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Constructed Wetlands for Wastewater Management in Egypt: An Overview of 30-Years Experiences in Small/Medium-Size Treatment Plants

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Constructed Wetlands for Wastewater Treatment in Hot and Arid Climates

Part of the book series: Wetlands: Ecology, Conservation and Management ((WECM,volume 7))

Abstract

Constructed Wetlands (CWs) are well known as an efficient treatment technology for many wastewater sources such as municipal and various industrial effluents. Different engineering designs such as horizontal and vertical flow and hydroponic channels can be implemented according to the required treatment strategies. Greywater and blackwater are also treated in CWs in Egypt and other countries. CWs can achieve high removal rates of various pollutants including total suspended solids, organic pollutants (COD, BOD), nitrogen compounds, phosphates, pathogenic contamination, as well as several heavy metals. There is a wide acceptance and interest in employing CWs due to their advantages such as simple construction, cost-effectiveness, low operation and maintenance cost, high ability to tolerate fluctuations in flow and inlet quality, high pathogens removal, potential for reuse and recycling, aesthetically accepted appearance. Several successfully full and pilot scale CWs are in operation in Egypt as well as in the Middle East and North African countries where the warm climate seems to favour the various CW processes and functions. This chapter presents existing full-scale CWs, hydroponic wetlands, as well as pilot plants using horizontal, vertical, and channel flow for the wastewater treatment in Egypt.

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Acknowledgement

This work is supported by the project titled “Towards Innovative and Green Water Reuse with Integrated Constructed Wetlands and Ferrate(VI) Treatment”- number (42688)- supported in whole or part by NAS and USAID, USA-Egypt Science Technology Joint Fund-(Cycle.19), (STDF), Egyptian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research (MHESR).

This work is also supported by the project entitled “Development of the frame conditions for the establishment of an innovative water technology which couples anaerobic waste water treatment and biomass production in a bioreactor in the Mediterranean region” Project number (31319)-FRAME, ERANETMED3-75, (STDF), Egyptian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research (MHESR).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Water Research & Polluted Control Department, National Research Centre, Dokki, Cairo, Egypt

    Hussein I. Abdel-Shafy & Mohamed A. El-Khateeb

  2. Analysis & Evaluation Department, Egyptian Petroleum Research Institute, Nasr City, Cairo, Egypt

    Mona S. M. Mansour

Authors
  1. Hussein I. Abdel-Shafy
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  2. Mohamed A. El-Khateeb
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  3. Mona S. M. Mansour
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Environmental Engineering and Management, School of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Crete, Chania, Greece

    Alexandros Stefanakis

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Abdel-Shafy, H.I., El-Khateeb, M.A., Mansour, M.S.M. (2022). Constructed Wetlands for Wastewater Management in Egypt: An Overview of 30-Years Experiences in Small/Medium-Size Treatment Plants. In: Stefanakis, A. (eds) Constructed Wetlands for Wastewater Treatment in Hot and Arid Climates. Wetlands: Ecology, Conservation and Management, vol 7. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-03600-2_5

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