Community - Based
Decentralised
Wastewater Treatment System
P
roper management of domestic waste water represents an advanced system of sanitation in a community. Due to lack of infrastructure facilities, absence of sustainable technologies, inadequate maintenance methods and low levels of awareness amongst community members in rural areas; the waste water management aspect often remains unmanaged in rural India. This leads to unhealthy and abusive conditions for the people to live in as stagnant water in open drains becomes home for vectors responsible for proliferation of water borne diseases. Open drains also lead to water logging situation, particularly in the monsoons. Surface water contaminated by waste water leads to contamination of the ground water causing severe health ramifications.
In Dhikoli village of Babina block of Uttar Pradesh,
Development Alternatives (DA) in collaboration with the International Crops
Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) has demonstrated a
Decentralised Wastewater Treatment (DWT) system for utilising treated
domestic wastewater in agriculture. The particular technology that has been
demonstrated in a farmer’s land in Dhikoli is known as Constructed Wetland (CW).
This is a low cost waste water treatment method devoid of chemicals or any
moving mechanical parts. This method involves basic biogeochemical processes
such as filtration, sedimentation, plant uptake or phytoremediation and
microbial degradation in removing contaminants from wastewater. In Dhikoli,
the CW follows the category of sub-surface flow (SSF) using a filtering
media, which has a major advantage in better control of the mosquito menace.
Dhikoli village has a masonry drain of about 200 m, which collects domestic wastewater from about 50 households and an adjacent well. A community-based approach has been adopted to identify a suitable site for the demonstration after a series of focused group discussions with the local panchayat members and the watershed committee followed by site validation using the PRA methodology. On understanding the benefits, Harcharan Pal, a farmer agreed to give a portion of his agriculture land for the construction of the pilot model. The construction of the structure has been undertaken jointly under the technical supervision of DA and the watershed committee of the village.
After completion of the construction work, the structure was handed over to the farmer who has the main responsibility for operation and maintenance of the same. Harcharan, who previously had to depend fully on the monsoon rain for cultivation has cultivated wheat in the last Rabi season using the treated water in 5 bigha (0.4 hec) land to yield 35-40 quintals of crop. This has helped produce fodder for his cattle resulting in a saving of Rs. 8,000 -10,000 which was previously spent in purchasing fodder from the market. The treated water has become a source of water for agriculture for the farmer, who now has an enhanced annual income of about Rs. 40,000.
This case study demonstrates that the introduction of decentralised wastewater treatment system through a community-based approach acts as a business model for ensuring sustainable livelihoods for the rural families. q
Mohua Tripathy
mtripathy@devalt.org