Abstract

                                In India, the per capita freshwater availability has been reducing since 1951 from 5177 m3 to 1588 m3 in 2010 due to over-population and indiscriminate utilization of water resources. Currently, fresh water resources are polluted by anthropogenic means, so it is necessary to treat the wastewater to overcome water scarce in future decades. Constructed wetland technology seems to be a promising technology with simple construction and low maintenance where the aquatic plants and medium used for filtration plays an active role in removing the pollutants in wastewater. An attempt has been made to assess the phyto-remediation potential of locally available aquatic plants to treat the sewage effluent collected after primary treatment from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) STP utilizing the constructed wetland technology. The results of the experiment revealed that the pH, EC, TSS, TDS of the sewage water was significantly reduced by the aquatic plants throughout the retention time from D₁ to D₇. Among them significant reduction of pollutants was noted at 7^th day of retention time and the plants Canna indica, Xanthosoma sagittifolium and Typha angustifolia performed better than other plants.

Key words : Constructed wetlands, Aquatic plants, Sewage effluent, Pollutant.