DEWATS process for decentralised wastewater treatment - Technical lessons from eThekwini Municipality

Content - Summary

Decentralised wastewater treatment involves treatment and disposal of wastewater close to the source it was generated from. Decentralised Wastewater Treatment System (DEWATS) plants are envisaged in South
Africa for high-density areas that are not located close to centralised sewered network. Despite the wide scale implementation of DEWATS plants around the world, there have been few studies that document compliance
monitoring of DEWATS plants and / or assess the performance at different hydraulic loadings conditions. A technical evaluation plant designed
by the not-for-profit organisation BORDA –
Bremen Overseas Research and Development Association - was built by the Ethekwini Municipality for this purpose with the research undertaken by the Pollution Research Group, University of KwaZulu-Natal.

EThekwini Municipality, in common with other municipalities in South Africa, are faced with the increasing challenge of providing housing and
infrastructure to the population of the city. New housing developments are continuously being established within the urban and peri-urban areas in order to meet the housing backlog, many of which are not able to be connected to the main sewer line. The city therefore looked to the DEWATS approach as a possible sanitation solution for future housing developments. The document looks at the technical lessons learnt from the evaluation of the BORDA DEWATS process under different operating
conditions.

Bibliographic information

WRC (2014). DEWATS process for decentralised wastewater treatment - Technical lessons from eThekwini Municipality. Water Research Commision (WRC), Gezina ZA, South Africa

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Biogas systems English Peri-urban Sub-Saharan Africa

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