Decentralised Wastewater Management for Improving Sanitation in Peri-urban India

Abstract

The most challenging characteristics that set peri-urban areas apart from the urban and rural sectors are poor site conditions, unreliable water availability, high population density, the heterogeneous nature of the population and the lack of legal land tenure. One of the major problems that dwellers in the peri-urban regions have to face every day are sanitation problems. In these peri-urban areas, there are inadequate facilities for waste water disposal and there is a need to improve the water quality through wastewater treatment processes. In this study, it is observed that conventional centralised approaches to wastewater management have generally failed to address the needs of communities for the collection and disposal of domestic wastewater and faecal sludge from on-site sanitation. There are opportunities for implementing wastewater management systems based on a decentralised approach that may offer opportunities for wastewater re-use and resource recovery as well as improvements in local environmental health conditions. A number of decentralised wastewater options are discussed in this paper which can be effectively implemented in peri-urban areas. Further, anaerobic treatment of wastewater is advocated for it generates biogas (mainly methane) which can be used in generators for electricity production and/or in boilers for heating purposes. Also, waste stabilisation ponds can be used for fish culture. The study emphasises the importance of building the capacity of local organisations in all aspects of decentralised wastewater management. A number of aspects related to the operational sustainability of decentralised technologies for wastewater management in peri-urban areas and their associated management requirements. In general, the choice of technology is limited by the need to ensure that the operation and maintenance requirements of the chosen technology are compatible with the levels of knowledge and skills available at the local level.