Hospital wastewater treatments adopted in Asia, Africa, and Australia

This chapter provides an overview of the current management and treatment of hospital wastewater in Asia, Africa, and Australia. Twenty peer reviewed papers from different countries have been analyzed, highlighting the rationale behind each study and the efficacy of the investigated treatment in terms of macro- and micro-pollutants. Hospital wastewaters are subjected to different treatment scenarios in the studied countries (specific treatment, co-treatment, and direct disposal into the environment). Different technologies have been adopted acting as primary, secondary, and tertiary steps, the most widely applied technology being conventional activated sludge (CAS), followed by membrane bioreactor (MBR). Other types of technology were also investigated. Referring to the removal efficiency of macro- and micro-pollutants, the collected data demonstrates good removal efficiency of macro-pollutants using the current adopted technologies, while the removal of micro-pollutants (pharmaceutical substances) varies from low to high removal and release of some compounds was also observed. In general, there is no single practice which could be considered a solution to the problem of managing HWWs – in many cases a number of sequences are used in combination.