Design of a Prototype Wastewater Treatment Plant for Selected Households

Abstract

Around the globe, solid and liquid waste are naturally generated anywhere humans are found. The higher the population of an area, the more quantity of waste generated. Sewage in most parts of Nigeria is usually collected in septic tanks from residential houses, institutions, recreational and commercial areas, left there until the tanks are full, and then evacuated by the government environmental authorities. In Rivers State there is only one known sewage treatment plant in Eagle Island, Port-Harcourt, which is scarcely adequate to serve the municipality alone. Due to this incapacity, a lot of sewage collection vehicles dispose of the collected raw sewage directly into rivers, gutters and other surface waters in and around the city. Some residents who cannot afford to pay the collection vehicles simply evacuate their filled septic tanks directly into surrounding soils. This situation is even worse in towns and villages situated in the coastal areas of Rivers State, where raw sewage is directly dumped into the receiving waters on a daily basis.