Design of wastewater treatment for rural village China

Abstract

Presently, China is facing many environmental and water problems. With the rise of industries and the increasing demand on agriculture these has also give rise to severe river pollution in China. A wastewater treatment system is to be implemented on a rural village in China to improve the living standards of the villagers as well as the river’s water quality. Another area of concern is the cost of the system and how it affects the agricultural life of the villagers. By exploiting the fact that nature has its own means to treat wastewater, it is not necessary to use high technology system. The system designed in NTU is set to treat the greywater produced by the villagers through wetland and aeration. Wetland uses a combination of plants and retention time to absorb organic compound from the water. Wetland is placed near the household such that the greywater from the household is treated before it reaches the river. Aeration is placed on the river to provide oxygen and maintain the aquatic life as well as to restore the water quality from pollutant in the river. Parameter such as chemical oxygen demand, nitrogen, dissolved oxygen and phosphorus are tested to determine the efficiency of the system. The effluent result from the system implementation has met the standards of surface water set by Chinese government.