Investigation of functional performance of treatment systems for textile wastewater in selected textile industries in Tanzania

Abstract

Textile industrialization is an integral part of the economic growth in Tanzania. However, the corresponding wastewater from textile treatment processes consists of dyes and auxiliaries associated with acute toxicological impacts. This necessitates an investigation of the functional performance of the industrial treatment systems used before effluent discharge. The study primarily accesses the catalog of industrial dyes and the functionality of the treatment system at Arusha, Morogoro and Dar es Salaam vis-à-vis the effluent physicochemical properties. The analytical study reveals disperse (42%), vat (34%) and reactive (26%) as the most used industrial dyes. The physicochemical properties of the quantified wastewater reveal a significant amount of and phosphorus which was consequent to the high turbidity, biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) apart from the color at the different sampling points. Although the treatability of the wastewater was 90% efficient using an activated carbon system (237.33 + 0.67 mg/L). Similarly, the use of aerated constructed wetlands shows efficiency in the remediation of the recalcitrant having a value of 12.13 + 0.89b mg/L (90%) and 13.22 + 0.15a mg/L (94%). Thereafter, needful recommendations were suggested based on the physicochemical properties of the textile wastewater and to improve the functionality of the treatment systems in the respective industries.