Water quality remediation in a heavily polluted tidal river in Guangzhou, South China

Abstract

A field-scale experiment was performed to remediate a heavily polluted river located in the urban area of Guangzhou, China using biological and chemical techniques combined with engineering processes. Before comprehensive remediation was undertaken, several small-scale experiments to test river-water remediation techniques were successfully performed. After comprehensive remediation, the average reduction rates of chemical oxygen demand and biochemical oxygen demand and removal rates of other pollutants were all above 70 percent. Furthermore, the unpleasant odor emanating from the polluted river was also greatly reduced. The field-scale experiment thus indicated the feasibility and validity of the method applied to remediate this heavily polluted river; this method can therefore be applied to remediate other heavily polluted rivers in the Guangzhou urban area and elsewhere.