Depuration of wastewater of tourism facilities

Regarding wastewater treatment, principal peculiarity of tourism facilities is the great variability of the presence of customers, with a consequent production of wastewater characterized by strong fluctuations during all the year: due to this fact, conventional depuration systems do not assure the necessary depurative efficiencies, bringing many problems of smell and digestion.

Tourism facilities, moreover, are often situated in areas of great naturalistic interest, and so it is necessary to pay great attention to the management of effluents and to the environmental impact of the system.

Constructed wetlands present the necessary characteristics to satisfy all these aspects. Their application for treating wastewater of tourism facilities like agritourisms, hotels, residences and campings, has given very good results, especially against conventional depuration systems. Phytodepuration, in fact, reacts very well to fluctuations of wastewater load and needs a limited and not specialistic maintenance. This aspect allows management and maintenance of the system directly by the tourism facility's owner, without the necessity of highly specialized personnel.

Since 2000, Iridra participates to an European project (SWAMP, S u s t a i n a b le Water Management and Wastewater Purification in Tourism Facilities) that aims to the elaboration of natural depuration systems for treatment of waste water produced by tourism facilities placed in isolated areas and by agritourisms in rural areas of 10 to 1000 person, with techniques for reutilization of treated water and a rational management of water resources: the realized plants inside the project have been monitorized, and results of these surveying show the efficacy of constructed wetland systems in these situations.