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This is the second installment of a two-part series on water and wastewater challenges in rural India.
In the first part, we came across Kharkhara, a village in Haryana’s Rewari district, which is grappling with severe water pollution issues and greywater issues. The second part of the series analyses the state of greywater management in other rural areas.
Greywater is the wastewater generated from kitchens, bathrooms and laundry facilities, which usually enters rural ponds. It is often connected to stormwater drains in most rural households. Black water from faulty toilets also ends up in these stormwater drains.
In many cases, these drains are not properly designed. The drains are either not deep enough to accommodate both stormwater and wastewater or are constructed without proper surveys and mapping, resulting in faulty designs that lead to waterlogging and issues with mosquitoes and flies.
Households sometimes encroach on these drains, obstructing the drainage path. Solid waste is also frequently dumped into these drains, causing blockages. Most wastewater ends up in village ponds. These ponds serve as sinks for excess rainwater runoff and recharge sources for groundwater reservoirs.
However, they are now contaminated with wastewater, which also pollutes the groundwater — exactly what happened in Kharkhara.
According to Swachh Bharat Mission-Gramin dashboard, 92.4 per cent villages (541,110 out of total 585,366 villages as of May 2024) have been declared open defecation free (ODF) plus villages. This means they are free of open defecation and have a clean appearance, as well as proper solid and liquid waste disposal arrangements.
Over 30 per cent of villages (179,988 villages) have been declared ODF Plus model villages, indicating that these villages have both solid and liquid waste arrangements in place and can sustain them, apart from maintaining the ODF status, meaning all village households have toilets available for use. Over 80 per cent (474,873 villages) have arrangements in place for liquid waste management.
Moreover, states like Assam, Puducherry, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Kerala have been declared ODF Plus.
However, according to Delhi-based think tank Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), the ground realities do not match the dashboard. CSE conducted extensive mapping studies in Raebareli, UP and discovered that most villages only have community soak pits, which are also poorly maintained.
In rural areas, the majority of household greywater drains into village and farm ponds. Many villages do not even have toilets. Some ponds, such as those in Bhuemau village in Rahi Block of Raebareli tehsil, have been revived but are now suffering from greywater contamination. Due to a lack of greywater management solutions, villages are forced to divert wastewater to ponds.
A similar situation exists in Puducherry, where the Bahour Commune Panchayat is plagued by pollution and the extinction of centuries-old ponds and channels due to sewage entry.
The situation is similar in other panchayats as well. Solid waste clogs the ponds and drain channels. Households have connected their wastewater to these channels, which are intended to serve as connecting channels to lakes and ponds, ensuring a steady supply of water in the villages. Tamil Nadu’s ancient temple tanks, which served as both religious and summer reservoirs, have been contaminated with wastewater and are now stinking.
Most states do not have mandates or laws to prohibit or prevent the entry of wastewater into rural water bodies or to mandate the treatment of greywater before it enters village waterbodies.
Some states have acts that clearly prohibit the entry of sewage into water bodies, such as the Uttar Pradesh Pond Development, Protection and Conservation Authority Act 2017, while others, such as Haryana Pond and Waste Water Management Authority Act, 2018, discuss nature-based greywater treatment.
However, none of these is absolute in nature. As in the case of Kharkhara resident Prakash Yadav, who filed a petition with the National Green Tribunal, the authority clearly does not want to address issues such as faecal coliform treatment.
A former representative of a non-profit based in Durg, Chhattisgarh, who wishes to remain anonymous, says that in city, many greywater management and treatment systems have been planned and many have been completed.
However, these often suffer from a lack of maintenance. Frequently, these treatment system designs are copied without proper consideration. They are constructed wherever the village panchayats find vacant land, without considering the flow of wastewater and other factors.
A lack of survey and data availability is one of the reasons for over-designed or under-designed community-based systems. Communities, failing to understand the reasons behind faulty systems due to a lack of technical knowledge, become disappointed and do not support the maintenance of these systems.
Instead of copy-pasting the solutions, districts should consider a proper scale of design after surveying the area. These surveys should identify the type of soil, suitable locations for treatment systems and the quantity and quality of wastewater generated.
However, studies indicate that it is best to manage greywater at the household level, as the pollution load is less and the quantity to be managed is also smaller. This is contingent on properly designed soak pits that consider family size and soil type. It is also important to remember that soak pits are not meant to soak stormwater.
Other CSE studies also highlight that improper sanitation systems and soak pits in Himalayan towns contribute to natural disasters in these terrains. States like Himachal Pradesh need to consider terrain and soil-bearing capacity before opting for soak pits. Similarly, flood-prone areas should opt for modified soak pits. States with clayey soils and black soils should also opt for modified soak pits.
Effluent from septic tanks can be connected to a nearby drainage line leading to a sewage treatment plant (STP) and should not be mixed with stormwater. Septic tank sludge can be sent to nearby STPs.
Currently, in most scenarios, villages are clueless about the disposal of septage after desludging. States can learn from the urban-rural convergence model of Odisha for managing faecal sludge. States can also learn from Kolhapur, where villages have toilets linked to biogas digesters at the household level, which are also used for cooking purposes and the digested slurry is used in agriculture.
Climate change is a real issue and we are already facing its consequences, said Sushmita Sengupta, senior programme manager for water at CSE. “If we do not look into solutions and keep blaming each other, we will only end up with more problems,” she said.
