Appropriate and Sustainable Wastewater Management in Developing Countries by the Use of Constructed Wetlands

Author(s):  
H. Brix ◽  
T. Koottatep ◽  
O. Fryd ◽  
C.H. Laugesen
2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 110-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alejandra S. Méndez-Mendoza ◽  
Ricardo Bello-Mendoza ◽  
David Herrera-López ◽  
Gamaliel Mejía-González ◽  
Angeles Calixto-Romo

In developing countries located in tropical and subtropical regions, the use of ornamental plant species in constructed wetlands (CWs) could add benefits to the treatment of wastewater. This paper presents a study on the efficiency of using plants of economic importance in South Mexico (Heliconia stricta, Heliconia psittacorum and Alpinia purpurata) within an anaerobic digester horizontal subsurface CW system for treating domestic wastewater. The CW with H. psittacorum showed the highest level of removal of biochemical oxygen demand (48%), chemical oxygen demand (64%), total phosphorus (39%) and total nitrogen (39%). This species and H. stricta (which showed slightly lower percentages of removal) may be a viable alternative to using macrophytes in CW in tropical areas such as Chiapas, Mexico.


2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 97-103
Author(s):  
Kaushik Ghosh ◽  
Arup Sarkar

Urban wastewater management is a crucial challenge in the small and medium towns situated in the developing countries worldwide. These towns are also facing an increasing gap between infrastructure and population growth. A conventional approach to curb these problems is the application of cost-intensive electro-mechanical sewerage technologies, as adopted in developed countries. The first part of this paper derives a set of indicators to framework a sustainable urban wastewater treatment system by reviewing the current state of wastewater management in developing countries, for example, the sample case study being India. The second part evaluates the potential performance of the proposed alternative in-situ hydroponic vetiver system (HVS) against those set of sustainability indicators by reviewing the worldwide performance of the HVS. The objective of this paper is to assess the potential viability of the HVS as a sustainable and cost-effective alternative for developing countries. The current analysis can aid in mainstreaming the use of HVS in policy making and urban planning.


2000 ◽  
Vol 15 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 41-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert L Knight ◽  
Victor W.E Payne ◽  
Robert E Borer ◽  
Ronald A Clarke ◽  
John H Pries

2009 ◽  
Vol 161 (1-4) ◽  
pp. 61-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
May A. Massoud ◽  
Jawaria Tareen ◽  
Akram Tarhini ◽  
Joumana Nasr ◽  
Mey Jurdi

2011 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 654-659 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Zurita ◽  
M. A. Belmont ◽  
J. De Anda ◽  
J. R. White

The aim of this study was to evaluate the domestic wastewater treatment efficiency as well as the survivability of commercially valuable ornamental plants in subsurface flow wetlands (SSFW) for domestic wastewater (DWW) treatment in laboratory and pilot wetland studies. The laboratory scale study included five different species (Zantedeschia aethiopica, Strelitzia reginae, Anthurium andreanum, Canna hybrids and Hemmerocallis dumortieri) that were evaluated in horizontal flow subsurface treatment cells. All the plants survived during the 6-month experimental period demonstrating high wetland nutrient treatment efficiency. In order to validate and expand these preliminary results, a pilot-scale wetland study was carried out in SSFWs under two different flow regimes (horizontal and vertical flow). Four ornamental species were tested during a 1-year period: Zantedeschia aethiopica, Strelitzia reginae, Anthurium andreanum and Agapanthus africanus. The removal efficiencies were significantly higher in the vertical subsurface-flow constructed wetlands (VFCW) for all pollutants, except for nitrate (NO3-N), total nitrogen (TN) and total suspended solids (TSS). These results show that it is feasible to use select non-wetland plants with high market value in SSFWs without reducing the efficiency of the wastewater treatment system, although future work should continue in order to apply this technology in a large scale. The added value of floriculture in treatment wetlands can help to promote the use of constructed wetlands (CW) for domestic wastewater treatment in developing countries where economical resources are scarce and water pollution with DWW is common.


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