Recycling of Domestic Gray Water using Small Scale Constructed Wetlands

D Jeya Maria Santhiya¹

¹Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Vel Tech Rangarajan Dr. Sagunthala R&D Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai, India

Abstract

India is facing water crisis and by 2025, it is estimated that India's population will be suffering from severe water scarcity. As the cities in general lack a perennial water source, catering the water requirements of the population has remained an arduous task. Many cities rely on annual monsoon rains to replenish its water reservoirs since the rivers are polluted with sewage. Pollution caused by sewage including gray water is one of the major reasons for depletion of water resources. At present, the sewage generation in India is about 29000 litres per day whereas the treatment capacity is only 6000 litres per day. Hence there is a dire need for efficient treatment of sewage with alternative approaches to ensure water availability. It is possible to intercept gray water, at the household level, treat it so that it can be recycled for gardening, washing and flushing purposes. It is now widely accepted that grey water recycling is feasible and can contribute to sustainable water management. The use of lowcost and low-maintenance technologies is preferred for economic reasons. In constructed wetlands, the plants use contaminants of gray water, such as food particles, as nutrients for their growth. The project was carried out to determine the efficiency of COD and phosphate removal from gray water by constructed wetland treatment (horizontal flow). The plant species used is Canna indica. The removal efficiency is checked with samples collected at various time intervals and the minimum retention period is found.

Keywords

• Gray water, Constructed wetland, Canna indica, COD, phosphate removal

Author's Profile

Author profile can be generated and linked through our partners World Book of Researchers. To include your profile online Click Here. After it is approved, please email to edlib @ asdf.res.in to create a link with all the papers.

• D Jeya Maria Santhiya : Profile

e-AID

Cite this Article as Follows

D Jeya Maria Santhiya. Recycling of Domestic Gray Water using Small Scale Constructed Wetlands. International Conference on Global Environmental Changes and Sustainable Development (2019): 12. Print.