Preliminary studies on the possibility of recovering water from wastewater using constructed wetlands

Due to climate change, among other factors, many countries are experiencing problems with water resources consumed by population, industry and agriculture.In addition to the implementation of water conservation, it may be necessary to use the process of water recovery from treated wastewater discharged to receivers.One of the factors facilitating the reuse of treated wastewater is the use of increasingly efficient municipal and industrial wastewater treatment systems.The authors' used constructed wetland (CW) beds for wastewater treatment, as a simple, inexpensive and effective way to carry out the project of water recovery.The scientific objective of the study was to determine the treatment efficiency of organic matter, nutrients and microbial during CW treatment of sewage discharged from municipal and dairy WWTPs.The analysis concerned the basic parameters of wastewater after treatment in municipal and dairy wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), namely the content of organic matter and biogenic compounds.Microbiological tests included determination of the total coliform (TC) and Esherichia Coli (EC) index.The treatment efficiency in relation to the unit area of the CW beds was determined.Dairy sewage used in the study was characterized by significantly lower microbial contamination in comparison with municipal sewage, which predisposes them to be used in the process of water recovery.The conducted research indicates a high potential of CW for water recovery from wastewater, providing an alternative to conventional technologies.