Decentralized Wastewater Treatment Technology - Improvement for the Future

Whilst the centralized system for the collection and treatment of liquid wastes has brought general improvement in the hygiene and sanitary situations in the urban areas, the system as such is costly and poses high demand on fresh water used for flushing the sewers. Decentralized wastewater systems offer sustainable alternatives to the centralized systems. These systems make best use of the available technologies and generally involve low maintenance requirements, and a process for reuse and/or dispersing the treated effluent nearby through the soil and ground water recharge. This paper gives an overview of the technologies that have been successfolly applied and potentially used, and advocates that decentralized systems containing these technologies should be produced using modern industrial methods and delivered in a user-friendly state.