The Hindu Business Line : Waste-water treatment: A community experiment

CLEAN water is as important as clean air for human life and other forms of life. Recent weeks saw widespread water-logging due to the rains in Tamil Nadu and other parts of the country. There have also been problems of flooded sewerage contaminating drinking or treated water. That there has been no outbreak of disease is a miracle though some cases of cholera, dengue fever and so on have been reported.

Thus, the importance of a hygienic water supply system cannot be over-emphasised. Waste-water treatment facilities are one option, and can be installed in the urban and rural areas with adequate training for operating the system. Another is the DEWATS (Decentralised Waste-Water Treatment System) project that encourages the use of low-cost sewage treatment technologies that can help reduce the impact of waste-water on human life and the environment.

A case study was done in a slum, Ulalu Upangara, on the outskirts of Bangalore, where water was getting contaminated because the inhabitants had to use the open areas adjoining their living spaces as a toilet. This space began to shrink as land got taken up for development.

Thanks to community effort with the co-operation of a local NGO, today there are 44 new toilets, four bathrooms, and 24 washing stones in the area. Successful partnership between Grama Swaraj Samithi, a local NGO, the Bremen Overseas Research and Development Association (BORDA), the Gram Panchayat, and an energetic group of women from the slum brought about the transformation with technical and financial help from the European Commission.

This is a classic example of how NGOs can, with local participation, help improve community living conditions. The new eco-friendly sanitation facility, consisting of two treatment plants, converts sewage into an effluent that is safe for irrigation. The collection of rain water reduces dependence on the public water supply system. A biogas settler converts human waste into `cooking gas'.

The facility is operated by the women's group with help from Grama Swaraj Samithi. Earnings from the sale of water (heated by biogas) and from the use of the toilets and bathing rooms pay for the maintenance of the new facility, reducing the dependence on government funds. The system itself is least expensive and can be put up with locally available material and skills; it is reliable too.

Since 2001, the DEWATS project has fulfilled its main goal of developing and implementing environmentally compatible and socially acceptable sewage systems. More than 2,000 decision-makers and technical experts have attended DEWATS dissemination and training seminars and are aware of the technology and its benefits. DEWATS is implemented by Bremen Overseas Research and Development Association (BORDA) in partnership with the Foundation for Education Innovation in Asia.

In 2002, a consortium for dissemination of DEWATS was constituted in Bangalore to promote the adoption of this system elsewhere in the country. The consortium consists of a network of institutions, authorities and organisations concerned with waste-water treatment.

Basic and advanced training marketing and lobbying have generated interest and spread concern in decentralised solutions for sanitation and waste water problems, as is evident from the number of inquiries that the coordination office receives daily from the municipalities interested in DEWATS.

The EC-funded project of decentralised waste-water treatment technology seems to have been well-recognised and accepted by government agencies and the private sector, as indicated by a number of country-wide initiatives. Following are a few examples:

The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB has recognised DEWATS as an effective means of pollution control. It has requested collaboration of BORDA, the Centre for Scientific Research and the CDD in the formulation of standards for integrating DEWATS into town planning policy framework. In collaboration with the CPCB, the coordination office is currently building a DEWATS unit in low-income housing colonies in Bangalore.

The Karnataka Government has asked all its districts to integrate DEWATS into all future sanitation projects under the Nirmala Nagara scheme.

Well-known companies are considering DEWATS for the water management in their hotels while many hospitals and institutions have been using the technology for the last two-and-a-half years.

Local universities are assigning topics related to DEWATS technology as research projects, theses for diploma; dissertations on DEWATS have become an integral part of the curricula for civil engineering courses.

The community-based sanitation unit will be a solution to the pressing problem of water treatment. It will address one of the pressing problems in urban slums, housing colonies and rural areas, namely, waste water treatment with added benefits of biogas generation and improving the environmental factors. The project received recognition from the President for innovative work.

(The author is a Delhi-based freelance writer.)

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