water treatment plant

On November 5th, all the Q module went to the water treatment plant for a field trip. There we had a quick tour around the treatment plant, and learned they cleaned the water. Then, we watched a movie about the steps.

1. The first step was taking out all the floating garbage in the water. Often garbages like plastic bags and diapers flow in with the water, and they need to be removed. There are big iron gate-like fences, which lets the water flow in, but not the garbage. It hooks the garbage, removing it from the water.

2. The second step was adding minerals and oxygenating, once the garbage was removed. This was done for aeration, letting some oxygen mix with the water. Adding good and healthy minerals for us was also done in the second step.

3. The third step was adding chemicals, which also included allum. Allum was put in, and all the big pieces of dirt floated upwards, making a hay-and-water sort of gooey mixture called floc. It was the first step of removing dirt from the water, and to clean it.

4. The fourth step was taking out the floc. A lot of people just think floc as a waste and throw them away, but the water treatment send the floc to a waste tower, where they make a paste using the floc. The paste is used to build houses and stuff. So, the water treatment plant was being nature-friendly!

5. The fifth step was filtration and disinfection. The remaining water passed through a layer of very fine sand for last removal of any dirt left, and then more chemicals were added for disinfection for one more time. This was part was one of the most important step, because they had to make sure the water was clean.

I had a pretty fun time at the water treatment plant. It was really cool how they transformed the murky, dirty brown water to a perfectly drinkable water. I never knew this much steps were done for my shower water and stuff. I think I'm really lucky to get all this clean water quickly, whenever I want it.