Abstract
The aim of this work is to evaluate the reuse of municipal wastewaters treated through subsurface constructed wetlands (SS-CWs) as irrigation water in cut flower aeroponic cultivation under arid conditions. For this purpose, two experimental aeroponic cultivation systems were installed with the cut flower Lilium ‘Tresor’ planted and irrigated with SS-CWs treated water. The results showed that the quality of the SS-CWs wastewater has to be improved to be used in irrigation. Despite that, Lilium ‘Tresor’ grew under arid conditions with normal stem diameters and number of flowers but with heights under 0.65 m, which would restrict their commercialization to local markets. Water electrical conductivity (> 2300 µs/cm) and luminosity (> 120 klux) were factors that affected plant height. When compared to other cultivation systems, the aeroponic cultivation system used between 10 % and 20 % of the amount of water needed to produce Lilium ‘Tresor.’ Thus, this work showed the feasibility to produce cut flowers using an aeroponic cultivation system under arid conditions and irrigated with SS-CWs effluents. Likewise, it was detected that improvements to water quality and luminosity must be made for industrial scaling.
Highlights
In arid areas, such as the Atacama Desert, the low availability of water resources (< 1000 m3/inhabitant-year) is a problem that will tend to increase due to the effect of climate change [1]
The Constructed Wetlands (CWs) proposed in Vera et al [26] would not be sufficient by themselves to achieve the reuse standards in table 1, more stages of treatment or recirculation must be integrated as it has already been done by other authors in CWs systems to treat wastewater under arid conditions [10], [32]
It is necessary to integrate some subsequent disinfection process into the proposed CWs systems for Fecal Coliforms (FC) to reach the standards in table 1
Summary
In arid areas, such as the Atacama Desert, the low availability of water resources (< 1000 m3/inhabitant-year) is a problem that will tend to increase due to the effect of climate change [1]. For this reason, alternative water sources are needed. The total percentage of treated water reused in the Atacama Desert does not exceed 10 % [4], [5], unlike other arid zones, where the percentage can exceed 70 % [6]. The low percentage of wastewater treated and reused in the Atacama Desert can be explained by several reasons. There is an associated factor in the form of low treatment coverage in decentralized or rural areas, with no official figures for the Atacama Desert, but it is estimated that coverage at the country level in Chile, does not exceed 20 % [4]
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