Abstract
Wastewater treatment facilities have become sin quo non in ensuring the discharges of high quality wastewater effluents into receiving water bodies and consequence, a healthier environment. Due to massive worldwide increases in human population, water has been predicted to become one of the scarcest resources in the 21st century, and despite large advances in water and wastewater treatments, waterborne diseases still pose a major threat to public health worldwide. Several questions have been raised on the capacity of current wastewater treatment regimes to remove pathogens from wastewater with many waterborne diseases linked to supposedly treated water supplies. One of the major gaps in the knowledge of pathogenic microorganisms in wastewater is the lack of a thorough understanding of the survival and persistence of the different microbial types in different conditions and environments. This therefore brings to the fore the need for a thorough research into the movement and behavior of these microorganisms in wastewaters. In this review paper we give an overview of wastewater treatment practices with particular emphasis on the removal of microbial pathogens. Key words: Wastewater, treatment plants, microbial pathogens, watershed.
Highlights
It has been predicted that, due to massive worldwide increases in the human population, water will become one of the scarcest resources in the 21st century (Day, 1996)
This review addresses the common practices of wastewater treatment with emphasis on the consequences of inadequate treatment regimes resulting in the pollution of the receiving aquatic milieu with microbial pathogens as is common in developing countries
One of the problems associated with the use of bacteria as indicator for the presence of microbial pathogens in water is the greater resistance of protozoan cysts and viruses to environmental factors and treatment processes (Tree et al, 2003; Hijnen et al, 2006; Gomez et al, 2006)
Summary
It has been predicted that, due to massive worldwide increases in the human population, water will become one of the scarcest resources in the 21st century (Day, 1996). One of the problems associated with the use of bacteria as indicator for the presence of microbial pathogens in water is the greater resistance of protozoan cysts and viruses to environmental factors and treatment processes (Tree et al, 2003; Hijnen et al, 2006; Gomez et al, 2006). Viruses in particular are difficult to detect in many water sources due to low numbers, and the difficulty and high cost of culturing (Tanji et al, 2002) To overcome these problems, bacterial viruses (bacteriophages) have been examined for use in faecal pollution and the effectiveness of treatment processes to remove enteric viruses (Ashbolt et al, 2001). Cultured isolates allow subsequent investigations into the virulence and/or clinical significance of environmental pathogen populations (Thompson et al, 2004)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
