DEWATS-Decentralized wastewater treatment systems

WATER WISE

DEWATS to the rescue

S. VISHWANATH

A look at an efficient method of treating wastewater

Over 80 per cent of water consumed in flats and buildings comes out as wastewater. In un-sewered areas, the conventional practice has been to use a septic tank as the recipient of wastewater flows and the liquid effluents then emerging being led into soak pits or leaching trenches. This form of treatment is insufficient to render the outgoing effluents pollution free; in high water table areas, septic tanks can cause contamination of groundwater and surface water.

Cleaning septic tanks too is a cumbersome and unpleasant affair. There has been continuous work to find better systems of decentralised treatment of sewage. Domestic wastewater has a high percentage of nitrogen and carbonaceous materials as well as bacteria but is relatively simple to treat as compared to industrial wastewater. The world over, focus is on shifting to decentralised methods of treating wastewater which are simple to operate and economical too.

Low on maintenance

One approach being tried globally is called DEWATS or Decentralised Wastewater Treatment Systems. It aims to use local materials in design while following rigorous technical norms. It tries to be as low in energy intensity as possible and in favourable circumstances the whole treatment process of wastewater can be completely gravity driven without any energy requirement at all. This means that power cuts and load shedding or even accidental switching off of motors or pumps does not come into the picture at all, something which has been the bane of traditional wastewater treatment systems. Wastewater flows as low as 100 litres or 1 cubic metre to as high as 1,000 cubic metres can be handled by DEWATS systems. There is very little or no maintenance though the performance has to be monitored regularly.

A typical system for a domestic household consists of a primary treatment system consisting of a settling and floating tank, a secondary treatment system of an up-flow type baffled reactor which digests wastewater anaerobically, a tertiary treatment in subsurface horizontal flow sand filters with reed beds, and, finally, a polishing pond for oxygenation and UV disinfection from the sun’s rays.

Effective

The treatment of wastewater is highly effective and consistently meets pollution norms. Since the baffled reactors work very well, there is complete digestion of solids and usually there are no emptying or cleaning requirements unlike a septic tank. The quality of treated wastewater that emerges into the polishing pond is good enough for landscape applications. The reed bed system in the filter part can be a very good landscape feature with plants like canna offering a colourful and verdant look.

The DEWATS approach reports a 80 to 85 per cent reduction in BOD and COD, a 80 per cent reduction in phosphates and a 60 per cent reduction in ammonia from the input wastewater.

The Bremen Overseas Research Development Association (BORDA) ( www.borda.de) has been at the forefront of DEWATS research and outreach globally and has installed thousands of systems. More information is available on the website www.bord-sa.org where the Centre for Dewats Dissemination (CDD) is working.

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Paint roofs white and cool the earth

WATER WISE

Your roof colour matters

S. VISHWANATH

California already mandates a white roof for its buildings but if it makes energy sense and economic sense, white insulating and reflective roofs should become a matter of choice rather than being imposed through legislation.

— Photo: M. Moorthy

Practical: Coating on ceiling reduces heat inside a building.

If you ask Hashem Akbari the one thing that he would do to save the planet from the ill-effects of global warming, he would say paint the roofs of the homes of 100 of the world’s largest cities white and change the road surface to a light colour. Who is Hashem Akbari? He is a physicist and part of the heat island group at Ernesto Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and was presenting a paper at the fifth annual climate change conference in Sacramento, California, on September 9, 2008. (His website is at http://heatisland.lbl.gov/ for those who need more info).

White reflective roofs

It is well known that roofs are the largest heat gainers in buildings and also that if the roofs are painted white they would reflect a large percentage of the incident solar radiation, especially the infra red radiation, away and keep the building cooler. A good reflective white paint brand like the Australian paint called Insultec, claims to reradiate 95 per cent of the infra red rays and 85 per cent of the ultra violet rays, thus reducing the heat load inside the building by 30 per cent. This can reduce air-conditioning costs considerably in buildings. These insulating paints also have the advantage of being water proof and prevent the conduction of heat also.

They can normally be applied on any surface including RCC roof surface, tiles, asbestos sheets and even on poly-coated sheets. Costs are supposed to range from Rs. 40 to Rs. 50 a square foot .

