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 water accompanied by field exposure visit” was organized at Anil Agarwal Environmental Training Institute (AAETI) under Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) by the Water Program Unit of Centre for Science and Environment from December 5-7, 2023. The training program was tailor made for Level-2 officials working in Rural Water Supply and implementing Jal Jeevan Mission and Swachh Bharat Mission-Grameen program in the different states. There were in total 27 participants who attended the training program.  The participants were from five states–Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh.The participants were from different designations such as Directors, Deputy Directors, 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.

On day 1, the topics covered were- difference between greywater and black water, understand the pollutant 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 community and village level such as, DEWATS and Waste Stabilization ponds technology and their design calculations, potential reuse options for treated grey water, etc. Dr. H.N Chanakya talked about various onsite and offsite technologies for grey water management. He discussed about background, feasibility, site identifications, and financial details of household level/onsite level management systems such as kitchen garden and soak pits. 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 DEWATS Technology with an aim to let participants also understand the design specifications of the technology. 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. 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. Swati Bhatia then talked about the technological aspects of conveyance system to transport greywater and various software’s which can be used on the field for mapping and design of conveyance system. This was followed by a laboratory visit to understand grey water quality and reuse aspects. Dr. Mehak Puri talked about funding and institutional sources. 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.