A Survey of Wastewater Quality and Quantity in the Food and Pharmaceutical Industries of Tehran

Considering importance of industrial wastewater and related environmental pollutions, this study was carried out to evaluate quantity and quality of wastewater of 20 food and pharmaceutical factories among 77 industries (comprise totally 20.3% of industries). For quantitative evaluation, consumed water and generated wastewater and for qualitative evaluation BOD5 and TSS were studied. The results showed that 20 Studied food and pharmaceutical factories consume 7,876,346 m3 water annually, of Which 25 – 95% with average 69% was converted to wastewater and the total annual rate of wastewater produced in both types of industries was 5,454,154m3. It is estimated that annual water consumption and wastewater generation for all of food and pharmaceutical industries of Tehran is 10.33 million m3 and 7.5 million m3, respectively. Considering water consumption, oil manufacturing, beverage, dairy and pharmaceutical industries with consumption of 36.3%, 29.3%, 14.2% and 7.14% of total volume, rank 1st to 4th, respectively. In the case of wastewater generation, beverage, oil manufacturing, dairy and pharmaceutical industries with generation of 34%, 30.31%, 14.44% and 5.66% of total volume, rank 1st to 4th respectively. The most pollutant wastewater regarding to organic material is alcohol industry with BOD5 = 44000 mg/l. Average of BOD5 for studied industries regardless of alcohol industry was 558 mg/l. During the study, 60% of studied industries had not wastewater treatment plant (WTP) and only 10% (2 units), had WTP with good performance. In 30% of industrial units the performance of WTP were poor or without any efficiency. A great volume of industrial effluents with high pollution potential is discharged into rivers or wells of the region, which would result pollution of the region.