While at an individual building level there is a saving in electricity consumption and having a cooler building, Hashem Akbari adds it up by arguing that lower power consumption means lesser requirement from power plants and therefore lesser generation of CO2 and NOx by the power plants, therefore contributing to the lessening of global warming. Each building can therefore contribute in its own way to lesser emissions from power plants.

Cut in emissions

A 1000 sq. ft. of roof area, a typical roof on an average 30 x 40 site in Bengaluru, painted white can offset 10 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions as compared to a dark roof, say with tiles.

Consider this: 44 metric gigatons of carbon dioxide and other green house gases would be offset if the world’s 100 largest cities converted their roofs to white and made their roads lighter.

California already mandates a white roof for its buildings but if it makes energy sense and economic sense white insulating and reflective roofs should become a matter of choice rather than being imposed through legislation. Asphalted and tarred roads are dark in colour and absorb heat as any two-wheel driver will tell you during summer time. Roads which are dark and blacktopped can also be changed to lighter coloured and more reflective concrete roads.

Since roads make up 25 to 35 per cent of a layout or a city, changing their colour to lighter shades and increasing their reflectivity will cool the immediate surroundings by 2 to 3 degrees Celsius and also contribute to power savings. The importance of avenue plantations and tree shading on both roads and buildings cannot be re-emphasised.

Not only does it contribute to the micro-environment and biodiversity but there is increasing evidence that on a larger scale this can reduce global warming.

Good reflective and insulating paints on the roofs also have another advantage on roof and water. They can be cleaned easily. Their runoff coefficient — the amount of rain that runoff during rains — is higher; therefore, more rainwater can be harvested from such roofs. When the paints are made of inert material and are non-toxic the run-off water quality is also improved and this rainwater can be harvested and even used for drinking.

Thinking smart about roofs helps the building, the earth and water. The roof above your head not only protects the individuals inside but can contribute to solve problems related to water, energy and global warming.

In a city, smart roofs are the path to water wisdom.

www.rainwaterclub.org

www.arghyam.org

zenrainman@gmail.com

Ecological Architecture in India

House calls
Nirmala Ravindran
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–> DOWN TO EARTH: CHITRA VISHWANATH Far from the madding crowd would be an understatement to describe the location of architect Chitra Vishwanath’s home.“At that time, this was the cheapest plot of land we could find,” she says of the 1,500 sq ft plot. Set amid bamboo trees and greenery, the house in Vidyaranyapura cost the Vishwanaths Rs 4 lakh to build, 13 years ago. With a 1,000 sq feet garden, the house stands as a testimony to Chitra’s pioneering work in using earthfriendly construction material. Her husband Vishwanath is a civil engineer and one of the pioneers for the move to create compulsory water-harvesting in Bangalore city. “We had to realise that bricks and sand and marble cannot be carted around the country. We had to find ways of using local material that conserve and save energy.” Chitra Vishwanath�s eco-friendly philosophy is intertwined with her home and lifestyle Her home, Chitra admits, was a laboratory of sorts. “There are things you can’t try in a client’s house, but did with ours.We still find things to add,” she says.The house has been built with soil bricks that have not been plastered or painted, terracottacoloured floor tiles and numerous skylights. It has various levels with the mezzanine floor overlooking the main seating area. And there’s a big surprise: there are no ACs or ceiling fans anywhere in the house. “We’ve never used them; the house never gets hotter than 22° C even in summer,” says Chitra. The couple’s eco-friendly philosophy is intertwined with their home and lifestyle. There is a compost pit to handle garbage and water recycling on the terrace. “We even have a toilet upstairs that separates solid and liquid matter,” says Chitra. There are solar cookers on the terrace cooking the afternoon meal of rice and dal, while rice is being grown on the other side of the terrace. The architect uses her house to present her case to apprehensive clients. “Most people are scared of eco-friendly material because they think it’s high maintenance. But once I’ve show them my house, they usually succumb,” she says. “We want to be able to utilise this land for everything we need: water harvesting, light, ventilation and energy. We’ve grown so many trees around the house that even if the neighbour decides to build a high-rise, it won’t affect anything here,” she adds. For this couple, eco-friendly is not a fashion statement but a way of life.

