Assessment of Helminths Health Risk Associated with reuse of Raw and Treated Wastewater of the Settat City (Morocco)

Settat is an example of Moroccan arid area with severe water scarcity. Wastewater’s agricultural reuse represents a vast potential to remove pressures on freshwater resources of the region. The present study aimed to identify helminth eggs in wastewaters to which both human and animal populations are exposed when they are reused in agriculture and to evaluate removing of those pathogens by Wastewater Treatment Plant lagoons. The technique of concentration adopted for the Helminth eggs research in the wastewaters is that of Arther Fitzgerald and al. The analysis of the results showed that 87.5% of raw wastewater samples and 31.2% of treated wastewater samples are contaminated by the Helminth eggs with a mean concentration of 9 eggs/L and less than 1eggs/L respectively. Helminth eggs found are: Nematodes, Cestodes and several digestive strongyles. Nematodes are mainly represented by Ascaris sp., Toxocara sp and Capillaria sp., for Cestodes, species identified were Hymenolepis nana, Hymenolepis diminuta and Spirometra sp. This study also highlighted the qualitative and quantitative seasonal variations of helminth eggs in wastewater.According to WHO[14], the presence of intestinal nematodes and mainly Ascaris sp, Trichuris and Ancylostoma sp in waste water is considered a major risk for the reuse of water in agriculture. In its new version[43], water reuse guidelines helminth ova are considered one of the main target pollutants to be removed from wastewater reuse for agriculture and aquaculture purposes.