Screening or Sieving and Storage

A surface water treatment plant first screens out as many particles as possible before proceeding with more thorough purification methods.

Screening or Sieving
Large objects such as trash and leaves must first be screened out of the water to be treated. Screening alone cannot purify water, but it is a necessary first step. The water is often passed through several sieves of increasingly tighter meshes. The tighter the mesh, the smaller a particle must be to pass through. A surface water treatment plant first screens out as many particles as possible before proceeding with more thorough purification methods.

Storage
River water may be stored in bankside reservoirs for a few days to many months to allow natural biological purification to occur. Storage is especially important if slow sand filters are to be used. After the water is filtered, it is treated to remove protozoa, bacteria, and other microscopic organisms. Disinfection follows to eliminate any residual organisms. Physical and biological methods are combined to treat highly contaminated waters, such as those from catchments with intensive agriculture.

Here is a list of all the various methods of water treatment.

Flocculation

Sand Filters

Types of Sand Filters

Disinfection

Desalinization

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