Urban floods in Bengaluru

The problem is in the planning

Water, water everywhere…planners, institutions and individuals can take several steps to mitigate the physical and economic impact of urban flooding, says S. VISHWANATH

— Photo: K. Murali Kumar

The deluge: The state of affairs in an upmarket villa after a lake breached on the Whitefield-Hoskote Road.

A series of flooding events across Bengaluru has brought into sharp focus the need for better management of rain. Though nothing on the scale of the Kosi floods yet, it has caused severe economic and physical damage to the city and left many psychologically scarred. The coming of the rains is looked at with trepidation and newer areas of the city seem to be affected every time it rains.

Several interesting facts emerge around urban floods. In Bengaluru, it is clear that it is rain which causes the floods unlike, say, a city like Patna where rain could cause the Ganga to swell and flood the city. Surprisingly, recent evidence suggests that it rains more in the city and slightly downwind than in the regional rural periphery.

This is according to a study by NASA scientist Marshal Shepherd. The urban heat island effect, where cities are warmer than their surroundings and which causes the build-up of rain clouds on the city; pollution, which allows rain to coalesce around dust and oil particles; and the wind-break effect of cities, which causes the clouds to discharge on the cities, all seem to contribute to this phenomena. Bengaluru needs to prepare for more rain than average and higher intensity rains at the same time.

Cities also increase runoff as more and more soft agricultural and fallow areas get built upon or paved. From a small well-mulched site, hardly 10 per cent of the rain falling will runoff as storm water. However, build a house on the same site and pretty much 90 per cent of the rain falling will runoff as storm water. Buildings increase runoff tremendously in the Bengaluru context and the storm water drains have to cope with this increase.

Waste management

Solid waste management is crucial to flood management since most of the uncollected garbage will end up in the lowest area, usually the storm water drains, choking them and reducing their ability to carry storm water out.

Tanks and lakes which collected surplus water and recharged the groundwater or dissipated it slowly are on the decline. These are built up, like the ISRO headquarters built on an old tank bed. They then become prone to flooding or transfer the flood problem downstream.

The network of tanks and the valleys and drains connecting them are in a bad state of management with encroachments on several of them. With no institutional approach to manage the tanks and the valleys, little is done except during the flood event itself to ensure that the channels flow freely and that the tanks are not encroached upon. Traditional storm water management techniques simply collect the rain water and funnel it across the city downstream. Newer methods combine traditional approaches with new ones such as Sustainable Drainage Systems (SUDS). It employs a range of natural processes to purify urban runoff. Removal of sediment, bio-filtration, biodegradation and water uptake by plants all help to remove pollutants. Vulnerability maps of areas prone to flooding need to be prepared for citizens to become aware of the choice they make for where they live.

Rainwater harvesting

Even as the Government is working towards making RWH mandatory in the coming days for the city, the system has one of the best potentials to replenish ground water, improve its quality, provide supplementary water for domestic requirements and mitigate flooding. If every building in Bengaluru can store or recharge 60 mm of rain in a single day it should be possible to mitigate the effect of almost every flood except the rare. This means that a 100 square metre roof area will need to store or recharge 6,000 litres of water. Zones with the best possible recharge and zones with the best possible storage need to be identified in the city and steps taken to encourage people to go in for rainwater harvesting.

A recharge well of 3 feet diameter and about 20 feet depth can send in up to 12,000 litres of water into the ground in a single day, provided lithological conditions are favourable. The city needs many such recharge wells in the catchment area of critical flood zones to detain flood waters and top up the aquifers instead of surface flow flooding.

At the broader scale, tanks and lakes need to be networked and managed as retention and detention structures. With rainfall prediction accuracy being developed, tanks have to be linked to catchments and kept ready to hold the maximum water to dampen peak storm events. A deslited tank in Bengaluru can recharge up to 11 mm of water every day while an undesilted one can recharge hardly 1 mm. Desilted tanks can recharge aquifers quickly, lower the surface water levels and be in a position to function as flood mitigators. Full tanks are not good at dampening floods.

Flood insurance

In Europe, urban flood research has been driven by insurance companies who want to understand risks associated with floods and plan premiums accordingly. This sector has yet to mature in India but taking flood insurance is a wise step especially if your car has been found floating in the basement after a rain. Good advice comes from ICICI-Lombard on its website on what to do after a flood. It starts by saying that you should not return home till the authorities declare it safe to go back. Then the steps recommended are: turn off electricity and gas, make sure the water and food you consume are safe, stay healthy, call your insurance agent, take photographs and videographs of the damage caused and finally take care of yourself and family. Wise words, indeed, and this is water wisdom when it relates to urban floods.

