If you live in an apartment complex, you may find that it has a waste water treatment plant. These units are mandatory by law in many cities where housing projects are beyond a certain size.

Regulations aside, residents also look for this feature due to ecological concerns, water shortage, in many areas as well as high tanker water charges.

Sore points

While the reasons to have a waste water filtering unit are obvious,you must also be aware of the possible problems in store.

For instance, residents sometimes face hassles such as overflowing sewage water or malodour from the unit. And when the home owners’ association gets down to fixing these issues, they find it hard to get a trained professional who understands the plumbing, mechanical and chemical aspects of the system.

It also turns out that, in many cases, the solution to these problems is a complete overhaul of the unit.

This can set you back by ₹20-25 lakh for a system that can handle 60 kilo litres a day (which can supply 80 to 100 apartments), including equipment and installation costs.

Costs can be even higher if you opt for international brands such as GE. So, how can these issues be addressed? Here are four ways. One problem could be that the water treatment plant is too small to handle the load. “Often we find that the size of the unit is only half the actual capacity required for the project,” says Sangeetha Banerjee, CEO, ApartmentADDA, a service provider for home owners’ associations.

The general rule of thumb is that a person uses 150 litres of water a day. So, based on the number of apartments in the project and estimate of occupants, check if the sewage treatment plant is properly sized. In the early years when not all the homes were occupied, all was well. But as more residents move in and the builder hands over maintenance to the owners’ association, issues crop up. Besides the size of the equipment, the storage tank must also be large enough.

It will help ensure that there is a mix of water from various sources — kitchen, bathroom and toilet — to produce consistent output quality.

Good filters You must also ensure that when the water is recycled, the equipment has good filter systems. Around 40 per cent of the water input can be reused, usually for flushing, washing your cars or for landscaping.

But often, the filtered water is of acceptable quality only when used immediately. However, if the water is left unused, say, in a flush tank or remains stagnant in the garden, quality deteriorates quickly. 

“Treated waste water develops odour and colour after six hours. Having extra levels of filters and treatment will help maintain quality longer,” says Varun Sridharan, Founder, Greenvironments, a waste management solutions provider.

Proper handover Even in systems that are well designed, the knowhow is not transferred from the developer to the home owners.

Banerjee says that operation manuals, annual maintenance contracts undertaken, the maintenance schedule to be followed, and so on, are not given to the home owners’ association. “It helps to have a checklist at the time of handover from the developer,” she says.  

Besides, maintaining these units can be quite expensive — contracts for a three-shift maintenance program can run to ₹50,000 a month.

This can work out to around ₹1-1.5 paise per litre of water treated, depending on the size of your project.

So, while it may be tempting to cut costs, it pays to engage with a good quality service provider. They also test the quality of water periodically to prevent problems or detect them early.

Reduce water usage Using less water overall also helps minimise waste water-related issues. Builders are now increasingly using water-saving fittings such as ultra low flush toilets to minimise water usage. 

Use of drip irrigation system cuts water usage by half, says Ashish Puravankara, Joint Managing Director, Puravankara Projects. True, these fittings are expensive and add to the cost of your apartment.

Even so, “they save 30-40 per cent costs directly by reducing consumption,” says Srini Gopalan, CEO, Ozone Properties.

“A simple change in the taps at your house to efficient faucets with rating of under six liters a minute compared with the conventional ones that are double that, along with other simple changes, can save a family of four 100,000 litres of water a year,” says Chandrashekar Hariharan, Chairman, ZED Habitats, a green home developer.

Fitting a simple ‘aerator’ component to your existing unit can make your faucets efficient too. You can also reduce overall usage by the way you meter and bill water. 

Harleen Oberoi, Executive Director, Corporate Investor & Occupier Services, Cushman & Wakefield, says that charging residents based on their actual consumption is very effective in many housing complexes. It results in direct and tangible savings to the end-user.

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