Performance of three type of constructed wetland systems for treating municipal waste water

A pilot constructed wetland systems project was constructed during 2015 at the University of Basrah, Iraq. These systems are a vertical subsurface flow system (VSSF), a horizontal subsurface flow system (HSSF) and a surface flow system (SF). These systems were planted with Phragmites australis, Typha domingensis and Certophyllum demersum respectively. It had been operated during 2016 as separated systems. The results recorded a total mean of 78.98% of NH4-N removal efficiency with 78.68% by VSSF, 76.04% by HSSF and 82.20 % by SF. This figure reached 90.58% removal of PO4, with 90.29 by VSSF, 90.18% by HSSF and 92.02 by SF. Also high level of total mean removal efficiency of 95.96% of BOD5, the results were 97.65% for VSSF, 97.99% for HSSF and 92.25% for SF. The results indicated that the system was highly effective at removing the target pollutants.