Residential Training on Greywater Management in Rural Areas under JalJeevan Mission

A 3-day residential training on “Managing greywater at household, community & village level alongwith reuse option for treated grey wateraccompanied by field exposure visit” was organized at Anil Agarwal Environmental Training Institute (AAETI) under JalJeevan Mission (JJM) by the Water Program Unit of Centre for Science and Environment from August 8-10, 2023. The training program was tailor made for Level 2 officials working in Rural Water Supply and implementing JalJeevan Mission and Swachh Bharat Mission-Grameenprogram 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 30 participantswho attended the training program. The participants were from eight states– Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Bihar, Jharkhand, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh 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 greywater management at village level. Retd. Professor and Chief Research Scientist from IISC Bangalore Dr. H.N. Chanakya, told about the design specifications and calculations of various offsite technologies to manage and treat grey water at community and village level such as WSP, DEWATS and the potential reuse options for treated grey water. 

The training on second day started with a visit to DEWATS and SBT technology installed in AAETI campus. The topics on day two included the topics of background, feasibility, site identifications, and financial details of household level/onsite level management systems such as kitchen garden and soak pits. On the same day, the participants had a group discussion and laboratory visit on water quality monitoring and advanced laboratory instruments to monitor water quality. The participants got to know about funding sources, grey water conveyance mechanism, 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.

Third day of the training was organized for field visit to phytroid based treatment system in Maujabad village which is situated in Gurgaon 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. 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 Jal Jeevan Mission’s objectives.