Evaluation of Treatment Efficiency in a Conventional Sewage Treatment Plant in Semi-Arid Urban Region: Physicochemical Records from Al-Muameera WWTP, Iraq

• Alaa Asaad Abdulhussein Hasson

  Author

• Bassam M. Al-Yaseen

  Author

• Wathiq Jassim Mohammed

  Author

Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are of prime importance for the protection of aquatic environments and public health, especially in semi-arid regions where water availability is scarce leading to an increased demand for eco-friendly wastewater treatment plant management and further use. The present work investigates the physicochemical efficiency of a conventional Al-Muameera wastewater treatment plant in urban Hilla City, central Iraq. A surveillance plan was carried out in 6 months (November 2024 – April 2025) with bi-monthly sampling of sewage, treated and influent, to evaluate the efficiency of treatment.

Temperature, pH, DO (dissolved oxygen), TSS (total suspended solids,), BOD₅ (biochemical oxygen demand at 5 days), COD (chemical oxygen demand) and nutrients [NH₃-N, NO₂-N, NO₃-N], total nitrogen and total phosphorus), were determined by a standard procedure as well as the concentrations of sulfates, chlorides and hydrogen sulfide. The findings indicated that influent water was rich with high organic and nutrient levels which represented the mainly domestic nature of the sewage. After treatment, there were significant decreases in TSS, BOD₅ and COD, which indicated that the organic matter that could be degraded was effectively removed by biological treatment units.

Although treatment system performance was generally improved after the process enhancements, nutrient removal (both nitrogen and phosphorus) remained incomplete due to inherent limitations in a non-enhanced secondary treatment system. The seasonal influence was observed on several parameters, among which the highest organic loads were measured during warmer seasons, highlighting the plant performance dependence on climatic and operation conditions. The results indicate that, although Al-Muameera WWTP accomplishes an efficient organic load removal, yet more improvement is necessary to improve nutrient removal and meet water reuse and environmental discharge limits. The work gives valuable baseline data to help performance optimization, as well as for sustainable wastewater management planning in semi-arid urban areas.

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