Send your responses to:

zenrainman@gmail.com

080-23641690

www.rainwaterclub.org

www.arghyam.org

Water wise

WATER WISE

It’s the lifeline

S. VISWANATH

Think of any new development coming up in a city and the first consideration would be the source of water. Isn’t it difficult to imagine that till the 1960s the borewell as a technology did not exist in India?

— Photo: K. Pichumani

Play it safe: Continuously monitor the quality of borewell water.

It is difficult to imagine that till the 1960s, the borewell as a technology did not exist in India; that it required persuasion to get decision makers and farmers to appreciate the fact that lots of water could come up through a four-and-a-half-inch diameter pipe which went deep into the ground.

Now, India survives because of this pipe which became a six-inch pipe and now is also a eight-inch pipe. First, the pipe went 80 feet down; now it goes 1,500 feet in some places and provides for Karnataka survival water for upwards of 45,000 habitations. And almost all cities depend to varying degrees on groundwater.

Think of any building coming up in a city and the first consideration of the owner or the developer would be a source of water for the development of the site. Usually, the question is where should I dig a borewell and how do I go about it. A dowser is usually more popular than a hydro-geologist.

Ignorance

People’s faith in faith is more than in science, but if you get a ‘2-in-1’, a hydro-geologist who also wields a pendulum or a fork, the better. This is the abysmal state of the science of groundwater in our country and the complete ignorance that we display towards understanding it scientifically.

Large-scale utility providers of water such as the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board do not have a single hydro-geologist working for them. Universities and colleges do not have quality training programme and there is virtually no skill upgradation centre.

So, what is the advice to a borewell digger? Get hold of a good hydro-geologist and get him to do a detailed analysis of your site. He should be able to give you a good soil and lithological profile. Keep that map. He should also be able to suggest potential points of drilling and the depth at which water will likely become available. Approximate depths of casing required and how to go about selecting the right pump should also come from him.

Do not forget to get suggestions on recharge points and some tips on maintaining your borewell.

When you drill the borewell finally, keep the records carefully. Even failed borewells have tremendous information, so keep the knowledge on these points carefully mapped on a plan.

Monitor

Continuously monitor the quality of your borewell water and measure the summer and the rainy season discharge quantities. Develop a maintenance system for all the appurtenances such as the pump and the electrical systems. An annual cleaning of the borewells is also recommended. Fix a water meter and a separate electric meter for your borewell. This will give valuable information.

Understanding the role of groundwater, taking care of the aquifer quantity and quality and developing the science behind groundwater will be crucial to the sustainable availability of water. Each one of us has a role to play if we have a borewell. In this science lies water wisdom.

www.rainwaterclub.org

e-mail- zenrainman@gmail.com

Fiscal incentives for urban water conservation- Bangalore

INCENTIVIZING WATER CONSERVATION AND RAINWATER HARVESTING

A thinking for Bangalore

Cities and city utilities all across India are looking for ways to save water as this critical resource becomes scarce or threatens to run out. Getting the consumers is seen as an important way to reduce consumption. While appealing to their good conscience is a nice way it hardly works. The best way is economic incentives since money talks. What then should be the approach to incentivize water conservation? Here is a strategy for Bangalore admittedly starting with certain advantages

Bangalore has every connection metered and an increasing block tariff due to historic reasons. The tariff however heavily subsidizes domestic water with perverse incentives. For example with a production cost of Rs. 24/- a kilo-litre (Rs 18 /- a kilolitre plus losses in the system of 37%) a household with a domestic connection which consumes 25,000 litres of water per month gets a subsidy of Rs. 400 /- approximately per month.

The current increasing block tariff slab for a domestic connection in Bangalore works in this fashion

Slab Production cost Tariff Subsidy Total subsidy at peak of slab consumption

Kilo Litre KL KL KL Rs.

0-8 24.00 6.00 18.00 8 x 18 = 144 /-

8-25 24.00 9.00 15.00 17 x 15 = 255 /-

Total subsidy for consumption of 25 kl 399/-

(Rs 18 x 8 + Rs 15 x 17 ).

