1. Introduction
The municipal wastewater in coastal areas may cause high
concentrations of total dissolved solids (400e3000 mg TDS/L),
where saline or sea water infiltration occurs within the sewer
system, having adverse effects on the conventional biological
treatment process (Thompson et al., 2006). Moreover, large industrial
cities, especially in Isfahan-Iran, have several small and big
industries that discharge their wastewater into a sanitary sewer,
and increase heavy metal concentrations, especially copper
(40 mg Cu/L) in influent, causing a toxicity of the sewage (ATSDR,
2004). Therefore, an adapted low-cost technology is important for
sustainable municipal wastewater treatment even under unfavorable
conditions, particularly with regard to developing countries
such as Iran.
Constructed wetland is an alternative to conventional biological
processes (Hendrawan et al., 2013) that may be one of environmentally
sound approaches. The incorporation of the advantages of
phytoremediation and attached growth systems based on