Page 72 - March 2020 - WT Site

Reuse of Septic Tank Effluent

by Treating it With Ozone

By Jainam Shah, Madhura Taskar, Priyanka Singh & Soham Vaishampayan

Percentage of Population using
on-site wastewater disposal
systems

30

25 Percentage of
Population
20 using on-site
Wastewater
15 27.5 Disposal
23
10 20 Systems
5

0
United States France Ireland

Table1. Percentage of Population using onsite wastewater disposal systems.

s population is increasing exponentially, water far apart, it becomes extremely expensive to provide sewerage
requirements are also surging day by day. Also, changes system in such areas. Therefore, people in rural areas have to
Ain global weather patterns due to El Nino have rely on domestic sewage treatment plants where connection to
aggravated the conditions by drying up monsoon in various main sewage pipes are not provided by local governments or
countries including India. Water basins are not filled enough to private corporations. In North America, approximately 25% of
ensure continuous supply of water throughout the year. Hence, the population relies on septic tanks, including some suburbs and
it becomes vital need of an hour to use water effectively and small towns as well as rural areas.
economically in order sustain it for future generations. Thus,
in this article, we have demonstrated an alternative technology Indianapolis is one example of a large city where many of the
which can be used to treat water economically. Septic tank has city’s neighborhoods still rely on separate septic systems. In
been used to treat water since time immemorial. However, the Europe, septic systems are generally limited to rural areas. Hence,
quality of effluent from septic tank is not good enough to reuse it it is indispensable to ensure the quality of effluent of septic tank
for household or potable purposes. Hence, it is generally drained is reusable for household purposes. Although, there are many
off in drainfield after filtering it with some suitable filter. Here, other advanced treatment units like ATS (Aerobic Treatment
we have made an attempt to reuse the effluent of septic tank by System) or filters like Peat Filter, Coco Fiber Filter, Advan Tex
using septic tank in conjunction with ozone generator to improve Units, Geotextile fibers which can be used in conjunction with
the quality of effluent. septic tank to decrease the BOD of effluent, but using ATS
can considerably increase the price of system and mere filters
Introduction cannot solve the problem of odour, colour, viruses and bacteria.
Hence, ozone could be the best disinfectant used to solve all these
According to the World Bank report in 2014, 67.63% of India’s problems.
population lives in rural areas. As houses in rural areas are spaced

74 Water Today - The Magazine l March 2020