1	Lake Manzala Engineered Wetland Port Said, Egypt Dr. Dia El Din El-Quosy Project Manager E-mail: lmewp@menanet.net
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3	Engineered Wetland Studies (conducted in the 1980’s) suggested the use of Engineered Wetland to improve the water quality of Bahr El-Baqar drain, before entering the Lake Manzala.
4	Lake Manzala Engineered Wetland Project In the early 1990’s, a project for constructing an engineered wetland, at the Bahr El-Baqr drain outlet, was approved as a collaborative effort among the GEF, UNDP and EEAA.
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7	Project Purposes Assess feasibility of engineered wetland system to improve environmental conditions at Lake Manzala and Mediterranean Sea. Assess feasibility of engineered wetland system to treat wastewater so that it becomes suitable for different uses. Assist in transferring wetland technology to Egypt and other neighboring countries.
8	The project is designed to achieve the following: Provide local employment Serve as training center for water management and low cost wastewater treatment technologies. Project planning, design, construction, and operation will be accomplished so as to maximize stakeholders participation.
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12	Treatment System Components
13	Inflow Design Criteria
14	Estimated Effluent Concentrations (mg/L)
15	Estimated Treatment Efficiencies(%)
16	Reuse of Wetland Effluent The project is exploring the possibilities of reuse of the wetland effluent: Reuse for aquaculture (4 hatchery ponds and 2 fingerling ponds). Reuse for irrigated agriculture (cooperation with the NAWQAM project).
17	Before 1999 The original project site was illegal fish ponds occupied by the surrounding community. The source of water for these fish ponds was Bahr El Baqar Drain, which is one of the most polluted drains in Egypt.
18	Before 1999
19	2000 After the Governorate of Port Said handed over the site to the project management, the following activities had taken place: Widening and leveling of the access rough road Evacuated the existing fish ponds from its polluted water Constructed an earth ring road around the site Conducted a geotechnical study and ground survey Implemented the conceptual design by TVA Finalized the detailed design by AAW Initiated construction of the main and pilot wetlands by Misr for Development Concrete Company
20	2000
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24	2004 Construction of the pilot and main facility completed The full operation started by October 2004. The testing and commissioning took place by the end of 2004
25	2004
26	2004
27	2005 Monitoring and evaluation phase started. Water was distributed according to the following schedule:
28	2005
29	2005
30	2006 The International Consultant (NIRAS & ECMA) suggested some modifications to the design such as: Modified the monitoring plan of KOMEX (Five cells with the same plants and different discharge and five cells with the same discharge and different plants) Install pipes with valves to control the influent and effluent to and from each cell Install ultrasonic sensors at the inlets and outlets of the cells to measure the flows. Install water level gauges at several points of the facility Change the plants of some cells (from reed to cattail and papyrus)
31	2006 On September 2006, NIRAS & ECMA modified the monitoring plan (locations, frequencies and parameters). They eliminated the parameters which were not detected during the previous period such as heavy metals and phenol and added some parameters to investigate special processes such as dissolved phosphorus. On November 2006, In order to increase the level of accuracy, NIRAS & ECMA concentrated the sampling and analysis on three cells with different plant types, different percentage of plant cover and different flows
32	2006
33	2007 On February 2007, NIRAS tested the performance of the wetland under 8,500 m3/day per one cell. The results of the data collected indicated that the cell is able to deal with this flow which means that the capacity of the wetland could be increased to 85,000 m3/d compared with the original design capacity of 25,000 m3/d. The conclusion may suggest that the dimensions of the wetland could be reduced substantially
34	2007
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37	Concluding Remarks The facility treats 25,000 m3/day with excellent effluent quality The treated water is used for raising healthy fish suitable for human consumption The facility serves as a Center of Excellence for local, regional and international bodies Due to climatic differences between Egypt and Western Countries, retention time and dimensions could be reduced substantially
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