Quo Vadis Chemical Treatment?

Abstract

There are very early testimonies to man’s cleverness water management, such as the water supply of the nearly inaccessible Pergamon castle (Garbrecht, 1983), the ingenious sewerage system of Greek cities such as Ephesus and the supply and disposal systems of ancient Rome, including sedimentation tanks as treatment units (Frontinus, translated by Kuhne, 1983). Yet, much of this experience and knowledge was lost in later times, necessitating a close-to-new beginning at the dawning of the industrial age with its growing population density and increasing streams of industrial wastewaters. Thus, an analysis of water technological development usually begins shortly before the turn of the century when large (industrialized) metropoles all over the western world experienced many and severe epidemics of water-borne diseases (Fair, Geyer, Okun, 1966).

Time is the nurse and, breeder of all good. (Shakespeare)