Municipal wastewater characteristics in Thailand and effects of “soft intervention” measures in households on pollutant discharge reduction

摘要

In developing countries with large Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) sanitation indicator,npollutant discharge reduction function of wastewater treatment systems should be considered.nIn this paper, pollutant generations per capita (PGCs) and pollutant discharges per capita (PDCs)nare estimated as a base dataset for wastewater management in Thailand. PDCs of black water,ni.e. toilet wastewater, are found to be much smaller than PGCs of black water. However, PDCsnof gray water, i.e. municipal wastewater other than toilet wastewater are large. Gray water isnoften discharged without treatment and contributes much to ambient water deterioration.nMoreover, possible 5-day biological oxygen demand (BOD5) discharge reductions withn“soft interventions”, i.e. measurements in households to reduce wastewater pollutant dischargensuch as using a paper filter or a plastic net in kitchen sinks and so on, are estimated as 39,n21 and 34% for BOD5, total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN) and phosphate (PO4-P), respectively.nFor the estimation, environmental accounting housekeeping (EAH) books of domesticnwastewater, spreadsheets with pollutant discharges by water usages and possible effectsnof “soft interventions” are applied. The framework of this study with “soft intervention” effectsnon pollutant discharge reductions should enhance wastewater management especially in thenareas under development of wastewater treatment systems.