Rapid urbanization of the Philippines, especially of Metro Manila area, has caused serious water pollution. Main causes of this are categorized into industrial wastewater and domestic wastewater, discharged without sufficient treatment. As for industrial wastewater, it is essential to put strict regulations on effluent standards, and for municipalities to keep a regular check to ensure these regulations are observed. Philippine government has been working on the improvement of the legislation and control of industrial wastewater until now. However, from now on, it is vital to put more efforts in getting domestic wastewater treated properly. It is indeed crucial to put the existing sewerage construction plans into practice, but generally, sewerage systems require; 1) long construction period, 2) effective funding, 3) high-density construction, and 4) human resources to run the systems effectively. Meanwhile, on-site waste water treatment tanks, or what we called purifiers, can play an important role in controlling the pollution of water environment, and they will serve to complement the sewerage system even after the completion of construction. Small-scale on-site wastewater treatment tanks, or small-scale purifiers, developed and used in Japan especially in developing countries, not only in the scope of environmental conservation but also from the viewpoint of utilizing the economic resources in the private sector

The natural melanoidin from alcohol distillery biogester effluent and synthetic melanoidin, which was prepared in the laboratory from equimolar amounts of glucose and glycine were decolorized by Bacillus subtilis in shake flash culture. After eight days of fermentation at an initial bacterial level of 2.9 x 10 E 9 cfu/mL, natural melanoidin was 61.1 percent decolorized as measured by absorbance readings at 475 nm: the corresponding decolorization of 0.041 M synthetic melanoidin was 71.9 percent. Gel chromatography through Sephadex G-100 of natural melanoidin before and after microbial action showed molecular weight (MW) values of 35.6 and 33.5 kD, respectively; the corresponding MW values of freshly prepared and decolorized synthetic melanoidin were 42.6 and 37.7 kD, respectively. Values of the instrinsic viscosity, which is proportional to MW, of natural melanoidin before and after decolorization were 18.46 and 16.96 mL/g, respectively; corresponding viscosity values for synthetic melanoidin were 19.77 and 17.16 mL/g, respectively. After bacterial action both natural and synthetic melanoidins showed greater absorbance at 220-350 nm and lower absorbance at greater than 370 nm but showed reduced infrared intensities corresponding to C=O, C=C and O-H stretching vibrations; however the C-O infrared intensity increased. The results suggest partial depolymerization and oxidative degradation of both melanoidins caused by the microorganisms

Laguna de Bay is the largest freshwater body in the Philippines with multiple-use. The primary use of the lake is to serve as the future domestic water supply at Metro Manila. The biota of the lake consists of 25 species of fish, 24 species of zooplankton, two species of shrimps, 6 species of mollusks, 42 species of aquatic macrophytes and 154 species of algae. A total of 60 mesophilic anaerobic and facultative anaereobic bacteria and 453 bacterial strains belonging to 22 genera have been identified. A review of 12 papers dealing with biological studies on Laguna de Bay in relation to aquatic pollution is presented. Studies on the impact of heavy metal, pesticide and thermal pollution on the biota of the lake have been sporadic and cursory. There is need for a more comprehensive and systematic monitoring of the lake's pollutants to provide time-series for pollution abatement

