Compendium of green technologies for municipal wastewater treatment

Abstract

Abstract CPCB data, March 2021, states that the total volume of sewage generated by households in urban India is 72,368 MLD, of this amount, the estimated infrastructure capacity to treat sewage to secondary level is only 43% and approximately 27% of that capacity is utilized, with very limited scope of reuse. Various technologies are employed for treatment of domestic wastewater. All these technologies are dependent on automated process and consist of highly sophisticated operation techniques which may pose hurdles to implement throughout the country especially in peri-urban and rural areas. The existing centralised approach should not be considered the only method. Instead. in the rapidly urbanising cities of India, decentralised wastewater treatment systems with green technology are an attractive solution for addressing the problems of water pollution and scarcity. They may be promoted extensively due to their low operation and maintenance requirements and smaller scale investments. These treatment systems could be a feasible alternative for areas which are not connected to sewer networks as well as ones which are newly developed, so that the construction of their infrastructure is inadequate, not ready or would be executed in the future. Decentralised and low‐cost wastewater treatment systems can augment limited treatment capacity. The mainstreaming of decentralised wastewater treatment systems needs a policy-level thrust from the government supported by extensive and comprehensive field level study and monitoring. Key Words: green technology, natural treatment, STP, municipal wastewater, process design, decentralised,