanka.

Other lines of evidence support the genetic data, including an absence of photo-identified individuals from the Arabian Sea appearing with whales in theWestern Indian Ocean (and vice versa). Arabian humpbacks also have far fewer barnacle scars than Southern Hemisphere whales, and a total absence of cookie-cutter shark bites (such bites are common on humpbacks found south of the equator). Future work will explore the possible causal mechanisms for the population's isolation.

The genetic study also revealed a comparatively low level of genetic diversity when compared to other humpback populations, as well as the signatures of both distant and recent genetic bottlenecks, events caused by population declines. The most recent bottleneck may be due to illegal whaling; during two very short periods in 1965 and 1966 Soviet whalers killed 242 humpback whales in the Arabian Sea (39 of the captured females were also pregnant), a potentially devastating loss for a small population. Today, the major and most urgent concern for this population is lethal entanglement in fishing gear and ship strikes. "This latest study strengthens the evidence that we have an urgent conservation priority to attend to, not just in Oman, but with partners across range states," said HH Sayyida Tania Al Said of the Environment Society of Oman. "We are working with stakeholders in Oman to advocate for the importance of conservation of this species and its consideration in development plans. We are also seeking to work with international partners to improve conservation of marine mammals in the wider Arabian Sea, including participation in a regional humpback whale conservation initiative."

"The Arabian Sea humpback whales are the world's most isolated population of this species and definitely the most endangered," added Rosenbaum. "The known and growing risks to this unique population include ship strikes and fishing net entanglement, threats that could be devastating for this diminished population; we need to see increased regional efforts to provide better protection for these whales."

The current best estimate of population size for Arabian Sea humpbacks is fewer than 100 individuals although this is based solely on the work conducted in Oman. The status of the population is reviewed annually by the Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission. The authors of the study recommend that the population be uplisted from "Endangered" to "Critically Endangered" on the IUCN's Red List of Threatened Species