ABSTRACT
Treatment of wastewater from industries using or generating organic dyes has been of great concern due to the negative effects of such wastes on the environment. These wastewater streams, if not appropriately handled, can percolate into ground water or contaminate surface water, causing adverse impact on life. Wastewater containing dyes from industries such as plastics, textile, pulp, paper and ink, is a major concern given the toxic and carcinogenic properties of the dyes (Rauf et al. 2010; Hammed et al. 2016). Moreover, the increase in global industrialisation, in addition to the copious amount of effluent generated from dye-based industries, has led to an increase in the number of industrial wastewaters discharged into the environment. Besides the high organic load, the effluents containing dyes such as methylene blue (MB) are characterised by intense color even at low dye concentration (Rauf et al. 2010). The intense color prevents light penetration in receiving streams, thereby hindering the photosynthetic activity of aquatic plants. This can lead to the death 370of the aquatic plants causing, with some other factors, conditions favourable for eutrophication (Otieno et al. 2016). To prevent eutrophication of water bodies, avoid human poisoning and eliminate the adverse effects of dye pollutants, Yan et al. (2016) suggested that wastewaters containing dyes should be properly treated before discharge into receiving streams.
