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9.1 Wastewater Characteristics (Topic a)

Domestic sewage is a significant contributor to marine pollution in the Wider Caribbean Region (WCR), the area shown in figure 9.1 below which includes subregions III and IV containing the majority of countries defined as the Caribbean in this Regional Overview (CEP 1998). The Domestic sewage originates mostly from households, public facilities, and businesses. For wastes from communities where most homes and businesses have piped water, typical pollutant composition of domestic sewage is shown in table 9.1.

In unsewered areas, septic tanks are common (CEP 1998). Septic tanks accumulate solids known as septage, which must be removed every few years to ensure effective operation of the system. Typical pollutant composition of septage taken to wastewater treatment facilities is shown in table 9.2.

Industrial wastewater has a wide range of pollutant concentrations. According to CEP Report No.40 "�Eil refinery wastewater produces 70 percent of the entire BOD load in the Caribbean. These wastes are high in BOD, dissolved salts, odour, phenol, and sulphur compounds. Food processing industries, distilleries, and soft drink industries produce about 5 percent of the BOD load in the Caribbean. They are characterised by very high BOD concentration, suspended solids, dissolved solids, variable pH, and a high level of organic matter. Chemical industries produce about 1 percent of the entire BOD load in the WCR. Even though they have low BOD strength, wastewater from chemical industries is important because it is frequently toxic to aquatic organisms at very low concentrations. This toxicity may actually mask assessment of BOD for these wastes by killing the BOD test organisms. Pesticides and insecticides used for agriculture are the primary chemical wastes in the Caribbean. These wastes are high in organic matter and are toxic to bacteria and fish" (CEP 1998).

Table 9.3 shows typical pollutant characteristics from common industries in the WCR.

Table 9.4 presents a regional summary of pollutant loads for the Wider Caribbean Region. As shown in figure 9.1, the subregions III and IV referred to in table 9.4 represent the Caribbean Region in this Regional Overview. It can be seen from table 9.4 that industrial sources account for as much as 80 percent of the pollution load to the Wider Caribbean Basin (CEP 1998). Even though domestic sources are a relatively small part of the total current pollution load, control of pollution from domestic sources is worthy of considerable attention. This is because pollution control from domestic sources is an important element of public education about environmental and public health issues, and because human health risk arises primarily from domestic sewage.

Figure 9.1: Sub-Regions in the Wider Caribbean Region

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