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Producing Plant Ok
Producing Plant Ok
Contents
CONTENTS .......................................................................................................................................................1
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1. INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................................2
The rapid and haphazard urban growth is exerting immense pressure on urban
environment and municipalities, which often do not have sufficient expertise and resources to
deal with the issue of unmanaged and poor quality of sanitation. In this context, urban
sanitation has become a major challenge for municipalities and small towns in Nepal.
Although data shows that about 80 percent of urban households have access to some kind of
toilets but the wastes from these toilets are not well managed. Only 12 percent of urban
households are connected to the sewer systems and even where sewer systems exist, waste
water treatment is almost non-existent to date. In order to solve the problem there are very
few small projects running currently in Nepal. Existing Wastewater Treatment in Kathmandu
Valley currently has five municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTP): an activated
sludge plant at Guheshwori, non-aerated lagoons at Kodku and Dhobighat, and aerated
lagoons at Sallaghari and Hanumanghat. Of the five, the only wastewater treatment plant in
operation as of January 2003 is the activated sludge system at Guheshwori. Environment and
Public Health Organization (ENPHO) introduced the use of constructed wetlands for
wastewater treatment in Nepal as an alternative to conventional wastewater treatment
technologies. These projects have been successful to the date and established as prominent
step for future hope. As, realizing our social and technical interest, we intend to provide
limelight to these projects. 3
2. OBJECTIVE AND SCOPE
The objective of our project is to study the sewage treatment system, successfully
operating in Nepal. Our project covers two most successful projects running in Kathmandu
valley. As mentioned earlier, when it comes to basic sanitation, Nepal lags behind all the
other nations of South Asia as well as most other developing countries. We chose two
projects to study in detail so that it will represent both mechanical and biological processes.
The study mechanical system helps to use gain insight on practical application of our
knowledge in real world for the betterment of life of people. The additional biological system
diversifies our knowledge so that it will help us to create a environment friendly designs in
future.
The Guheshwori plant is a complete mechanical system whereas the Dhulikhel system
represents biological system. The detail study of these projects will helps us to find best
option of sewage treatment, thereby fulfilling our objective. We are also concerned to these
systems in order to find possible solution in reducing dangerous chemical impact on water
resource.
These studies will elucidate the concept of using mechanical and biological system for
reducing our own basic and major problem of ‘water pollution in developing country Nepal’,
and hence covers social aspect coalescing the concept of ‘social engineering’ as well.
3. PROBLEM STATEMENT 4
The problem toward which this report is directed is to identify the water sanitation
problem in our country. What steps are implemented to solve the problem? What are the
successful approaches taken to date? What can be done more in best possible ways? Can the
treatment system operating in Nepal be used in Industrial discharge treatment for reducing
their harmful impact on Nature?
4. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
The primary framework of the report is to know the successful approaches implemented
to solve the sewage treatment system in the country. So, the main focus goes to Dhulikhel
Reed Based Water Treatment System and Guheshwori plant. These systems are providing
services in their area of operation. The service is minimal but we can avoid the fact these are
initiatory work in the field of environment conservation. Regardless of size and service, its
benefits cannot be neglected.
The valley’s surface water sources, such as rivers and kunds, have received tremendous
pressure from increasing population and economic activities. The pressure on these water
sources has also increased due to use of water for a more and more intensified agricultural
system. Almost all major rivers have been tapped at source for drinking water supplies. This
supply is only about 120 million litres per day (mld) during the rainy season, 80 mld during
dry season of the estimated daily demand of 170 mld (NWSC 2001). In dry season, 60-70%
of the water supply comes from groundwater. Only 79% of the total demand for water of the
urban population has been met. Groundwater is an important alternative source of water
supply in the valley, and it is under immense pressure, as it is being heavily used for drinking
and other to be about 60 litres for the urban area (NPC 1997). About 85% of the total water
used ends up as domestic wastewater. These facts prove valley needs more action in field of
reusing waste water.
Thus the study helps to provide a prominent approach to know best approach to be
implemented in different areas as per needs and suitability.
5. REVIEW OF LITERATURE 5
Water pollution is the most serious public health issue in Kathmandu Valley. There is a
vital connection between water and health. Solid waste disposal and dumping household and
industrial effluents into the rivers and so on are responsible for the deteriorating quality of
river water, causing water-borne diseases such as diahroea, dysentery, cholera, and skin
diseases. Next are the water-washed diseases which occur as a result of poor sanitation. In
addition, when the total treatment capacity for drinking water is lower than the amount of
water produced, the quality of drinking water becomes substandard. For instance, in 1998,
treated water coverage of the total water supply was over 80% (NWSC 1999). However, most
drinking water samples in the valley have residual chlorine levels lower than the WHO
standard of 0.2 mg/l (ENPHO 2000).
