Dutch water chain typically covers the following steps. Firstly,
the potable water supplied to households is largely groundwater,
sourced from aquifers. This groundwater is prepared through
aeration, mineral sedimentation, sand filtration, and sometimes
softening through reducing salts. It is also de-nitrified where
nitrates from the land and water surface infiltrate aquifers. Where
river water is used, preparation usually requires activated carbon
and additional chemical treatments with ozone, or cheaper chlorine,
coagulation, sedimentation or flocculation, and sand filtration.
Natural treatment of surface water through dune infiltration into
a managed aquifer is sometimes applied.
The first stage of wastewater treatment involves the mechanical
removal of the suspended solids. Almost 90% of organic matter is
removed in the biologically activated sludge, and more than 95% of
all nitrogen is biologically removed through a nitrification–denitrification
process in the second stage. The most advanced plants
remove more than 95% of nitrates and phosphates chemically
through precipitation in the third stage of wastewater treatment.
The removed sludge is dried, digested for biogas winning and
disposed on landfills, or incinerated. The cost of preparing potable
water is between V0.15 and V0.20 per cubic metre for clean
groundwater up to V0.50 or more for surface water. The cost of
wastewater treatment per cubic metre varies from less than V0.20
for mechanical treatment up more than V1.00 for the three-stage
treatment.
The new technologies are m