Managing greywater: A Haryana village shows the way

What is the news?

Pond-based greywater treatment systems in Kurak Jagir village in Karnal district, Haryana has shown the way on how to treat Greywater.

What is Greywater?

Greywater refers to wastewater from non-toilet systems, that is, wastewater from kitchen sinks, dishwashers, baths, showers among others.

More than 70% of freshwater across rural households in India gets converted to greywater. Due to this, greywater is often let into stormwater drains, which is discharged into the surroundings. This poses environmental and public health risks. 

How is Kurak Village in Haryana treating Greywater?

Gram Panchayat (GP) in Kurak Village has implemented a pond-based wastewater treatment system in 2017.

This Pond-based system treats Greywater in a combination of three different biological processes using zero energy: Anaerobic, anoxic and aerobic.

Under this system, greywater firstly flows through two anaerobic ponds, two facultative ponds and two maturation ponds. The water monitored at the final outlet shows that the wastewater is treated and can be used for irrigation and pisciculture. The last maturation pond in this village is used for pisciculture.

Concern: This pond based treatment system has not been working at places where the GPs are uninterested.

There is a need to build a network of officials to help plan and construct such pond systems, in addition to generating awareness about the system among rural communities.

Impact of this Pond based wastewater treatment system

Within a year of setting up this system in 2017, Haryana passed The Haryana Pond and Wastewater Management Authority Act, 2018. Similar pond-based wastewater treatment systems were set up across the state.

The Act also enabled the state government to create an official authority to handle the management and sustenance of pond systems.

Source: This post is based on the article “Managing greywater: A Haryana village shows the way” published in Down To Earth on 23rd Nov 2021.