A series of experiments on biological nutrient removal using suspended growth bioreactor with a various reactor configuration have been conducted during the last five years. The first configuration applied a contact stabilization flowed by a denitrification processes in two sludge system. The two sludge systems mean that the aerobic sludge is recirculated in the aerobic circuit, and the anaerobic sludge is recirculated in the anaerobic circuit. The second configuration was conducted in a contact stabilization and denitrification processes in a one sludge system. The one sludge system meant that there are no separation between aerobic and anaerobic sludge; the aerobic and anaerobic processes are in the same circuit and all sludge are recirculated in the same circuit. The third configuration was performed in anaerobic-aerobic-anaerobic reactors and ended by the clarifier to clarify the biosludge before recirculated to the head of the circuit. This configuration was also using a one sludge system. In those three configurations, the hydraulic detention time in the reactors were varied from 2 to 6 hours, and the sludge age from 2 to 15 days. The results showed that the first configuration gave a very high performance in carbon and nitrogen removal. In terms of TOC [total oxygen concentration], the carbon removal achieved up to 92 percent or in terms of total COD [carbon oxygen demand] up to 80 percent, and 97 percent for total nitrogen removal. On the other hand, the phosphorus removal was only limited to the amount required for cells metabolism. More carbon removal were observed in the second configuration (94 percent of total COD) but less total nitrogen were removed (93), however, phosphorus were removed significantly (up to five times of the cells metabolism requirement). The best results in those three nutrients removal was achieved in the third configuration. No less than 95 percent of total COD and 96 percent of nitrogen removal were noticed, and phosphorus were removed at the level of more than six times of the cells metabolism requirement. The experiments concluded that the phosphorus removal was conducted by the aerobic microorganisms which are alternately treated in aerobic-anaerobic conditions. The degree of removal depended on how long the microorganisms were put in the aerobic and anerobic conditions. If the anaerobic condition was too long, the microorganisms would die, and no phosphorus removal took place. If it was too short, the removal would be less. For carbon and nitrogen removals in the system, the hydraulic detention time in the reactors and sludge appeared as the essential parameters in the process

Technology options involving the use of natural and accelerated bioremediation systems to treat complex mixtures of aromatic wastes would be a useful addition to current remediation strategies. The approach outlined in this paper would focus on harnessing the potential of a key detoxification enzyme, glutathione-S-transferase (GST) as part of an accelerated phytoremediation system to detoxify aromatic pollutants in soil and ground water. Major efforts will include the clarification of GST detoxification activity by characterizing the enzyme in a series of phenolic and azo-dye-tolerant phytoremediation candidates (e.g. elite clones of thyme), and the development of methods to manipulate the GST detoxification pathway in elite plant clones to accelerate the detoxification of aromatic pollutants. The information provided by the GST characterization studies could be used to develop significant new phytoremediation systems based on manipulated GST biotransformation pathways in elite plant clonal systems tolerant to highly polluted environments. One major advantage of the new phytoremediation systems would be their potential to perform in highly contaminated environments by providing a favorable rhizophere zone for microbial degradation of aromatics along with an enhanced GST-linked detoxification pathway

A total of 51 lakes in southern Quebec, Canada, were sampled between 1985 and 1993 to study changes in water chemistry following reductions in SO₂ emissions (main precursor of acid precipitation). Time series analysis of precipitation chemistry revealed significant reductions in concentrations and deposition of SO₄ ²⁻ from 1981 to 1992 in southern Quebec as well as reductions in concentrations and deposition of base cations (Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺), NO₃ ⁻ and H⁺ in the western section of the study area. Reductions in atmospheric inputs inputs of SO₄ ²⁻ have resulted in decreased lakewater SO₄ ²⁻ concentrations in the majority of the lakes in our study, although only a small fraction (9 of 37 lakes used in the temporal analysis) have improved significantly in terms of acidity status (pH, acid neutralizing capacity — ANC). The main response of the lakes to decreased SO₄ ²⁻ is a decrease in base cations (Ca²⁺+Mg²⁺), which was observed in 17 of 37 lakes. Seventeen lakes also showed significant increases in dissolved organic carbon (DOC) over the period of study. The resulting increases in organic acidity as well as the decrease in base cations could both play a role in delaying the recovery of our lakes.

Virus detection in drinking water is very important to protect human health. The different methodologies for analysing human pathogenic virus are very time consuming and expensive, so until now only a few specialised laboratories carried out this analysis. Detection of bacteriophages may be possible by examining the aquatic virus, with advantages of easy and cheap. The bacteriophages ofBacteroides fragilis have been proven as specifically present in human faeces and have relationships with water contaminated by enterovirus. Our study, for the first time in France, discovered theB. fragilis phages present in sample of sewage, Seine river and raw water for water supply. Our results also presented thatB. fragilis phages may be a better indicator for water bacteriology compared with classical bacteriological indicators in water treatment. On the other hand, our results demonstrated that MPN method (Most Probable Number) has more advantages than that of PFU (Plaque Forming Units).