| dc.description.abstract | Exponential population growth in Uganda causes substantial amount of greywater generation. Bbira Girls' hostel Makerere Kikoni, with a population of approximately 96 students produces about 10,000 L of kitchen greywater daily. With the high-water bills coupled with the negative effects of greywater discharge to the environment from piping failures, there is need for exploring eco-friendly treatment systems for kitchen greywater reuse. The objective of this study was to design and test the performance of a kitchen greywater treatment system for non-potable applications like toilet flushing, firefighting, cleaning, and gardening. The system consisted of a grease-trap, reedbed, and bio-sand filter connected in series, with the influent point before the grease-trap and the effluent point after the bio-sand filter. Kitchen greywater was channeled through a pipe to the grease trap and collected after the bio-sand filter, before being directed to the water storage tank. The system was allowed to stabilize for 3 months, so as to give time for the reed roots to be fully anchored into the substrates. The influent and effluent were sampled for analysis of COD, TSS, TDS, EC, E. Coli, Turbidity, Total Nitrates, and TP. Results showed that the system removed 97.7% of total nitrates, 97.5% of E. Coli, 94.3% of COD, 93.3% of Turbidity, 86.5% of TSS, 78.9% of TDS, 21.8% of EC, and 19.1% of TP. The study therefore concludes that the combination of reedbed and bio-sand filter is capable of treating kitchen greywater for reuse in areas such as toilet flushing and gardening among others. | en_US |
