Characterization of Wastewater Composition from Hospital Effluent and Evaluation of the Treatment Performance of the Five Series of Oxidation Ponds in Hawassa Referral Hospital

Dires, Simachew (2008) Characterization of Wastewater Composition from Hospital Effluent and Evaluation of the Treatment Performance of the Five Series of Oxidation Ponds in Hawassa Referral Hospital. Masters thesis, Addis Ababa University.

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Abstract

Untreated effluent discharges from hospitals contain considerable amounts of chemicals and pathogenic microorganisms (some of which are multiresistent to antibiotics). Pollutants of concern present in hospital wastewater belong to different groups, such as antibiotics, X-ray contrast agents, heavy metals, disinfectants, detergents, solvents, pharmaceuticals, and some radionuclide. The aim of this study was to characterize wastewater composition and to evaluate the treatment performance of the five series of oxidation ponds for treating hospital effluent in Hawassa referral hospital. A study was carried out to analyze the physicochemical and Bacteriological parameters of Hawassa Referal hospital wastewater. The average concentration of BOD5, COD, ammonium, total nitrogen, total phosphorous and phosphate from the raw hospital wastewater was 230 + 8.1 mg/l, 545.7 + 13.4 mg/l, 91.4 + 9.6 mg/l, 126.1 + 6.1 mg/l, 78.5 + 6.6 mg/l and 52 + 6.2mg/l, respectively. The average bacteriological count of raw hospital wastewater for total coliforms and fecal coliforms was 5.12 x 107 + 7.3 x 105 cfu/100 ml and 1.8 x107 + 5.8 x 105 cfu/100ml, respectively. The average concentration of copper, nickel and zinc was 0.038 + 0.014 mg/l, 0.065 + 0.02 mg/l and 2.51 + 0.51 mg/l, respectively. While the concentration of cadmium, lead and silver was below 0.0001 mg/l The result indicated that the average removal efficiency of the ponds was 97.7% for total coliforms and 97.5% for fecal coliforms with average effluent bacterial count of 1.2 x 106 cfu/100ml and 4.4 x 105 cfu/100ml, respectively. The oxidation ponds were poor to remove nutrients. Their average removal of ammonium, total nitrogen, total phosphorous, and phosphate was 58.1%, 59.2%, 53.2% and 44% with effluent concentration of 38.3 + 2.1 mg/l, 51.5 + 2.4 mg/l, 36.7 + 1.4 mg/l and 29.1 + 3.6 mg/l, respectively. The removal of COD and BOD from the oxidation pond was about 70.1% and 73.5% with average effluent concentration of 163.1 + 10 and 61 + 4.6, respectively. PH and temperatures were directly correlated with the removal of ammonium, total nitrogen, total phosphorous, phosphate and BOD5 (at P = 0.01). The ponds removal of copper, nickel and zinc was 58 %, 44.6% and 50.6%, respectively. Wastewaters from hospitals contain higher concentration of microorganisms, organic matter and nutrients. The levels of studied heavy metals in treated hospital wastewater for discharging in to Lake water were within permissible limit. Effluent bacterial count of fecal coliforms was higher than 1000 cfu/100ml. The effluent concentration of ammonium, nitrate, nitrite, phosphate, BOD5 and COD was also above the permissible level of 10 mg/l, 5mg/l, 5mg/l, 10mg/l and 100mg/l, respectively. This indicated that oxidation ponds were not effective to treat wastewaters generated from the hospital and the effluent discharged from the ponds may have adverse effect to the receiving lake. Therefore, there should be other alternative treatment technology for hospital wastewater and a continuous monitoring and evaluation of the effluent Quality of the ponds before discharging in to the lake should be carried out.

Item Type: Thesis (Masters)
Subjects: Q Science > QD Chemistry
Q Science > QR Microbiology
R Medicine > R Medicine (General)
R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine > RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine
Divisions: Africana
Depositing User: Selom Ghislain
Date Deposited: 24 May 2018 06:04
Last Modified: 24 May 2018 06:04
URI: http://thesisbank.jhia.ac.ke/id/eprint/4070

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