Textile industry wastewater (WW) has intense color, high chemical oxygen demand (COD), pH, and salinity, making it challenging for conventional treatment. Soda lakes, with high alkalinity and salinity, host diverse microbes capable of textile dye degradation. This study evaluated anaerobic/aerobic reactors using alkaliphilic microbial consortia from Lake Chitu, an Ethiopian soda lake, for treating synthetic and real textile WW. The experimental setup consisted of a first-stage anaerobic reactor followed by a second-stage aerobic reactor, operating continuously with a predetermined flow rate and hydraulic residence time. After evaluating synthetic WW, real textile WW was collected in two batches (rounds I and II). The treatment setup removed 99% of the dye color for synthetic WW, 98% for round I, and 96% for round II. COD removal was 87% for synthetic WW, 86% for round I, and 93.37% for round II. TKN removal reached 90% for synthetic WW, 91% for round I, and 96% for round II at a steady state. Residual COD and TKN values met the final effluent discharge standards. GC–MS and IR analyses revealed that dyes were broken down into intermediate organic compounds under anaerobic conditions and further degraded into smaller molecules under aerobic conditions. This integrated reactor approach effectively removes dyes and enhances COD and TKN removal. The study’s novelty lies in evaluating both synthetic and real textile WW using integrated reactors under alkaline conditions in a continuous process, inoculating alkaliphilic consortia, without pre-enrichment or external nutrient addition to real WW. The study provides insights into the effectiveness of alkaliphilic microbial consortia derived from soda lakes for treating textile WW using integrated reactor conditions. Reactor microbiome characterization is needed to further explore microbial diversity and community structure.

We investigated the presence of the fecal indicator bacteria Escherichia coli, and other taxa associated with sewage communities in coastal sediments, near beaches with reported poor bathing water quality, focusing on the influence of effluent from a local wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) and combined sewer overflows (CSO). Using a three-year dataset, we found that treated wastewater effluent is a significant source of sewage-associated taxa and viable E. coli in the sediments and that no seasonal differences were observed between spring and summer samples. CSO events have a local and temporary effect on the microbial community of sediments, distinct from that of treated wastewater effluent. Sediments affected by CSO had higher abundances of families Lachnospiraceae, Ruminococcaceae, and Bacteroidaceae. Sewage releases may also impact the natural community of the sediments, as higher abundances of marine sulfur-cycling bacteria were noticed in locations where sewage taxa were also abundant. Microbial contamination at locations distant from known CSO and treatment plant outlets suggests additional sources, such as stormwater. This study highlights that while coastal sediments can be a reservoir of E. coli and contain sewage-associated taxa, their distribution and potential origins are complex and are likely not linked to a single source.