This subsidization is simply unsustainable.

Incentives for water conservation: On the other hand if a household harvests rainwater and does not draw a drop of water from the BWSSB it still gets a bill of Rs. 48 /- covering the first slab. While the household has SAVED the BWSSB Rs. 400 /- it has been penalized with a minimum bill.

How then to devise a pricing strategy to include rainwater or recycled water as an incentive for households to consume instead of BWSSB water?

Let us assume an average standard demand of 135 litres per person per day and an average family size of 4. Monthly demand would therefore be 135 x 4 x 30 = 16,200 litres say 16 kilo-litres. This is a reasonable quantity of water a family is expected to consume in a month. Anything less than this shows frugality in water use, conservation and perhaps rainwater harvesting and water recycling, all deeds that the city needs to reward the family for.

Reward:

How should the reward go to the family?

Let us assume that the family has only used 5 kilolitre of water in a month. Consumption below expected normal demand of 16 kilolitre is 16 – 5 = 11 KL .

Subsidy that the family would have got from the BWSSB at 16 KL of consumption = 8 x 18 + 8 x 15 = Rs 264 /-

Let us define an incentive fund of Rs 18 /-(the gross production cost of water to the BWSSB) minus Rs 9 /- ( a reasonable tariff for the lowest slab in the coming days ) = Rs 9/- per kilolitre

So for every kilo-litre less than 16 kilolitres consumed by a family in a month it will get that saving of water in KL into Rs 9/- as an incentive amount to be set off against future bills.

In this family’s case the incentive amount will be 11 KL x Rs 9 /- = Rs. 99/-

The family saves Rs 99/- the BWSSB saves Rs 165/- a win- win situation for both and for the city too in terms of the waters released to be supplied to others which is 11 KL per month.

Now if this were to be applied all across the city to the nearly 6 lakh connections it would not require anything except an additional row in the water bill. No extra administrative costs would also be expected and most importantly the subsidy would be a reward for those who showed good behaviour.

Compare this to a rebate in property tax which is given in some cities for rainwater harvesting which rewards a house owner and not rentor and also does not send any signal for wise water use and one sees the need for such bold moves on the part of cities and city utilities.

A hard look at water tariffs and a revision is overdue as is the need to economically incentivize the wise water user. Will such water wisdom dawn on us?

Quiz

Water Quiz In our quest to underline the importance of saving water for human sustenance and emphasise the advantages of rainwater harvesting and treatment procedures, PropertyPlus has been bringing out a weekly column ‘Waterwise.’ The aim is to create awareness on the reward and compensation that one draws out of prudent water uses. Our ‘Water Quiz’ will be yet another attempt to inform and educate you on the facts and data related to water. We do hope our efforts help in increasing your general knowledge which would also help you realise the overriding significance the subject draws in the present scenario, where increased population and buildings throw additional demands on saving the ‘elixir of life.’

Additionally, several right answers in our questions that require detailed explanations would be elucidated by our columnist, S. Vishwanath, for giving you a better perspective of the subject and making you understand the core issues involved.

Happy quizzing!

Ka- Sanskrit root meaning water

WATER WISE

Preserve the lifeline S. VISHWANATH

The Sanskrit ‘Ka’ meaning ‘water’ is the language root for both the Arkavathy and the Cauvery

— Photo: M. Moorthy

Save it: The Cauvery in all its splendour at sunset. The Jamuna for Delhi, the Manjira and Krishna for Hyderabad, the Cauvery and the Krishna for Chennai and the Arkavathy and the Cauvery for Bangalore — rivers are the lifeline for our cities.

The Sanskrit ‘Ka’ meaning water is the language root for both the Arkavathy and the Cauvery. It is important therefore for us to treat our rivers with respect. Each individual’s action counts…be it consuming less water, ensurin g wastewater treatment, managing garbage correctly and planting and taking care of trees and forests in the catchment of our rivers.

Primary source

It rains on the land and rain is the primary source of water. The forests hold the water and release it slowly, ensuring that the soil does not run off and erode and also choke up water bodies. The rivers run from the waters they receive from the surface of the land, but very importantly from the waters that they receive from the base flows below the ground and which appear as springs or feed the channels directly. We take the water from the rivers for our use but we need to return it in the same quality at which we took it.

