3.2.3. Removal of phosphorus
The phosphate concentration in the treated wastewater ranged
between 0.4 mg/l and 2 mg/l with an average percentage removal
of 62%. These results were much better than those recorded in
other studies carried out using VFCW (Brix and Arias, 2005). They
reported that only 20–30% removal of phosphate was achieved. The
high removal rate of phosphorus in our study may be attributed to
the long contact time within the wetland (7.7 days) and the use of
three different plants in the same basin which increase the uptake
of phosphorus