Water scarcity has continuously increased over the last decades in countries like Egypt, where agriculture consume > 85% of the country’s water. Increased urbanization, industries, and expensive advanced treatment processes further aggravate this challenge, causing the use of poorly treated or untreated wastewater for crop irrigation. The current study investigated an eco-friendly technology consisting of a constructed wetland planted with Typha latifolia and Cyperus papyrus, with a zeolite substrate for water purification. In the unit containing T. latifolia, the removal efficiency of biological oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total suspended solids (TSS), and ammonia was 68.5%, 71%, 70%, and 82.3% when hydraulic retention time (HRT) was increased from day 1 to 3, respectively. In the unit planted with C. papyrus, the removal efficiency of COD, BOD, TSS, and ammonia was 85.5%, 86.2%, 83.9%, and 92.3% with an increase in HRT from day 1 to 3, respectively. Also, the microbial load was reduced by 99.9%, and complete removal of Salmonella sp. was achieved after 3 days with C. papyrus; with T. latifolia, the removal was 42.8–57.5%. Box–Behnken design was used to optimize the independent factors, including the initial concentration of metals (15 to 45 mg/L) and contact time (24 to 72 h). The removal efficiency of Cu and Zn was 93.4% and 94% at the optimum contact time (72 h), with 16 plant stems and 15 mg/L initial metal concentration. Overall, water from this simple-design and cost-efficient wastewater treatment technology could be reused for agricultural purposes without posing any health threats. This is particularly true with C. papyrus.

中文翻译：

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净化病原细菌和重金属污染废水的低成本技术

在过去的几十年中，埃及等国家的水资源短缺现象持续增加，那里的农业用水量占该国水资源的85％以上。日益增长的城市化，工业和昂贵的高级处理工艺进一步加剧了这一挑战，导致使用未经处理或未经处理的废水进行作物灌溉。当前的研究调查了一种生态友好型技术，该技术由人工湿地，香蒲和莎草纸草组成，并带有用于水净化的沸石基质。在含有阔叶锥虫的单位中，增加水力停留时间（HRT）时，生物需氧量（BOD），化学需氧量（COD），总悬浮固体（TSS）和氨的去除效率分别为68.5％，71％，70％和82.3％。从第1天到第3天。从第1天到第3天，随着HRT的增加，在装有纸莎草的单元中，COD，BOD，TSS和氨的去除效率分别为85.5％，86.2％，83.9％和92.3％。而且，微生物负荷降低了99.9％，并完全去除了沙门氏菌。在3天后达到纸莎草; 与T. latifolia，去除率为42.8–57.5％。Box–Behnken设计用于优化独立因素，包括金属的初始浓度（15至45 mg / L）和接触时间（24至72 h）。在16个植物茎和15 mg / L的初始金属浓度下，最佳接触时间（72 h）对Cu和Zn的去除效率分别为93.4％和94％。总体而言，这种设计简单且具有成本效益的废水处理技术产生的水可重复用于农业目的，而不会构成任何健康威胁。纸莎草尤其如此。