Stresses to lakes arise from easily identifiable point sources such as municipal and industrial wastewaters, non-point sources such as urban and agricultures runoff within a lake's watershed. Major degrading factors include excessive eutrophication due to nutrients and organic matter loading from domestic wastewater. Thus, it is necessary to take a step for management and restoration of lakes. Looking for a problem, a pilot scale study based on phyto-treatment concept was setup in National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) laboratory, Mumbai. Treatment efficiency of subsurface phytophil system were evaluated for pollutant parameters such as total suspended solids (TSS), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and fecal coliform (FC). The results indicate high removal efficiencies particularly for BOD, TSS and FC. Wetland bed was prepared with locally available plants such as elephant grass and cattails. This technology offers several advantages such as simple operation, maintenance, economically and environmentally sound treatment of wastewater as well as for aquatic habitants.

* National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI),
Mumbai Zonal Laboratory, 89/B, Dr. A. B. Road,
Worli. Mumbai-400 018. India.

** National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI),
Nehru Marg, Nagpur-440 020. India.

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