The characteristics of the public market wastewater collected from Ringgit public market centre at Parit Raja are illustrated in Table 2. It can be noted that the public market wastewater has high concentrations of nutrients in terms of NH4– (220.66 ± 10.03 mg L–1) and PO43– (67.31 ± 7.33 mg L–1). These findings are consistent with many reports in the literature (Zulkifli et al. 2012; Jais et al. 2015) which are due to blood residues that resulted from the washing of fish, chicken or meat. The high concentrations of nutrients are associated with high density of pathogenic bacteria that ranged from 8.841 ± 0.451 log10 CFU 100 mL–1 for E. faecalis to 10.32 ± 0.245 log10 CFU 100 mL–1 for S. aureus while E. coli was available in concentrations of 9.563 ± 0.327 log10 CFU 100 mL–1. These bacteria resulted from the wastewater generated from the washing of the public market floor and vegetables as well as chicken and fish products. Moreover, high levels of nutrients induced their growth. E. faecalis and E. coli are indicator bacteria that have high potential to survive in the environment (Al-Gheethi et al. 2013). S. aureus is used as an infectious agent indicator for microbiological hygiene of foods (Jin et al. 2013).
Characteristics of raw wet market wastewater collected from Ringgit public market centre at Parit Raja, Johor in the period between August 2015 to April 2016 (n = 7)
| Parameters . | Unit . | Parameters concentrations . | Environmental quality Act 1974 (Regulation 2009) . | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standards A . | Standards B . | |||
| pH | 6.16 ± 0.121 | 6.0–9.0 | 5.5–9.0 | |
| NH4− | mg L−1 | 220.66 ± 10.03 | 10 | 20 |
| PO₄³− | mg L−1 | 67.31 ± 7.33 | 5 | 10 |
| DO | mg L−1 | 2.44 ± 0.168 | NA | NA |
| E. coli | Log10 CFU 100 mL−1 | 9.563 ± 0.327 | NA | NA |
| E. faecalis | Log10 CFU 100 mL−1 | 8.841 ± 0.451 | NA | NA |
| S. aureus | Log10 CFU 100 mL−1 | 10.32 ± 0.245 | NA | NA |
| Parameters . | Unit . | Parameters concentrations . | Environmental quality Act 1974 (Regulation 2009) . | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standards A . | Standards B . | |||
| pH | 6.16 ± 0.121 | 6.0–9.0 | 5.5–9.0 | |
| NH4− | mg L−1 | 220.66 ± 10.03 | 10 | 20 |
| PO₄³− | mg L−1 | 67.31 ± 7.33 | 5 | 10 |
| DO | mg L−1 | 2.44 ± 0.168 | NA | NA |
| E. coli | Log10 CFU 100 mL−1 | 9.563 ± 0.327 | NA | NA |
| E. faecalis | Log10 CFU 100 mL−1 | 8.841 ± 0.451 | NA | NA |
| S. aureus | Log10 CFU 100 mL−1 | 10.32 ± 0.245 | NA | NA |
Ammonia (NH3), Orthophosphate (PO43–), Dissolved oxygen (DO); Standard A: Discharge upstream of water supply sources; Standards B: Discharge downstream of water supply sources. NA = Not available.