Online Training on Basics of Decentralized Wastewater Treatment and Local Reuse

After the success of previous course held during early 2020, School of Water and Waste (CSE) again launched its most demanding online course on Basics of Decentralized Wastewater Treatment and Local Reuse. The course was 4 week long with a similar structure to its previous course and scheduled from 17 December, 2020 - 15 January, 2021.

The online course was attended by more than 100 participants. An interesting mix of participants being national and international (from China, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, USA, South Africa, Nigeria, Rwanda) ranging from organizations like WaterAid, IITs, NITs, CEPT University, State Universities, SPAs, NIUA, WRC, DJB, SUDA, SMCG, IWA, RCUES, Municipal Corporations, Alluvium International Pvt Ltd, Tata Motors, Apollo Tyres, ICT, BIARDA, NGOs and consultancy firms were part of the course.

The course was designed in such a way that participants receive an initial level of understanding about the concept of decentralized wastewater management. The main aim of the course was to build awareness about the issues and potential of decentralized wastewater treatment including successfully implemented case studies of local reuse of treated wastewater.

This online course was divided into 4 different modules which were covered in 4 weeks. The course material has been provided on Moodle platform on weekly basis and methodology of the course included active learning of 14 hours and essential reading of 10 hours. It comprised presentations, quizzes and short assessments, case studies and exercises, video documentaries, live discussions on the forum and online interactions with experts at CSE.

In the first week the participants were given an overview of the current water and sanitation scenario in developing countries of Global South. It helped participants to understand the urbanization trends across Global South and its implications on water and sanitation. In this module participants got to know the impact of conventional water and wastewater management approach to biodiversity, understand the sanitation scenario of a city/country with the help of state-of-art tool, Excreta Flow Diagram or Shit Flow Diagram (SFD) and why there is a need for a paradigm shift.

In the second week participants were provided with a basic understanding of wastewater and its characteristic, which was followed by the Concepts and Principles of Decentralized Wastewater Treatment. The module gave an in-depth understanding of the scope and scale of implementation of the decentralized approach and its applicability and linkage to water sensitive urban design and planning, city sanitation plan and SDG goals.

Third week of the course covered a detailed learning about various decentralized wastewater treatment technologies supported by successfully implemented best management practices through web based portal MOUNT (Menu on un-networked technologies).

Last module of the course was focused on enabling environment and it provided knowledge about the principles of circular economy and resource recovery. The module concluded various factors impacting the enabling environment.

The course assessment was done through the short quizzes after each module and a final assignment based on brainstorming exercise at the end of the course. The participants were very enthusiastic and actively participated during the discussions in discussion forum on Moodle platform. Overall the course has received positive feedback from the participants.