Waste water treatment plants are places where wastewater from industries and households is treated to recover as much as possible from the treated water. Wastewater treatment plants are often located in septic tanks, which are designed to treat sewer wastes and sewage for industrial purposes, domestic purposes and for other purposes. Waste water treatment is a special procedure applied to remove chemicals in wastewater or sewage that are harmful for public health and to convert it to an effluent that is suitable for reuse or for other purposes.

Such treatment plants do more than simply segregate the treated water. In addition, it purifies it and adds important nutrients to it in order to make it suitable for human consumption. The waste water is usually discharged into natural bodies of water such as streams or rivers. There are also wastewater treatment plants, which are located near factories and power plants, so that the industrial wastewater is also disposed of properly.

Sewage treatment plants use a number of procedures to get rid of different contaminants present in wastewater. These include deionization, granulation and carbonization, sedimentation, carbon filtration, submicron filtration and deionization. Deionization involves removing heavy metals and heavy chemical by-products, whereas carbon filtration reduces organic compounds such as pesticides and herbicides. Submicron filtration removes microorganisms, sedimentation is used to improve the quality of the wastewater and carbon filtration helps to eliminate volatile organic compounds such as benzene and acetaldehyde.

Carbonization is an important process that converts organic materials into carbon dioxide. This carbon dioxide gas then passes through a series of heat-treatment steps to make it suitable for air conditioning and gasification. The final step is deionization. The process makes the water suitable for human consumption by converting the unwanted particles in it, to sodium and magnesium salts. Some processes are combined to make water suitable for human consumption. The most common methods include distillation, deionization, carbon filtration and reverse osmosis.

Wastewater treatment plants are required to comply with many regulations to ensure the safe handling and disposal of wastewater. These regulations involve environmental protection, public health, occupational safety, cost effectiveness and the elimination of unnecessary waste. Wastewater treatment plants generally follow these guidelines in their treatment of wastewater. However, there are certain regulations which apply only to specific types of wastewater.

Wastewater must not contain any hazardous substance at any stage. Wastewater must also be free from harmful chemicals at all stages.