FIELD: waste water treatment. SUBSTANCE: invention relates to alkali reagent useful in reagent method for neutralization and cleaning of acidic effluents coming from artificial fiber and galvanic enterprises to remove heavy metal ions, e.g. zinc ions. In a method involving consecutively treating peat with acid and alkali, peat is preliminarily granulated, held in hydrochloric acid solution, and then treated first with primary portion of alkali to full saturation, after which fresh portion of alkali with the same pH value as in the first step is passed through alkali saturated peat to achieve equilibrium state of inlet and outlet pH and to obtain peat-alkali filtrate used as reagent. Advantageously, peat is granulated to fraction 5-12 mm. In this case, peat is held in 0.1 N hydrochloric acid solution at stirring until pH value 4.75-5.5 in solution is reached. Invention employs sodium hydroxide solution as alkali, in which pH 5.1-6.5 is established after full saturated of peat. EFFECT: enhanced treatment efficiency and reduced alkali reagent consumption. 6 cl, 1 tbl, 2 ex
