Human Overpopulation and Water Pollution

Author(s):  
Gargi Sharma ◽  
Pravin Kumar Mutiyar

The increased human population is threatening the natural water resources by reducing flows and deteriorating quality. High levels contamination of fecal microbes in Indian water resources is one of the worst impact on natural environment. The incomplete sewage treatment in existing STPs is the root cause it, along with disposal of untreated sewage. Fecal microbes even after the secondary treatment demands the further reduction, hence, an alternative method of vertical flow constructed wetland was adopted to examine the efficiency of the system. The study was aimed to primarily to suggest the suitability and comparative performance of wetland species, P. australis and C. indica. Study revealed the importance of fibrous rooting system of C. indica which helps to enhance aerobicity within the system and cause the reduced number of microbes. The additive enhancement of physical mechanism as well as competition among microflora within the wetland system and excretions from roots of C. indica plant might have been the reason of the significant highest removal of microbial indicators.

2020 ◽  
pp. 1587-1601
Author(s):  
Gargi Sharma ◽  
Pravin Kumar Mutiyar

The increased human population is threatening the natural water resources by reducing flows and deteriorating quality. High levels contamination of fecal microbes in Indian water resources is one of the worst impact on natural environment. The incomplete sewage treatment in existing STPs is the root cause it, along with disposal of untreated sewage. Fecal microbes even after the secondary treatment demands the further reduction, hence, an alternative method of vertical flow constructed wetland was adopted to examine the efficiency of the system. The study was aimed to primarily to suggest the suitability and comparative performance of wetland species, P. australis and C. indica. Study revealed the importance of fibrous rooting system of C. indica which helps to enhance aerobicity within the system and cause the reduced number of microbes. The additive enhancement of physical mechanism as well as competition among microflora within the wetland system and excretions from roots of C. indica plant might have been the reason of the significant highest removal of microbial indicators.


1997 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 733-750
Author(s):  
R. Mark Palmer

Abstract Sewage treatment studies at the watershed scale, compared to case-by-case community projects, ensures the most cost-efficient investment of funds commensurate with environmental requirements to sustain growth. A three-year environmental assessment study for the town of New Tecumseth, Ontario, examined all nutrient inputs to the Nottawasaga River watershed. Other challenging watershed constraints were investigated, such as stream and river flow takings for irrigation and sediment transport, prior to the selection of the master sewage treatment plan. The findings from the field research and computer modelling were used to (1) place a realistic perspective on nutrient impacts, present and future, attributable to treated sewage effluent; (2) design a master plan that could be used as an opportunity in terms of reusing the effluent locally for agricultural irrigation; (3) provide a real-time assurance of the plan’s performance/compliance, based on the actual carrying capacity of the aquatic ecosystem; (4) stage the construction of the plan in a cost-effective and environmentally sound manner; and (5) recommend a water resources management strategy to control other nutrient and sediment load sources within the watershed. The recommended master sewage treatment plan and water resources management strategy can restore the Ministry of Environment and Energy provincial water quality objective concentration for total phosphorus within the river during 7Q20 flow conditions.


1989 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 93-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Sadler

The suitability of sedimentary urease activity as a potential tracer for sewage outfall plumes has been examined. Enzyme activity is readily measured in the sediments by a relatively simple procedure and results may be obtained within a few hours of sampling. The results of urease measurements in areas around point source discharges were compared with bacteriological data for the same areas. Three areas were selected for study: a discharge of untreated sewage into a harbour, a discharge from a sewage treatment plant to a river and a discharge from a contaminated drain to a small beach. In all cases, positive correlation between the distribution of the two parameters was observed. Urease activity probably reflects the movement of soluble products from the outfall whereas E.coli represents the particulate phase of the discharge. Although further work will be required, urease activity does offer a potential alternative to E.coli for tracing plumes of faecal pollution.


