Exhaustive approach to livestock wastewater treatment in irrigation purposes for a better acceptability by the public

Abstract

Water is an essential but scarce resource and its preservation is one of the issues that have gained an increased interest in the last decades. The reuse of treated wastewater has become a practice employed more frequently in the recent years, particularly in irrigation purposes. However, the public perception on this aspect should be taken into consideration so that the effects on people’s comfort are minimised. This paper addresses the issue of treating livestock wastewater in order to meet the requirements for its reuse as irrigation water, also taking into consideration some parameters that may influence the public acceptability, such as odour and colour. Ozonisation is a proposed method for the advanced treatment of this type of wastewater. The results showed an improvement of physicochemical and bacteriological parameters adequate to the regulations regarding crop irrigation. The organoleptic properties of the final effluent have registered a decrease of colour intensity and odour up to acceptable values. Ozonisation has proved efficient in the treatment of livestock wastewater and although it involves high operating cost, it provides effluents that may be more easily accepted by the public for reuse in irrigation purposes near the living areas.Water is an essential but scarce resource and its preservation is one of the issues that have gained an increased interest in the last decades. The reuse of treated wastewater has become a practice employed more frequently in the recent years, particularly in irrigation purposes. However, the public perception on this aspect should be taken into consideration so that the effects on people’s comfort are minimised. This paper addresses the issue of treating livestock wastewater in order to meet the requirements for its reuse as irrigation water, also taking into consideration some parameters that may influence the public acceptability, such as odour and colour. Ozonisation is a proposed method for the advanced treatment of this type of wastewater. The results showed an improvement of physicochemical and bacteriological parameters adequate to the regulations regarding crop irrigation. The organoleptic properties of the final effluent have registered a decrease of colour intensity and odour up to acceptable v...