Today in the 21st century, with the accelerated development of industrialization and urbanization, environmental problems have increasingly become the focus of global attention. Among them, the problem of water pollution is particularly prominent, and as one of the key means to solve this problem, sewage treatment technology is facing unprecedented challenges. Especially in the context of increasing awareness of environmental protection and increasingly strict relevant laws and regulations, how to treat sewage efficiently and economically has become a common problem faced by all sectors of society.

I. Overview of challenges

1. The surge in sewage volume and complicated composition.

With the increase of population and industrial activities, the amount of sewage produced has risen sharply. At the same time, due to the wide application of new chemicals, modern sewage contains not only traditional pollutants such as organic matter and suspended particles, but also many new types of pollutants that are difficult to degrade, such as heavy metals and drug residues, which brings new problems to sewage treatment.

2. Improvement of environmental protection standards

In order to cope with the increasingly serious water pollution, governments all over the world have introduced stricter standards to regulate the sewage treatment process. For example, the demand for the concentration of some specific pollutants (such as nitrogen and phosphorus) in the effluent is getting lower and lower, which puts forward higher technical and management requirements for the existing sewage treatment facilities.

3. Demand for resource recycling

Faced with the shortage of water resources, people began to pay attention to recycling valuable resources from sewage, such as generating biogas through anaerobic digestion and extracting useful minerals. But this requires more advanced technology and higher input cost, and it also increases the difficulty of operation.

Second, coping strategies

In view of the above challenges, we can find solutions from the following aspects:

Technological innovation: continuously research and develop new treatment processes and technologies with high efficiency and energy saving, such as membrane bioreactor (MBR) and advanced oxidation process (AOPs), so as to adapt to changing water quality conditions.

Policy support: the government should increase financial subsidies and encourage enterprises to upgrade with advanced equipment; Improve the system of laws and regulations to provide a good external environment for the development of the industry.

Public participation: strengthen environmental protection publicity and education, raise the awareness of water saving and emission reduction of the whole people, and form a good social atmosphere.

In a word, with the increasing pressure of environmental protection, only through various efforts can we overcome the current sewage treatment challenges and achieve the goal of sustainable development. In the future, we expect more innovative thinking and technology to be applied in actual production, so that every drop of water can be used reasonably and effectively.