UN studies show that high-income, developed nations treat about 70 percent of their wastewater. However, in low-income developing nations, only 8 percent of wastewater undergoes any kind of treatment. Inadequate water treatment has serious consequences for both human health and the environment.
The articles in this compendium provide a representative cross sample of both developing and developed nations' water treatment facilities. Included are the following topics:
- Reclaimed water for irrigation reuse in developing countries
- Sludge-handling practices in Micronesia
- The removal of phthalate esters from Chinese water sources
- Disposal of domestic wastewater in Nigeria
- Ameba-enrichment in a South African water treatment plant
- Bioenergy from wastewater produced by a Brazilian meat-processing plant
- The presence of various pharmaceutical contaminants in the River Thames
- Wastewater recycling in Greece
- The impact on surface water from contaminants released from German water treatment plants
- A Canadian constructed wetland's effectiveness for the removal of various contaminants from wastewater
- Accessing irrigation from treated wastewater in the United States
- The spacial distribution of fecal indicator bacteria in the groundwater beneath two American water treatment plants
- Detection of contamination from retinoid acid reception agonists in Japanese water treatment plants
The editor, a respected international expert in the field, has selected investigations that offer essential information for ongoing research at the graduate and professional levels, as well as for environmental engineers and others responsible for choosing the most efficient water treatment technologies.
Professor Victor Monsalvo is an environmental scientist with a PhD in chemical engineering from the University Autonoma de Madrid, where he later became a professor in the chemical engineering department. As a researcher, he has worked with the following universities: Leeds, Cranfield, Sydney, and Aachen. He is part of an active research team working in areas of environmental technologies, water recycling, and advanced biological systems, including membrane bioreactors. He has led eight research projects with private companies and an R&D national project, coauthored two patents (national and international), and written around fifty journal and referred conference papers. He has given two key notes in international conferences and has been a member of the organizing committee of five national and international conferences, workshops, and summer schools, and is currently involved in fifteen research projects sponsored by various entities. He is currently working as senior researcher in the Chemical Processes Department at Abengoa Research.
