Vermifiltration: an opportunity to improve wastewater treatment—a sustainable and natural approach

Abstract

AbstractUrbanization and industrialization in this modern time actually cause less availability of daily based water. In searching of a preferable solution to overcome this critical problem, waste water treatment seems to be considered as a much valuable option for reusing water. For this, sewage water treatment plants (STPs) are widely used. But this solution is actually ironical, as STP treatment causes hazardous damage to the environment in treating waste water. This system needs lots of harmful chemicals, high energy, and high build-up to operate the process. But a newly considered technology has come to counteract all these problems of STPs and the method is ‘Vermifiltration’. In this technique, earthworms are used to treat waste water. Earthworm’s body acts as biofilter and it can reduce higher percentage of BOD, COD, TSS from the waste water compared to the STPs. Earthworms eat up the sewage, making them treated, neutralized, and non-harmful and finally excrete them with several useful microorganisms. The symbiotic activity between earthworms and microorganisms works to filter the waste water. This method is completely odour less and harmless. No sludge is formed. With having all these characteristics, vermifiltration becomes much better option for the environment. In this review, the method of vermifiltration, its limiting factors, utilization and future developments are properly discussed.