Treatment of domestic wastewater by constructed wetland

Constructed wetlands are natural wastewater treatment systems increasingly employed in the last few years for domestic wastewaters, as an alternative to conventional treatment systems, because of low energy demand, low capital and operations-maintenance costs, simple operation and low sludge generation.In this study, the treatment performance of a horizontal flow constructed wetland technology has been evaluated, which was built in the Doğantepe Village, Geyve, Sakarya. Constructed wetland was planted with Typhia latifolia. In the study, the removal efficiency of total suspended solids (TSS), chemical oxygen demand (COD),five-day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5), ammonium-nitrogen(NH4+- N) and nitrate-nitrogen (NO3?-N) were measured for a period of 7 months, during October 2007-April 2008.According to the results obtained the average pollution removal efficiencies by constructed wetland were 91%-96% for TSS,75%-91% for COD, %90-%93 BOD, 22%-34% forNH4-N and 65%-75% for NO3-N. These results indicated that, wetlands might be an applicable system for the treatment of the domestic wastewater releasing from the rural areas during the winter period.Key Words: Domestic wastewater, treatment, constructed wetland, Typha latifolia L.,