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Updated: Mar 11, 2026
Mesocosm-Scale Constructed Wetland Design for Wastewater Treatment
Published on: May 2, 2025
Descriptive and multivariate analyses of four Tunisian wastewater treatment plants: A comparison between different
Ines Boujelben1, Youssef Samet2, Mouna Messaoud3
1Unité Biodiversité et Ecosystèmes Aquatiques Environnementaux (UR11ES/72), Faculté des Sciences de Sfax, Université de Sfax, B.P. 1173, 3038 Sfax, Tunisia; Office National de l'Assainissement (ONAS), Rue Ahmed Aloulou, 3028 Sfax, Tunisia.
Abstract:
This study was undertaken to evaluate the performance of four wastewater treatment plants/processes over a 4 year period. The wastewater flow evolution, energy consumption, and quality indicator parameters (BOD5, COD and TSS) at the inlet and outlet sites of the plants were determined. In comparing three domestic WWTPs with different wastewater treatment processes, the multivariate analyses (RDA and ANOVA) showed that although the Agareb plant received the highest pollution load, it displayed a high level of removal efficiency especially for COD, BOD, TSS, TKN and NH4+. It also revealed that the fluctuations in the wastewater composition and its contamination by varied industrial discharge could lead to the decrease in performance of the WWTP with activated sludge process as observed for the Southern Sfax plant. However, the electrolysis of the outlet water of Southern Sfax plant showed a significant improvement in COD removal.
