Application of Statistical Techniques for Examination of Piggery Wastewater in Nigeria

This study presents the results obtained from a comprehensive investigation of pollution indicators of piggery wastewater from a stabilisation pond in Nigeria in a laboratory scale. Experiments were conducted to predict treatment efficiency of the various stabilisation ponds in order to identify best retention time required for optimal treatment to produce effluent of good quality. The observations obtained from the concentration of the pollutants showed that there was significant reduction of pollutants in all the ponds with anaerobic pond generally showing the highest removal rate. Chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal was highest in the facultative pond which could be attributed to algal activities present in pond. Further statistical interpretation of the results was done based on the probability (p) values. All the main effects were found significant (p< 0.05) at the 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 day retention times at 5% confidence level, the interactions between wastewater quality variables were also found to be significant in anaerobic, facultative and maturation ponds. Statistical techniques employed for the evaluation and interpretation of large complex data sets used in this study provide a better understanding of wastewater quality and thus assist in the decision making process during design prototype for the effective management of water resources.