Biomedical Letters

Ecological wastewater treatment system: Management approach to solve sanitation and water problems

Haq Nawaz Abbasi 1, Waqar Ahmed 1*, Muhammad Imran Nasir 1, Xiwu Lu 2

1 Department of Environmental Science, Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science & Technology, Karachi, Pakistan

2 School of Energy and Environment, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China

Abstract

Wastewater contains various types of pollutants, such as nutrients, solids, organic carbon, metals, inorganic salts, pathogens, etc. Therefore, effective wastewater treatment is crucial for public health as well as for environmental concern. On the other hand, water management with limited water resources is a great challenge in most countries. The freshwater shortage is seriously affecting the economic and social growth of developing nations. An ecological wastewater treatment system is a concept towards ecologically and economically sounds wastewater management. Water and organic nutrients in wastewater consider as a resource and can reuse and recycle in agriculture. The study reviewed the principles and concepts of the ecological wastewater treatment system and a case study of the ecological treatment system by growing economic vegetation. A hybrid constructed wetland (CW) system was used to investigate the performance. The CW system showed high removal efficiency for TP (total phosphorus), NH4 (ammonium), and TN (total nitrogen). The removal efficiencies were 97%, 75%, and 64% for TP, NH4-N, and TN, respectively. Ecological wastewater treatment system is cost-effective, and energy-saving also offers nutrients recycling, water reuse, recreation activities, and vegetation growth.