PERFORMANCE OF VERTICAL FLOW CONSTRUCTED WETLAND FOR SEWAGE TREATMENT USING DIFFERENT AQUATIC PLANTS IN THE SOUTH OF IRAQ

The use of natural wetlands for wastewater treatment not only decreases economic costs and energy usage but also decreases pollution. The vertical flow of constructed wetlands offers a more oxygenated ecosystem and greatly decreases both microbial wastewater types and organic matter. In this research, vertical flow constructed wetlands were constructed and separated into twin adjacent beds (I & II), each planting with aquatic plants as Aquatic Canna was planted (Cell I) while (Cell II) was planted with Cyperus Alternifolius to improve the water quality of pre-treated by sedimentation tank installed before wetland. In the current study, the removal pattern is examined and is correlated to plant sorts. The purpose of this study is to compare the efficiency of Aquatic Canna and Cyperus Alternifolius in the treatment of domestic wastewater by vertical flow constructed wetland. Aquatic Canna's fibrous rooting system created high aerobic conditions in the treatment bed, which in turn encouraged greater removal compared to wetland cell planting by Cyperus Alternifolius. According to the monitoring study about four months, pollutants concentration based on average efficiencies of removal for the Canna cell and Cyperus cell were as follows: COD (72.41% and 67.24%), NH4-N (48.14% and 40.74%), TN (50.90% and 41.81%), TP (44.87% and 39.74%) and TSS (72.73% and 81.82%). In general, the treatment performance of the cell planted with Canna was better than that planted with Cyperus.