Socio-economic impacts of the pharmaceuticals detection and activated carbon treatment technology in water management - an example from the Czech Republic
Abstract
The fast development of laboratory methods has revealed increased amounts of trace concentrations of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCP) in waste waters in the Czech Republic. This paper focuses on the expected costs to solve this problem by quaternary treatment of waste water based on activated carbon filtration.
The one-time investment costs in 155 wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) with a capacity of over 10 000 population equivalent (PE) would represent an amount of around 300 million EUR. The increase in end-user operating costs would be 0.4 EUR/m(3), which would mean a 15% increase in water and sewage costs.
A sociological survey showed that most respondents (65%) would agree with an increase in price but only by 10%. Currently the cost of the quaternary treatment of wastewater is based primarily on estimates.
Therefore changes in legislation leading to stricter limits and an increase in the efficiency of wastewater treatment should be preceded by additional applied research.