How can water purify itself?​

Created By RISC | 2 years ago

Last modified date : 2 years ago

Many people associate "water sources" with swamps, reservoirs, ponds, or even lakes located in parks or villages. But ever wondered what the purposes of these are?​

Water sources primarily serve as water storage for plant watering, rainwater, urban flood mitigation, marine animal habitats, temperature reduction for evaporation, or as human activity space.​

In fact, there are other benefits from water sources such as to support wastewater from urban wastewater treatment, and improve water quality or "self-purification".​

In general, community wastewater contains organisms as major components. When it enters water sources, ponds, or wetlands, natural microorganisms dissolve the organism, converting it to inorganic matter or liquid fertilizer. We can see it from the green color of the water caused by seaweeds or natural aquatic plants. They will photosynthesize and produce oxygen, which will be returned to the microorganism to help it decompose the dirt. To have a high potential for people, waste must be balanced with decomposing and natural self-purification processes during this process. On the other hand, if the waste amount from any water source exceeds the carrying capacity, the balancing process will fail, resulting in wastewater that affects both animals and humans.​

Story by Thanawat Jinjaruk, Senior Researcher, Environment Division, RISC