Biological Treatment of Industrial Wastewater

Introduction
The escalating population is causing rapid expansion in agricultural and industrial sectors, and this results in a higher demand for water, which is essential for sustaining every life-form on this blue planet. The major sources of water for irrigation of agricultural fields, industry and human and animal consumption are rivers, groundwater and lakes. Due to climatic changes, the occurrence of floods and droughts has become frequent in many parts of the world. On top of that, increasing water pollution from the waste released from various sectors like industry, agriculture, households, municipalities, etc., has greatly contributed to the decline of the quality and quantity
of potable water. Therefore, the proper treatment of wastewater before disseminating it into water bodies has become indispensable to maximize the quality and quantity of potable water. Polluted water can be defined as water that contains excessive hazardous contaminants that make it unsuitable for drinking, cooking, bathing and other uses.1 Water pollution generally results from human activity, and the pollutants released mostly come from industrial dumps, sewage leakages, oil spillages, heavy metals, animal wastes, chemical wastes, eroded sediments, deforestation, littering, fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, etc. These sectors consume around one-third of
renewable freshwater that is available and the pollutants released by them contain various synthetic and natural chemical contaminants.