Occurrence and treatment of contaminants of emerging concern in the African aquatic environment: Literature review and a look ahead

Abstract

Awareness about the rising detection and reported (eco)toxicological effects of contaminants of emerging concern (CECs, e.g. pharmaceuticals and personal care products - PPCPs - and modern pesticides) in the aquatic environment is growing. CECs are increasingly reported in the African aquatic environment, although the amount of data available is still limited. In this work, a comprehensive review is presented on the occurrence of CECs in wastewater, sludge, surface water, sediment, groundwater and drinking water of Africa. Further attention is given to the performance of wastewater stabilization ponds (WSPs) and trickling filters (TF) with respect to CECs removal. For the first time, we also look at the state of knowledge on the performance of point-of-use technologies (POUs) regarding the removal of CECs in drinking water. Generally, CECs in Africa occur at the same order of magnitude as in the Western world. However, for particular groups of compounds and at specific locations such as informal settlements, clearly higher concentrations are reported in Africa. Whereas antiretroviral and antimalarial drugs are rarely detected in the Western world, occurrence patterns in Africa reveal concentrations up to >100 μg L^-1. Removal efficiencies of WSPs and TFs focus mainly on PPCPs and vary significantly, ranging from no removal (e.g. carbamazepine) to better than 99.9% (e.g. paracetamol). Despite the rising adoption of POUs, limited but promising information is available on their performance regarding CECs treatment in drinking water, particularly for the low-cost devices (e.g. ceramic filters and solar disinfection - SODIS) being adopted in Africa and other developing countries.

Keywords: Africa; Emerging micropollutant; Environment; Occurrence; Treatment; Water.