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 October10-12, 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. There were in total 24 participantswho attended the training program.  The participants were from four states–Rajasthan, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh.The participants were from different designations such as Deputy Chief 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.

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. The participants were also told about the offsite technologies to manage grey water at communityand village level such as, DEWATS and Phytorid technology and their design calculations, potential reuse options for treated grey water, etc. The design session was taken by Santhosh G.S from Borda. Post the design sessions participants visited the DEWATS and SBT technology installed at AAETI campus.

Day two of the training dealt with design calculations of Phytorid Technology with an aim to let participants also understand the design specifications of the technology which they will visit on field on day three. Sachin Kumar from Gurujal, Gurugram explained the design calculations and various case studies where this technology has been successfully implemented and the process adopted towards it. Day two also 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 on the type of awareness generation activities that can be taken up for various stakeholders. This was followed by a laboratory visit to understand grey water quality and reuse aspects. The participants got to know about funding and institutional sources, grey water conveyance mechanism- where they were taught about various software which they can use to correctly design grey water conveyance in villages. The training was concluded with the various 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.