Potential use of mangrove plantation as constructed wetland for municipal wastewater treatment

The study evaluated the possibility of using mangrove plantation to treat municipal wastewater. Two types of pilot scale (100 × 150 m²) free water surface constructed wetland were set up. One system was a natural Avicennia marina dominated forest system. The other system was a newly planted system in which seedlings of Rhizophora spp., A. marina, Bruguiera cylindrica and Ceriops tagal were planted in 4 strips. Municipal wastewater was retained within the systems for 7 and 3 days, respectively. The results indicated that the average removal percentage of TSS, BOD, NO₃-N, NH₄-N, TN, PO₄-P and TP in the newly planted system were 27.6-77.1, 43.9-53.9, 37.6-47.5, 81.1-85.9, 44.8-54.4, 24.7-76.8 and 22.6-65.3, respectively. Whereas the removal percentage of those parameters in the natural forest system were 17.1-65.9, 49.5-51.1, 44.0-60.9, 51.1-83.5, 43.4-50.4, 28.7-58.9 and 28.3-48.0, respectively. Generally, the removal percentages within the newly planted system and the natural forest system were not significantly different. However, when the removal percentages were compared with detention time, TSS, PO₄-P and TP percentages removed were significantly higher in the 7-day detention time treatment. Even though the removal percentages were highly varied and temporally dependent, the overall results showed that mangrove plantation could be used as constructed wetland for municipal wastewater treatment in a similar way to the natural mangrove system.