Wastewater characteristic and impact of wastewater treatment plant on public health in Ubon Ratchathani Municipality

Abstract

This cross-sectional descriptive research aimed to evaluate the wastewater characteristic of the aeration treatment system and investigated the impact of the wastewater on the people living near the treatment areas. Data were collected by surveying in the municipal area of Ubon Ratchathani from August 2017 to January 2018. Five wastewater samples were taken at the different locations of treatment areas for laboratory analysis. The sample size of 123 people near the treatment areas was collected for the investigation of environmental, physical, psychological and social impacts resulted from the wastewater treatment system. Data were presented as frequency and percentage. The results showed that wastewater characteristic of the treatment system was as followed: pH level is range 6.49 - 8.53 which passed the standard criteria. Suspended solids are in the range of 110-268 mg / L which exceeded the standard. BOD value was in the range 3.07-9.1 mg / L which passed the standard criteria. Oil and grease values are in the range of 3.40-79.4 mg / l which passed the standard criteria. Total nitrogen values are in the range 0.45-112 mg / L. There are 3 points that passed the standard criteria. Assessing the impact of wastewater on the community revealed that diarrhea, conjunctivitis, dengue fever as the communicable diseases were the physical impacts. In addition, allergy symptoms, flu, and bronchitis were the main respiratory diseases caused by dust. For the psychological impacts, 42.3 and 38.2 percent of the people were worried when surface and groundwater were used for their consumptions, respectively. The government and private sectors should regularly provide a physical program to the community by doing a regular medical checkup. This is essential to monitor the effects of environmental changes caused by the use of water from the wastewater treatment system.