Abstract
The present investigation was conducted to monitor the physico-chemical characteristics and microbial load of sewage treatment plants (STPs) around the Dal Lake. The results show highly significant (P chemical oxygen demand (COD) > conductivity and fecal coliform (FC) > total coliform (TCC) > fecal streptococcus (FS) in the case of physico-chemical parameters and microbial characteristics, respectively. The overall performance of the wastewater treatment plant effectively removed TCC, FC and FS as follows, 52, 65 and 45%, respectively. Raw sewage showed insignificant (p>0.05) variation in some of the physico-chemical features and microbial load between the three STPs. Similarly, effluent also showed insignificant (p>0.05) variation in some of the physico-chemical features and microbial load, except conductivity which showed significant difference between the three STPs. Efficiency rates showed significant (p<0.05) differences in COD between the three STPs. The removal efficiency rate was not dependent on the type of STP and the year. It can be concluded from the study that the majority of physico-chemical features and microbial load exceeded the permissible limit as per Indian national standards. Therefore as per the results, it is suggested that the effluent should be pretreated before disposing into the environment. In addition, there is an urgent need to improve their efficiency rate by including advanced tertiary treatment processes such as rapid sand filtration, UV disinfection, chlorination, effluent polishing, construction of artificial wetlands, etc. Keywords: Microbial load, sewage treatment plants, contamination load, efficiency rate African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(17), pp. 2224-2233,
Highlights
Urbanization, industrialization, modernization as well as agricultural activities have put tremendous pressure on the limited freshwater resources, causing eutrophication and pollution of freshwater bodies all over the world
Wastewater is a major burden for water bodies and improper disposal of sewage leads to oxygen demand, increased nutrient concentration and promotion of toxic algal blooms leading to a destabilized aquatic ecosystem
Insignificant differences were observed in the efficiency rate of STP name and location Design capacity/day (MLD) Land required Average flow rate at inlet Peak flow rate
Summary
Urbanization, industrialization, modernization as well as agricultural activities have put tremendous pressure on the limited freshwater resources, causing eutrophication and pollution of freshwater bodies all over the world. Abrupt increase in production and domestic use of organic chemicals has obliged sewage treatment plants (STPs) to improve their efficiency. In addition to other anthropogenic activities, sewage discharges from STPs are considered a major contributor of contamination in this urban lake of Kashmir. It has been seen by various agencies that India wastewater is comprised of high levels of organic, inorganic and microbial contaminants (Bohdziewicz and Sroca, 2006). Extensive work has been carried out to study the physico-chemical removal efficiencies of STPs, whereas there is less literature regarding the microbial load in wastewater treatment plants and their removal efficiency. Sewage from households is collected via a sewer system and flows to STP for treatment of chemicals and microbial load. The high level of fecal contamination and enteric viruses present in raw sewage is a major concern for public health and the environment; and assessment of sewage is essential to safeguard the public health (Okoh et al, 2005, 2007)
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