DECENTRALIZED WASTEWATER TREATMENT TECHNOLOGY:A PROMISE FOR THE FUTURE

摘要

Centralized system of collection and treatment of liquid wastes has been in vogue for more than acentury now. While this concept has brought general improvement in the hygiene and sanitarysituations in the urban areas, the system as such is costly and poses high demand on fresh waterused for flushing the sewers. Decentralized wastewater systems offer sustainable alternatives to thecentralized systems. These systems make best use of the available technologies and generallyinvolve low maintenance requirements, and a process for reuse and/or dispersing the treated effluentnearby through the soil and ground water recharge. This paper gives an overview of the technologiesthat have been successfully applied and potentially used, and advocates that decentralized systemscontaining these technologies should be produced using modern industrial methods and delivered ina user friendly state. Further, these should be serviced and maintained by a team of skilled people.