الأرض الرطبة المُنشأة ذات التدفق الرأسي

This issue publishes selected contributions from the 1st WATERBIOTECH conference. WATERBIOTECH („Biotechnology for Africa‘s sustainable water supply“) is a coordination and support action funded within the Africa call of the EU 7th Framework Programme.

Within the BMZ (German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development) financed project on “Advice on the Decentralisation of the Water and Sewerage Sector in Albania” the GIZ and MPWT (Albanian Ministry of Public Works and Transport) initiated the pilot constructed wetland to raise awareness for low cost, appropriate and decentralised sanitation technologies in line with EU standards. It is aimed to be used as a model treatment plant by the main actors of the sector for training, demonstration, research and replication in peri-urban and rural areas of Albania.

Case study on constructed wetlands for a peri-urban housing area. Septic tanks are used to pre-treat the sewage. The pre-treated wastewater is transported through a small-bore sewer system.

In the village of Haran Al-Awamied a gravity sewer system already existed and waste water was collected for irrigation without any treatment. GTZ and MHC (Syrian Ministry of Housing and Construction) initiated a project for a new ecological treatment plant (settling tank and a vertical flow CW).

In the Flintenbreite in Luebeck, Germany, blackwater is collected in vacuum toilets. Together with organic wastes from the kitchen it is converted to biogas. Greywater is treated in a reed-bed filter. The project demonstrated the consistent utilisation of ecological building materials, the use of self-sustaining, integrated energy and wastewater concepts, and the implementation of innovative energy saving technologies, with a minimisation of interference in nature, and a responsible, integrative and active cohabitation of the inhabitants.

The Kathmandu Valley faces critical problems regarding the availability of drinking water, the quality of water and wastewater management. To improve the wastewater management, constructed wetlands, mostly planted with reed, were constructed. The project area is in Madhyapur Thimi municipality, one of Nepal’s oldest settlements.

This case study is about a full-scale residential settlement project in an urban area in Hamburg, Germany. The settlement was built between 1982 and 1994 and consists of 36 single-family houses with approx. 140 inhabitants. The project aims at having an ecological closed-loop process via on-site wastewater treatment and therefore independence from a sewage system. Rainwater harvesting, composting toilets and constructed wetlands were the technologies applied in the project. Thereby a high resource and energy efficiency can be achieved.

In July 2012, a team from RTI International deployed to the Philippines to evaluate four FSM programs with the goal of reporting on best practices and lessons learned. The four cases—Dumaguete City, San Fernando City, Maynilad Water for the west zone of metro Manila, and Manila Water from the east zone of metro Manila—were chosen to highlight their different approaches to implementing FSM.

This document provides brief descriptions of 17 wetland treatment systems from that are providing significant water quality benefits while demonstrating additional benefits such as wildlife habitat. The projects described include systems involving both constructed and natural wetlands, habitat creation and restoration, and the improvement of municipal effluent, urban stormwater and river water quality. Each project description was developed by individuals directly involved with or very familiar with the project in a format that could also be used as a stand-alone brochure or handout for project visitors.

This report provides an overview of how constructed wetlands serve as natural wastewater treatment systems. It focuses especially on the subsurface horizontal flow type—a technology that has high potential for small and medium-size communities because of its simplicity, performance reliability, and low operation and maintenance requirements. The ability of this wetland to reduce pathogens renders the effluent suitable for irrigation of certain crop species if additional health and environmental protection measures are taken. This report describes several experiences with constructed wetland schemes in Central and South America: a full-scale pilot plant in Nicaragua, a community-managed constructed wetland scheme in El Salvador, and other systems in Colombia, Brazil, and Peru.

Today it is possible to foresee completely decentralized wastewater treatment systems in urban areas where the blackwater fractions (urine and faecal matter) is reclaimed for fertilizer and potentially energy production. The water from kitchen sinks and showers (greywater) is treated locally in compact low maintenance systems that constitute attractive landscape elements. These systems can coexist with decentralized water supply.

Issue 12 of Sustainable Sanitation Practice (SSP) on „Treatment wetlands“ includes 6 contributions: (1.) the Austrian experience with single-stage sand and gravel based vertical flow systems with intermittent loading (the Austrian type is for treating mechanically pre-treated wastewater), (2.) the French experiences with two-stage vertical flow systems treating raw wastewater. (3.) EcoSan Club‘s experiences with TWs in Uganda, (4.) results from multi-stage TW treating raw wastewater in Morocco. (5.) results from horizontal flow experimental systems from Egypt, and (6.) experiences from Denmark and UK on reed beds treating excess sludge from activated sludge plants.