In urban areas like the cities within Kathmandu Valley and especially Kathmandu City,
the lack of basic sanitation has been devastating to the quality of local streams and rivers,
namely the Bagmati and Bishnumati Rivers. This fact is clearly written in report submitted by
Hillary Green, Saik-Choon Poh and Amanda Richards to Civil and Environmental
Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
This means that the treatment of drinking water is not effective. Thus study in this
area is a must.
6. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 6
6.1 Research design:
The research study attempts to analyze the need of sewage treatment plants in different
cities and rural areas for safe and pure water with additional feature of using waste water.
Being a field based study; it examined the attitude of people, government and organizations
to involve in the process availing the population with clean water.
The report focuses on expertise knowledge on sewage treatment plant. Their experience
on these systems helped us to find out the best way to study the system and their efficiency
and output. Based on the data given by expertise of ENPHO and Guheshwori plant, we were
able to analyze the efficiency of the plant. Besides that, benefits were also substantial.
We used two types of methods of data collection which are categorized as follows:
The cardinal principle, on which the different systems are constructed, is always the
state of water. In simple words, by state, we mean the need and capacity of treatment
plants.
There are basically three agencies delivering water and sanitation services. The
Department of Water Supply and Sewerage is the principal public agency for policy and
program formulations concerning water supply and sewerage, and for water supply in rural
areas. Nepal Water Supply Corporation (NWSC) is a semi-government agency that supplies
water mainly in the urban areas. However, since the supply of water by the public agency
alone is not adequate, the additional requirement of domestic water is being supplied by the
private sector. In addition, households also draw water by themselves from groundwater
sources.
Two major sources of drinking water in the valley are surface water and groundwater.
The surface water source is larger than the groundwater source in terms of volume. Yet, not
all households have access to tap water. On average, nearly 81% of households have access
By BIE 065 batch
A PROJECT REPORT ON WASTE WATER MANAGEMENT
to this safe water source, with Bhaktapur having the least access (74.6%) among the valley
districts. The groundwater sources together (well, tube well, and stone spout) are the second
most important outlook of condition of water in major urban areas. The only government-led
agency, DWSC covers about 70% of the total demand for water in the urban areas. The
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remaining needs are met the individual households themselves.
The status of water supply and demand in the Kathmandu Valley is shown in Table. The
production capacity for drinking water in the valley increased from 125 in 1999 to 132 mld in
2006. Likewise the status of other parameters has also improved. The percentage of NWSC
household connections is only 47.4% of the total households of 240,000 (NWSC 2001). The
distribution of stone spouts, one of the traditional sources of drinking water in the valley’s
municipalities, is shown in One major problem with this source is that the number of stone
spouts drying up is increasing due to lack of proper maintenance and management. There are
37 man-made ponds (16, 4, and 14 in Bhaktapur, Kathmandu and Lalitpur districts
respectively), and three natural ponds (one each in three districts), and one reservoir in
Lalitpur district (Friends of Bagmati 2006). 9
8. SYSTEM’S OVERVIEW
The Bagmati River and its tributaries flow through diverse environments in the valley
and have varieties of aquatic macro-invertebrate species. Aquatic fauna species include fish,
amphibians, and reptiles and all are known as ‘vertebrates’. Aquatic flora includes benthic,
macro, and micro invertebrates. Most of them are pollution indicators and therefore they can
be used to determine the quality of river water.
Due to the direct discharge of sewage and wastewater into the rivers without treatment,
all the rivers in the valley have been turned into open sewers. It is estimated that about 50,000
kg of BOD5 per day is produced in the valley. An average of 20,846 kg BOD/day has been
recorded for the Bagmati River at the outlet, constituting 42% of the total BOD load
produced (CEMAT 2000).
These biotic life are not capable of sustaining their life, showing the present scenario of
water pollution and there by elucidating explicitly the need of treatment system.
chamber. The Guheshwori WWTP lacks primary clarification tanks. This is not unusual in 10
This facility provides pre-treatment of wastewater with a mechanical bar rack and a grit
smaller plants, especially when oxidation ditches are used (Harrington, 2003). The bar rack
eliminates large objects from the influent, and inorganic particles like sand are removed in
the grit chamber. The wastewater at Guheshwori WWTP is biologically treated in two
carrousel15 type oxidation ditches, each with three aerators. From the oxidation ditches,
wastewater flows into two secondary clarifiers for the settling of solids. Up to 2,500 MLSS
sludge is pumped from the clarifiers back to the oxidation ditches to be metabolized by
microorganisms, and any excess sludge is wasted to one of fourteen drying beds. The
explanation we were given for this was that all of the sludge from the secondary clarifiers
was recycled to the oxidation ditches as RAS (return activated sludge). Any excess solids are
likely to leave the Guheshwori WWTP with the effluent as TSS (Harrington, 2003).
