Community Level Domestic Wastewater Treatment Plant

To keep the surrounding of the Rohini Nature Habitat environmentally clean, we propose to implement a community level domestic wastewater treatment plant. Domestic wastewater is water with added pollutants from the use of household activities such as bathing, cooking, defecating, showering, urinating, washing etc. The composition of common domestic wastewater, also known as grey water, is made up of 70% organics including carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. Two types of domestic wastewater are black water and grey water. Black water, on the other hand, consists of human fecal & urine in high concentration and usually contained in a septic tanks.

This project proposes to treat grey water by using the method of the Waste Stabilization Ponds (WSPs) System for the purpose of its reuse in irrigation system. That is, a WSPs System can clean and then re-use the household domestic grey water for edible crop agriculture called restricted irrigation. Its purpose is also to promote urban garden movement.

A WSP is a natural treatment method which simply holds domestic grey water over time to remove pollutants with either an aerobic, with oxygen, or anaerobic, without oxygen process The aerobic process involves using algae, sunlight, and photosynthesis to produce oxygen to allow oxidization of the domestic grey water to naturally clean pollutants reducing a small amount of organic matter and as large amount of fecal bacteria. The anaerobic process involves using gravity to allow sedimentation of the domestic grey water to naturally clean pollutants reducing a larger amount of organics and a small amount of fecal bacteria. [In collaboration with the Nepal Study Center of the U. of New Mexico and its research team: Dr. Alok K. Bohara (Professor, Department of Economics), Brandon DeFlon (Graduate Student, Statistics & Civil Engineering) & others.]