Field investigation on rural domestic sewage discharge in a typical village of the Taihu Lake Basin

Abstract

Rural sewage is an important non-point pollution that aggravates eutrophication of the Taihu Lake. Practically grasping the characteristics of local villages’ sewage treatment demand, sewage flow and sewage quality has far-reaching significance for constructing suitable and efficient rural sewage treatment systems, and ultimately improving the water environment of the lake basin. To this end, the study conducted a field investigation in a typical village of the Taihu Lake Basin in July and continuously monitored sewage flow and sewage quality in the mode of sewage classification. The sewage quality test included chemical oxygen demand (COD), total nitrogen (TN), ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N), and total phosphorus (TP). This paper reviewed the development status of the typical village and demonstrated the rules of rural domestic water consumption and sewage discharge. It was found that the total sewage discharge flow in summer was around 88.90 L/(cap . d) and the hourly variation coefficient was around 3.92. Kitchen sewage, washing sewage, and toilet sewage had significant differences in sewage quality. Particularly, the nitrogen and phosphorus nutrients in toilet sewage were quite rich, accounting for 84.42% and 61.90% of the corresponding total load, respectively. Thus, the ideas of properties-classified treatment and resource treatment were worth being introduced into the rural sewage treatment process.