Removal capacity of faecal pathogens from wastewater by four wetland vegetation: Typha latifolia, Cyperus papyrus, Cyperus alternifolius and Phragmites australis

Abstract

The ability of four wetland vegetation: Typha latifolia, Cyperus papyrus, Cyperus alternifolius and Phragmites mauritianus in removing pathogenic and indicator microorganisms in the wetlands were studied in bucket experiments. The findings suggested that vegetated systems can effectively reduce faecal pathogens in wastewater. Both Salmonella species and Escherichia coli removal efficiencies were above 98%. This proved the positive use of plants in bacteria removal from wastewater. Nevertheless, removal of faecal bacteria differed significantly between macrophytes where C. alternifolius and T. latifolia were the most effective followed by C. papyrus and the least was P. mauritianus. The study also observed no significant difference between planted and unplanted buckets. The effect of physicochemical parameters such as dissolved oxygen, pH, temperature and salinity were thought to influence the bacterial removal.

Phytoremediation Using Aquatic Plants

“…Similarly, in an experimental CW system, Makvana & Sharma(2013)demonstrated removal rates of 94%, 87% and 94% for Salmonella, Shigella and Vibrio,respectively. However, the removal of Salmonella and E. colifrom water in unplanted control mesocosms versus mesocosms containingTypha latifolia, Cyperus papyrus, Cyperus alternifolius and Phragmites australisshowed no significant difference in the removal rates (>98 %) between the two treatments; furthermore,in general, unplanted mesocosms reached their maximum removal rate before the planted mesocosms(with the exception of theC.alternifoliusmesocosm) suggesting that plants provide little additional benefit for removing biological pollutants over and above the effect of standing water conditions (Kipasika et al, 2016). Similarly, a review comparing Lemna sp.…”

Land use/land cover dynamics, trade-offs and implications on tropical inland shallow lakes’ ecosystems’ management: Case of Lake Malombe, Malawi

“…Increased built-up land use areas in the lake catchment are done at the expense of biodiversity, some EPS such as fishery, supporting and regulatory services such as water purification and carbon sequestration). Aquatic plants such as Pennisetum purpureum schumach, Phragmites mauritianu, Typha latifolia, and Cyperus papyrus play a significant role in climate regulation through carbon sequestration (Kayranli et al, 2010;Were et al, 2021), water quality purification through the removal of heavy metals (Bernardini et al, 2016;Ceschin et al, 2021;Parzych et al, 2016), fecal pathogens removal (Kipasika et al, 2016), nutrients regulation, habitant provision (Bornette & Puijalon, 2011) and flood regulation (Rooney et al, 2013;Scheffer et al, 2003;Wang et al, 2019). Aquatic plants such as Typha domingensis, Terminalia sericea, Azadirachta indica found in They culturally provide services to local communities and cure diseases such as bilharzia, pneumonia, diarrhea, antiseptic wounds, and Malaria (Pullanikkatil et al, 2018).…”

Evaluación del Aporte de las Plantas Acuáticas Pistia stratiotes y Eichhornia crassipes en el Tratamiento de Aguas Residuales Municipales

“…También se han usado la Eichhornia crassipess y Césped para remover diversos contaminantes presentes en ARM entre ellos los metales pesados (Rezania et al, 2015;Carreño y Granada, 2017). Al igual que se han usado Typha latifolia, Cyperus papyrus, Cyperus alternifolius y Pharagmites asutralis para remover patógenos como coliformes fecales (Kipasika et al, 2016).…”