Municipal sewage-treatment/effluent disposal

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. 

Various incidents of pollution have been reported from industrial waste, effluents from sewage treatment plants, food processing plants along with biocides and toxic effluents from sawmills and timber processing areas. These effects are often enhanced by disposal of hazardous wastes in municipal landfills. 

---