Mar 1250 285 77.2 582 38.7 93.3 249 111 55.2
Apr 1400 297 78.7 562 50.9 90.9 300 100 66.6
May 1268 270 78.8 575 47.1 91.8 350 120 65.7
100
90
80
70
60
50 COD
40 BOD
30 TSS
20
10
0
Jan-10Feb-10 Mar- Apr-10 May- Jun-10
10 10
By BIE 065 batch
A PROJECT REPORT ON WASTE WATER MANAGEMENT
9.1. Advantages:
9.2. Disadvantages:
In addition, the use of conventional activated sludge in developing nations has come
under much criticism in recent years (Harleman, 2001). The major disadvantage of activated
sludge systems are high operating costs associated with large energy needs. Nepal has few
exploitable fossil fuel sources, so electricity production efforts have been primarily focused
on hydroelectric plants. Even this source is largely untapped, so electricity remains very
expensive. The treated water cannot be used for basic household purposes.
The system has shown high treatment efficiency since its operation began in 1997 to
2000. During that interval of time, it was observed that the major pollutants such as total
suspended solids (TSS), organic pollutants, and ammonia-nitrogen had a removal percentage
of more than 95%, while the removed percentage of E. coli was even higher at 99.99%
(ENPHO, Shrestha, 2009). Although the system was initially designed for 20 m3/day of
wastewater, since 2000 it now treats 30-40 m3/day. The removal efficiencies for total
suspended solids (TSS), 5-day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5) and chemical oxygen
demand (COD) were not significantly affected by the increase in hydraulic loading in 1999
and 2000, the removal efficiencies of ammonia, phosphorus and pathogens were reduced with
the increase in hydraulic load and time interval. It was reported that due to the loss of
drainage capacity at the upper layer of the vertical flow bed and decrease in hydraulic loading
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interval caused the reduction of oxygen flowing into the vertical flow bed. This reduced the
ammonia removal efficiency (Shrestha, 2001).
100
90
80
70
60 BOD
50
COD
40
TSS
30
20
10
0
2006 2007 2008 2009
providing great benefit to reduce pollution in these areas of operation. So, if any
organizations, government and any other environmental agencies are skeptic about its
performance then these data clarifies the wrong notion.
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These data supports the fact that these treatment systems are highly efficient. The system is
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Wastewater enters the first tank, where big particles are allowed to settle out. Next, a
coagulant is added, often an iron complex. The coagulant attaches to suspended solids in the
stirring tank, forming denser particles. A flocculent, an anionic polymer is then added,
allowing coagulated solids to combine to form even larger particles. These particles are
allowed to settle and form a sludge, which is separated from treated water. Jar test and coli
form test must be performed to analyze how effective CEPT could be at removing
debilitating parasites found in wastewater.
Other highlights of the AIPS are energy efficiency and low construction costs. Table
below displays operating and construction cost savings for AIPS over other conventional
treatment systems.
11.4. Table: AIPS Cost Savings, as percentage of costs associated with other
treatment systems (Swanson, 2002)
12. CONCLUSION
The objective we had at the inception of the project was successfully met. We were
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able to gain scrupulous data on efficiency of the system. The project helped us to gain detail
insight on different waste water treatment system in Nepal.
Besides the fact that Nepal is 2nd richest country in the world in terms of water
resources, Nepal as developing country cannot afford to pollute these resources. These
resources if compared to pristine state show that the condition is devastating. Thus we intend
to do research in this area focusing all major pollutants and found some perfect solution to the
problem.
The biological system based reed system and mechanical plant is viable in reducing
the water pollution. Also the chemical discharge in river is absolute. So, we have proposed
more efficient and better ways of treatment which is absolutely possible in our country.
13. ACRONYMS
DWSS
KMC
Department of Water Supply and Sewerage
14. BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Publication and newsletters provided by:
i. Kathmandu Urban Development Project (KUDP)
ii. Kathmandu Valley Environment Outlook (KVEO)
iii. Ministry of Environment Science and Technology (MoEST)
iv. Ministry of Industry Commerce and Supplies (MoICS)
v. Nepal Environment Policy and Action Plan
vi. Nepal Environmental and Scientific Services
vii. National Water Resources Strategy
2. Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/waste-water-treatment
3. Nepal Water Supply Corporation
4. http://washasia.wordpress.com/
5. http://www.urbwatsan.org.np/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=447&I
temid=39
By BIE 065 batch
A PROJECT REPORT ON WASTE WATER MANAGEMENT
6. http://www.da-bd.org/associates
7. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science
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8. http://guthi.net/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogsection&id=4&Itemid
=59
9. http://www.ngoforum.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=0
&Itemid=11