Co-Treatment at Sewage Treatment Plant, Indirapuram, Ghaziabad

Scale of service	City Scale	Area of installation (Sq. Ft.)	NA
Inlet	Faecal Sludge and Septage	Outlet	Dried sludge,  Methane and treated wastewater
Year of Installation	Co-Treatment begun in September, 2017	Capital investment (INR)	Almost neglegible
No. of Users	40,000 to 60,000 dependent on OSS	Treatment time	Not known
C.O.D. (outlet)	36 mg/l	B.O.D. (outlet)	8 mg/l

Location of the technology:

This Sewage Treatment Plant is located at Indirapuram, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh at 28°39'2"N 77°22'34"E.

Need for technology

Private desludging operators in the city disposed faacal sludge and septage indiscriminately into the environment. This dumping was unregulated and a severe pollutant in the city. Meanwhile a Directive issued by the National Green Tribunal (NGT), on ending pollution of local water bodies proved to be a further motivation. Co-treatment was also one of the parameters in the recent Swachh Sarvekshan 2018. Collectively, these encouraged co-treatment with the motive of improving the city’s water bodies.

System description

The Indirapuram STP has an installed capacity of 56 MLD and is based on Sequential Batch Reactor. The tankers carrying faecal sludge and septage decant at designated sewage pumping stations. The STP receives around 40 MLD of wastewater and at present there is spare treatment capacity of around 16 MLD that is used for co-treatment.

23 private desludging vehicles are registered with GNN. They are trucks/tractors equipped with suction pumps and tanker, with capacities ranging from 3m³ – 8m³. Each truck completes 2 – 3 trips every day. Around 4610- 6911 truckloads of septage are discharged at Indirapuram every day.

Economic Model:

The only private desludging operators authorised to decant septage at the decanting points are those registered and authorised by the GNN. All these operators are required to sign an undertaking on a Non Judicial Stamp Paper (value of INR 100) that makes them compliant with the rules set by GNN for emptying, transportation of septage and faecal sludge. The registration are forms priced at INR 200 and available at the Water Works Department’s office both at the GNN Headquarters and their zonal offices. A one-time security deposit of INR 2000 per truck is payable by private operators. Fines of INR 20,000 are applicable if private operators are found dumping faecal sludge and septage in the open.

The undertaking is applicable per vehicle, and some operators have multiple vehicles. This agreement is subject to annual renewal on the payment of INR 2,000 for each truck. Private operators charge households and institutions standardised rates set by GNN for emptying the septic tanks and transporting the septage to the decanting station. The fee is made up of a fixed charge for emptying a tanker load and a transportation charge based on the distance between the site of collection to the nearest decanting point.

 

Type of user	Fee per Tanker load (INR)	Transportation charge, per km (INR)
Individual House	250	20
Multi storeyed Apartment	300	20
Institutions	500	20

 

Operation and maintenance:
Maintenance of the installation	At one of the pumping stations, structure built around the well for safe disposal of FSS into the pumping station is often damaged by trucks/tractors while they decant. This often needs repair.
O&M cost (INR)	Negligible

 

Picture annexure:

Inlet for decanting Faecal Sludge at the STP