Characteristics of greywater from different sources within households in a community in Durban, South Africa

S Mtsweni,S Rathilal,B F Bakare

doi:10.2166/wrd.2016.092

Abstract

The reuse of greywater is steadily gaining importance in South Africa. Greywater contains pollutants that could have adverse effects on the environment and public health if the water is not treated before reuse. Successful implementation of any greywater treatment process depends largely on its characteristics in terms of the pollutant strength. This study investigated the physico-chemical characteristics of greywater from different sources within 75 households in a community in Durban, South Africa. The study was undertaken to create an understanding of greywater quality from different sources within and between households. Greywater samples were collected from the kitchen, laundry and bathing facilities within each of the households. The samples were analysed for: pH, conductivity, turbidity, total solids, chemical oxygen demand (COD) and biological oxygen demand (BOD). There was a significant difference in the parameters analysed between the greywater from the kitchen compared with the greywater from the bathtub/shower and laundry. It was also observed that the characteristics of greywater from the different households varied considerably. The characteristics of the greywater obtained in this study suggest that the greywater generated cannot be easily treatable using biological treatment processes and/or technologies due to the very low mean BOD : COD ratio (&lt;0.5).

Highlights

The shortage of potable water is one of the major challenges that many countries are facing today; the situation is becoming very serious and is worsening as many of these countries are experiencing drought (WHO )
The relatively higher pH values for greywater collected from the laundry and from bathing may be due to the alkalinity of the type of detergent and/or soap used for these activities
The purpose of this paper was to provide an understanding of the physico-chemical characteristics of greywater from different sources within randomly selected households in a peri-urban community in Durban, South Africa

Summary

Introduction

The shortage of potable water is one of the major challenges that many countries are facing today; the situation is becoming very serious and is worsening as many of these countries are experiencing drought (WHO ). In South Africa, and around the world, there has been an increase in This has led to large-scale interest in the application of water reclamation and reuse of domestic, mining and industrial wastewater as alternative water supply sources (Carden et al ; Edwin et al ).

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