Urban Agriculture (UA) in Addis Ababa has a number of challenges and opportunities since Urban farmers on the riverbank mainly dependent on irrigated water from Akaki River. A number of studies have been conducted focused on characterization of Akaki River water quality, challenges faced by farmers in UA , health risks associated with irrigated vegetables by the river and economic losses resulted due to the river pollution. However a realistic solution to the urgent situation of UA was not

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... yet. This study aims at performance evaluation of Vertical subsurface flow constructed wetland (VSSFCW) as cheap and efficient onsite wastewater treatment solution functioned by farmers. No odors or insects were detected during the six month operation of VFCW, beside a beautiful landscape view. The efficiency of VSSFCW was studied on pilot plant. An evaluation of the efficiency in the purification of the main polluting agents were done. The average removal efficiencies of chemical oxygen demand (COD), biological oxygen demand (BOD), total suspended solids (TSS), Turbidity, Facial coliform(FC), Sulfide( ), Total ammonia( ), nitrate( ), Nitrite( ), total nitrogen(TN), total phosphorous(T-P),were 76 %, 87 %, 93 %, 100%, 94 %, 80 %, 16.7 %, 97.7 %, 43 %, 46 % respectively. The physiochemical characters of treated wastewater were complying with the WHO standard for wastewater reuse in Irrigation of crops likely to be eaten uncooked. However biological parameters were slightly above the guidelines.