Residential Training on Greywater Management in Rural Areas under JalJeevan Mission

A 3-day residential training on “Greywater Management in Rural Areasaccompanied by field exposure visit” was organized at Anil Agarwal Environmental Training Institute (AAETI) under JalJeevan Mission (JJM) by the Rural Water & Waste Management Unit of Centre for Science and Environment from November 2-4, 2022. The training program was tailor made for Level 2 officials working in Rural Water Supply and implementing JalJeevan Mission program in the different states. The participants were from different designations such as Executive Engineers, Assistant Engineers, District Coordinators, Consultants and Junior Engineers etc.

The objective of the training was to provide in depth knowledge and insight of the concepts, of management of greywater at village level and Household level. The design of the training program included the topics of greywater treatment, introduction to decision matrix, developing plan for greywater management, conveyance mechanism for greywater treatment, technological overview of onsite greywater treatment system. A field visit was planned to understand greywater management at village level and community interaction.

There were in total 33 participantswho attended the training program.  The participants were from seven states– Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Mizoram, Kerala, Karnataka and Rajasthan.

On day 1, the topics covered were: difference between greywater and blackwater, understand the pollutants levels and impacts of untreated greywater, community sensitization on consequence of using untreated greywater, sourcing the data required for planning greywater management and developing overall plan for greyatwater management at village level.

Second day of the training was organized for field visit to phytroid based treatment system inMozabadvillage which is situated in Gurugoan district, Haryana. The field exposure was planned in a way so that the training participants get an exposure to overall management of greywater management, their construction and operation and impacts. This was followed by interaction of the participants with the stakeholders involved in the implementation of the treatment systems. The sourcing of funds for implementation and operations of the systems were clearly explained by the implementing agency. The participants were very excited to understand the technical modalities of design and implementation of treatment system. The same day participants were taught on community and household level and technological details and design description of onsite greywater management options.

The training on third day also included the topics of background, feasibility, site identifications, and financial details of community and village level treatemt system, potential reuse options for treated greywater. On thesame day, the participants had a group discussion and laboratory visit on water quality monitoring and advanced laboratory instruments to monitor water quality.

On the third day the participant got to know funding sources, institutional setup of greywater management system along with the groups exercises session wherein the participants worked on the village level plan for managing the greywater.

Finally the training concluded with distribution of certificates to all the participants and getting their feedback.

The participants were very positive about the training and overall arrangements in the green campus of AAETI and provided good feedback. They expect more such trainings to be organized so that regular orientation and support can help in maintaining the pace of JalJeevan Mission’s objectives.