Traditional urban wastewater treatment plants (UWTPs) are deficiently efficient in eliminating most contaminants of emerging concern (CECs), comprising antibiotics, antibiotic resistant bacteria and antibiotic resistance genes (ARB & ARGs). Such pollutants lead to some worry for nature and human health. This work discusses the performance of the best available technologies (BATs) for dealing with urban wastewater (UWW) to eliminate CECs and ARB & ARGs. Ozonation, activated carbon adsorption, chemical disinfectants, UV radiation, advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) and membrane filtration are debated with a view to their potential to efficaciously reduce CECs and ARB & ARGs. Probable treatment trains involving the BATs are compared. In spite of the huge improvements acquired in terms of applying AOPs and understanding their mechanisms in removing ARB & ARGs, transformation products (TPs) of the antibiotics existing may be generated, which may be less bio-decomposable, more poisonous and biologically strong, juxtaposed to the parent compounds. Therefore, attempts have to be concentrated on defining the structure of such TPs and proving if these retain their core moieties, responsible for the antimicrobial activity of the antibiotic, probably comprising antimicrobial resistance to the surrounding microbes.
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