Capacity of wastewater treatment plants, 1980-2001
Almost all wastewater from companies (92%) and households (98%) is treated at wastewater treatment plants. A number of companies that produce a lot of wastewater treat it in their own wastewater treatment plants.
Developments in urban wastewater treatment plants (UWWTPs)
These days approximately 92% of the wastewater flow discharged from companies and almost 98% of that discharged from households goes to urban wastewater treatment plants. The capacity of these plants has more or less matched population growth in recent years. As a result of the implementation of the European Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive (VROM/V&W, 1996), substantial technical modifications are being made to UWWTPs in order to achieve better treatment for nutrients. The aim is to reduce discharges to, and the burden on, surface water by eutrophying substances.
- Emissions into water in the Netherlands, 1990-2001
- Discharges into water and burden on surface water in the Netherlands, 1990, 1995, 1999 and 2000
Developments in wastewater treatment plants
The numbers and capacity of industrial wastewater treatment plants rose strongly in the eighties, due in part to the cleanup programme for oxygen-demanding substances. For large-scale dischargers, it became more economically appealing to treat their wastewater themselves because of the considerable reductions in costs for pollution levies.
