Ecological Engineering System Using Floating Macrophytes for the Treatment of Domestic Wastewaters

Abstract

Water scarcity is a global issue due to the rapid increase in population and overexploitation of resources, which endures an imbalance between availability and demand of bluewater footprint. As a part of the Sustainable Development Goal (Goal 6: Clean Water and Sanitation), the present study designs an Ecologically Engineered System (EES) in this context. The SDGs goals were developed and had the targets for restoring and maintaining ecosystems to provide water-related services and prevent water scarcity problems. The targets indicate the need to integrate ecosystem values into planning, development processes, and strategies for reducing water scarcity. A semi pilot EES was designed with three tanks setup such as floating macrophytes (water hyacinth tank 1), submerged plants (water thymes tank 2), and emergent plants (water lettuce tank 3). The reactor was operated using domestic wastewater in a continuous mode with a flow rate of 20 l/d. Treatment performance was monitored in terms of COD, nutrients, sulphates, turbidity, etc. The study infers that after several cycles of operation, the system was well-optimized for wastewater treatment. Enhanced COD removal efficiency of 71% was observed in addition to other pollutants. The study hypothesized that EES could be an effective strategy to restore the water bodies.