Lake Water Treatment Using Locally Available Natural Submerged Aquatic Plants

Abstract

Increasing urbanization, industrialization and over population are the factors mainly responsible for adding hazardous components in lake water, which mainly constitutes heavy metals and chemicals etc. Water bodies are the main targets for disposing the pollutants directly or indirectly. In this project illustrating the role of plants to assist the treatment of wastewater. The prevailing purification technologies used to remove the contaminants are too costly and sometimes non-ecofriendly also. Therefore, the research is oriented towards low cost and eco-friendly technology for waste water purification, which will be beneficial for community. The project discusses the potential of different process and utilization of terrestrial and submerged aquatic plants (Hydrilla) in purifying water and wastewater from different sources. Present study was conducted by off-site experiment, where Hydrilla verticillata Casp was cultured in a tub for subsequent seven days over one year. Second one of the tub was used as control. The quality of domestic wastewater was assessed before and after the experiment by analyzing physicochemical parameters. . The results of the present experiment revealed the significant improvement in the quality of municipal wastewater, as indicated by the decrease in values of most physicochemical parameters studied. That showed efficiency and potentiality of aquatic plant for the purpose.

Introduction

The text highlights the scarcity of usable freshwater on Earth and the increasing pollution of water bodies due to industrialization, domestic waste, and agricultural runoff, leading to issues like eutrophication and contamination. To address this, aquatic plants (macrophytes) are explored as a low-cost, eco-friendly solution for wastewater treatment through processes like nutrient absorption, sedimentation, and rhizofiltration.

Among these plants, Hydrilla verticillata is identified as an effective submerged aquatic plant capable of removing nutrients, heavy metals, and pollutants while increasing oxygen levels in water. Constructed wetlands using such plants have been widely studied and shown to significantly reduce parameters like BOD, COD, TSS, nitrogen, and phosphorus through biological, chemical, and physical processes.

The study focuses on treating polluted water from Futala Lake (Nagpur), which suffers from eutrophication due to untreated sewage discharge and human activities. A rhizofiltration-based experimental setup using Hydrilla was developed to assess its treatment efficiency.

Results showed significant improvement in water quality after treatment, including reduced turbidity, salinity, COD, nitrogen, and phosphorus levels, along with a substantial increase in dissolved oxygen. Overall, the study concludes that Hydrilla-based aquatic plant systems are an effective, sustainable, and economical method for wastewater treatment and lake restoration.

Conclusion

It is noted that CWs are now being increasingly used for environmental pollution control. Constructed wetlands were implemented in a wide range of applications, such as water quality improvement of polluted surface water bodies, wastewater on-site treatment and reuse in rural areas, campuses, recreational areas and green architectures, management of aquaculture water and wastewater, tertiary treatment, and miscellaneous applications. Water monitoring results obtained from several demonstrations show that CWs could achieve acceptable wastewater treatment performances in removing major pollutants, including suspended solids, organic matters, nutrients, and indicating microorganisms, from wastewater influent. The results indicate that if constructed wetlands are appropriately designed and operated, they could be used for secondary and tertiary wastewater treatment under local conditions, successfully. Hence constructed wetlands can be used in the treatment train to upgrade the existing malfunctioning wastewater treatment plants, especially in developing countries. During hydraulic retention study, it was found that the BOD, COD was best removed in planted wetland than unplanted wetland. It is because of the oxygen diffusion from roots of the plants and the nutrient uptake and insulation of the bed surface. It is also found that the increases in the detention period of the wastewater the removal rate also increases.

References

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Copyright

Copyright © 2026 Miss. Pooja Kamthe, Miss. Harshada B. Akotkar, Miss. Madhuri T. Nagdeve. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.