Liquid effluents/wastewaters, disposal

Radioactive metal wastes from the nuclear industry are of increasing concern as the amount of waste to be disposed of increases. Current treatment of nuclear wastewater involves the addition of lime, which is effective in precipitating most metals out of solution with the exception of radium (Tsezos Keller, 1983). Barium chloride (BaCl2) is used to precipitate radium from sulfur-rich effluents as barium-radium sulfate. Other treatment methods include incineration for some solid wastes, and filtration, adsorption and crystallization for liquid wastes (Godbee Kibbey, 1981). 

One of the major sources of water pollution in East Africa is human waste. The effluents from untreated mimicipal sewers pose great danger to the conservation of a sustainable ecology in and around Lake Victoria. Municipal sewage contains both faeces and urine that are sources of phosphorus. Therefore let us make two assumptions that will enable us calculate the phosphorus contributions from these sources. Let us assume that each person produces 25-50 kg/yr of faeces which contain 0.18 kg P second, assume that each adult produces about 400 liters of urine per year, depending on liquid consumption, and contains 0.40 kg P. This is because municipal and industrial wastewater treatment plants are known to be the major point sources of phosphorus in urban areas." Waste disposal sites, construction sites, fertilizers and farmyards also make substantial contribution to the total phosphorus load. However, all these have not been adequately evaluated. Given the number of sewered and unsewered municipalities and their populations in Table 2, one is able to calculate the amount of phosphorus produced. 

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