Research of the utilization of constructed wetland technology in rural areas of Çukurova region

This study with a view to examine the wastewater treatment performance ofconstructed wetlands in rural areas of Çukurova Region were conducted for tenweeks along during summer period from June 2005 to August 2005 to evaluateperformance of the municipal wastewater treatment constructed wetland inYeniyayla, which was selected as a pilot village for the ?Natural Treatment Project?by General Directorate of Rural Services.The system, which has approximately 2-day residence time sampled weeklyand BOD, COD, TSS, pH, EC analyses for both influent and effluent wereperformed. Seasonal temperature, humidity and precipitation parameters wereobserved throughout the study period. The results showed that the removal efficiencyof wetland was around 90% for BOD, COD and TSS. However, the wetland wasparticularly inefficient and did not maintain the legal requirements in certain periodswhen the removal efficiency of COD dropped below 70%. In order to the influent ofwetland was pre-treated by the septic tank has lower concentrations of TSS. Hence,the removal efficiency of TSS was high about maximum 94% and was at the level ofthe standards along the study period. However, the wetland congested in certainperiods because of the coarse-grained particles, the system exhibited normaloperation conditions after manual removal of congestion.The constructed wetland in Yeniyayla Village, which was designed as theother similar models in the world proved that there is no drawback to apply thissystems to Çukurova Region with its relatively high performance.Keywords: Constructed wetlands, rural areas, municipal wastewater treatmentII