Removal of Heavy Metals from Waste Water Using Water Hyacinth

Abstract--- Water pollution has become one of the most serious problems of today’s civilization. In the last few years considerable amount of research has been done on the potential of aquatic macrophytes for pollutant removal or even as bio-indicators for heavy metals in aquatic ecosystems. Water hyacinth is one of the aquatic plant species successfully used for wastewater treatment. It is very efficient in removing pollutants like suspended solids, BOD, organic matter, heavy metals and pathogens. This paper mainly focuses on the treatment of waste water using the plant ‘water hyacinth ’ and has given emphasis to the removal of heavy metals by the plant. Water hyacinth ’ could grow in sewage; they absorb and digest the pollutants in wastewater, thus converting sewage effluents to relatively clean water. Thus, the plants hold promise as a natural water purification system, which could be established at a fraction of the cost of a conventional sewage treatment facility. The study conducted in this regard revealed how efficiently wastewater could be treated using the plant ‘Water hyacinth’. Index Terms--- macrophytes, absorption, adsorption, heliophytes, phytoextraction, bioaccumulators