ABSTRACT
The need for wastewater treatment, together with new economic conditions in Czechoslovakia, have led to introduction of systems with low energy input, and low capital, operation, and maintenance costs. When land is available, constructed wetlands offer a simple and effective process design which is attractive for use by small communities. The small reed bed model has been operating in the Prague Central Wastewater Treatment Plant since May 1988. Mechanically treated sewage from the Central Treatment Plant was applied to the reed bed system beginning in June 1988. In the period October 1989 to August 1990, diluted chicken manure wastewater was treated in the same experimental system. The first full-scale reed bed system was built in Petrov near Prague in 1989 and was originally designed for the treatment of runoff waters from an adjacent dung-hill. The reed bed system is designed for treatment of sewage during sugar beet season in the sugar refinery and “washing-waters” during the rest of the year.