How would it be if every city were to release its wastewater upstream and draw its fresh water requirement downstream of the release point of wastewater? Would we be more ecologically responsible?

It is time for all of us to ensure that the precious resource called water is well understood, distributed equally to all and taken care of as a precious gift of nature. For that we need to become water literate. And water literacy — knowing where the water we use comes from and taking responsibility for its wise use and release back to nature after use — is the first step towards water wisdom.

Pouring rain

WATER WISE

How do we preserve rain? S. VISHWANATH

City centres and slightly downwind areas receive 15 per cent more rain than the suburbs

— Photo: G. Moorthy

GET WISER: Being water wise is to understand that rain, the primary source of all water, has to be stored or recharged judiciously While in the countryside rain is a joyful event, in a city it is met with grumbles because it disrupts plans for an evening out or causes floods on the streets or causes power breakdowns. Interestingly, city centres and slightly downwind areas receive up to 15 per cent more rain than the suburbs. It rains more in the city because of the heat island effect — the concrete and asphalt capturing and radiating heat. The intensity of the rainfall also seems to be more in the city.

All the more reason for us to be prepared and to take steps to convert what we perceive to be a nuisance into a resource. The first step is to calculate the rain that falls and the number of rainy days. A rainy day or a wet day is when it rains more than 2.50 mm. This information is available on the India Meteorological Department website and Indiawater.org portal.

The next step is to calculate or find out your plot area and roof area. The next step is to find out the monthly average rainfall. Finally make the choice of filtering rainwater from the rooftop and storing it in a sump. A sump of 6,000 litres is ideal for a 100 square metre roof area but even 2,000 litres of storage will do. Pick the overflow and lead it into a recharge well. Do the same with the plot runoff. A recharge well is typically three ft. in diameter and about 20 ft. deep.

Being water wise is to understand that rain in a city is a blessing to be carefully stored. It does not matter how much it rains, it matters more what we do with the rain.

Aerobic Rice – Part Deux

New ‘aerobic rice’ by Jan From Kalyan Ray, DH News Service, New Delhi: A new rice variety that can thrive on less than half of water needed for existing varieties is expected to be released in Karnataka for commercial cultivation by January, 2009. And what may be an additional plus point, this rice line does not contribute much towards global warming unlike the regular rice varieties. The new rice variety called “aerobic rice” has been developed by plant breeders at the University of Agricultural Sciences(UAS) in Bangalore. Begun as part of an all-India project of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research’s (ICAR), it has completed an independent trial for three years. However, since entering into the central trial is the official requirement for a state-wide release, the UAS is trying to make a beginning with a release in the dry zones of Karnataka early next year. “I am proceeding with release formalities at the UAS, Bangalore starting January, 2009. That is the earliest we can do it. Since water is a scare resource, we need to show results at the earliest,” Dr H E Shashidhar, the developer of aerobic rice, told Deccan Herald. mooter_page_section=”AdUnit2″; Around the same time, Raipur’s Indira Gandhi Krishi Vishwavidyalaya may also release the line for the farmers in Chhattishgarh. Due to their low water use efficiency, the existing rice varieties need 3,000 to 5,000 litres of water to produce one kg of grain. Usage of excess water also reduces the efficiency of the fertiliser. On the contrary, the new line’s water requirement has been cut down by 40-50 per cent, making it suitable for cultivation in the state’s drought-prone areas. Moreover, because of the absence of standing water for days, it does not generate the green house gas methane, which is one of the major contributors to global warming. Normally, methane is produced during irrigated rice cultivation. “Because of standing water in paddy fields, soil organic matter is decomposed in an anaerobic (without oxygen) processes generating methane,” said Dr Shashidhar, who is currently working in Barwale Foundation in Hyderabad. As there will be no such decomposition during the cultivation of this line, it is called aerobic rice. He claims that with the rice root running almost three times deeper, there would be better water absorption and air circulation. While the new variety gave a yield of about 55 quintals per hectare, which is par with the regular varieties, it becomes ready for harvesting between 120 and 130 days. The UAS has completed trials at six locations between 2005 and 2007 in collaboration with the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in Manila. Trials took place at Bangalore, Raipur, Cuttack, Faizabad, Coimbatore and Hazaribagh.