1998 ◽  
Vol 38 (11) ◽  
pp. 59-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Aramaki ◽  
T. Matsuo

The objective of this study is to evaluate the conceptual scenarios of various water resources and quality management on the same level of policy decisions for optimizing river basin management. First, the water and pollutants balance model in the upper reaches of the Tone River is proposed. This model has the following characteristics: (1) Water quantity and quality at various target points of the rivers are estimated simultaneously, with a statistical evaluation for the uncertainty of hydrological events; (2) The management scenarios include selection of water savings in domestic use, reservoir construction, the expansion of sewerage coverage and so on. Several interesting results supporting policy making are obtained as follows: (1) Fifteen percent reduction in domestic use is sufficient as a substitute for new reservoir; (2) the expansion of sewage coverage in the upper reaches has large effects on reduction of BOD and COD, but the nutrient removal process should be introduced in sewage treatment plants for reduction of TN and TP.


2009 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 779-786 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gopal Chandra Ghosh ◽  
Takashi Okuda ◽  
Naoyuki Yamashita ◽  
Hiroaki Tanaka

The occurrence and elimination of seventeen antibiotics (three macrolides: azithromycin, clarithromycin and roxithromycin; five quinolones: ciprofloxacin, enrofloxacin, levofloxacin, nalidixic acid and norfloxacin; five sulfonamides: sulfadimethoxine, sulfadimizine, sulfamerazine, sulfamethoxazole and sulfamonomethoxine; and others: tetracycline, lincomycin, salinomycin and trimethoprim) were investigated at four full-scale sewage treatment plants in Japan. The highest concentration was recorded for clarithromycin (1,129 to 4,820 ng/L) in influent, followed by azithromycin (160 to 1,347 ng/L), levofloxacin (255 to 587 ng/L) and norfloxacin (155 to 486 ng/L). A vary inconsistence picture was obtained with negative to over 90% removal. Nalidixic acid (53 to100%) exhibited higher removal efficiency followed by norfloxacin (75 to 95%), levofloxacin (40 to 90%), ciprofloxacin (60 to 83%) and enrofloxacin (38 to 74%). Among macrolides, clarithromycin (50 to 88%) and azithromycin (34 to 86%) showed relatively higher removal efficiency than roxithromycin (−32 to 59%). For most of the antibiotics removal efficiency was higher in A2O and AO based secondary treatment process than CAS process. The effect of the antibiotics on bacterial ammonia oxidation determined by oxygen uptake rate presented that there was no significant effect below 0.05 mg/L of each antibiotics. Even at the same concentration, antibiotics in mixed condition had higher inhibition effects than individuals.


2006 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Myrmel ◽  
E. M.M. Berg ◽  
B. Grinde ◽  
E. Rimstad

Samples collected every two weeks from the inlet and outlet of three sewage treatment plants were screened for the presence of noro-, rota-, astro-, adeno-, hepatitis A- and circoviruses by (RT)-nested PCR, and for F-specific bacteriophages by isolation in Escherichia coli Famp. Plants A and B were secondary treatment plants and plant C used primary treatment. Noroviruses were detected in 43%, 53% and 24% of the inlet samples and 26%, 40% and 21% of the outlet samples from plants A, B and C, respectively. Astroviruses, rotaviruses and adenoviruses were more prevalent. Adenoviruses were detected in 96% of inlet and 94% of outlet samples, supporting the potential of these viruses as indicators of viral contamination from sewage. Hepatitis A virus and circoviruses were found only rarely. Reduction of infective viral particles during sewage treatment was evaluated using F-specific bacteriophages. The phages were reduced by, respectively, 99%, 87% and 0% in plants A, B and C, which corresponded to the observed differences in reduction of norovirus positive samples between the same plants. The study shows that the high viral load in sewage results in a discharge to the environment of a large amount of virus despite sewage treatment. On the other hand, the advantage of a more advanced treatment is demonstrated.


2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valdecir Dos Santos ◽  
Elis Marina Turini Claro ◽  
Renato Nallin Montagnolli ◽  
Paulo Renato Matos Lopes ◽  
Ederio Dino Bidoia ◽  
...  

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