Localised artificial wetland at household level

1. The main problem am solving is unregulated discharge of sewage in urban areas which is normally due to expensive sewerage services which many can not afford. 

2. Th solution is adoption and utilisation of cheap and sustainable technology of localised artificial wetland to ensure sewage generated at a household level are treated and wholly utilised at these points of generations.

3. Since it's a simple, sustainable and economical technology, it can easily be scaled up for a global application saving lives of millions from water borne diseases and yet accruing many other benefits. 

The specific problem am working to solve is preventing infectious disease outbreaks and vector-borne illnesses caused by overcrowding, poor sanitation, and dirty water. This is a major problem in all urban areas as only few urban areas in developing countries have functional sewerage facilities and most dwellers channel their sewage with runoff and flowing streams untreated, this ends up polluting the available water sources causing water borne diseases. In Uganda for example only about 15 % of the urban dwellers are served with sewerage facilities, 60% rely on septic tanks and pit latrines and 25% have no definite excreta disposal mechanism.Globally almost 80% of waste water gets discharged into the water ways untreated causing a lot of health related issues to the urban dwellers. 

My solution will address problems of sewage disposal in urban areas and it will therefore improve the health of all the urban dwellers. It will involve incorporating the beneficiaries in the design and implementation. The solution will help them with additional source of water (recycled water) for mainly non body contact applications, hence reducing their household water bills, bio-gas to meet part of the household's energy demands and manure to improve on their crop yields. Government will also save a lot of funds which can be used to spur other developments in the communities as only small waste water treatment plants will now need to be constructed since waste water treatment and management would have been localised. 

My solution is designing and construction of localised artificial wetland at household levels using simple technology. The localised wetland will see light grey water from the house channelled  separately to a storage device which can be a plastic drum buried under the ground with its lid on and top protected from damages due to shock and the black water and the remaining grey water channelled also separately to a simple septic tank which can be a plastic container with lids on top and top protected from damages from shock. There will be a valve which can be opened to allow light grey water flow into the septic tank in case there is too much of it.  The light grey water will be used for toilet flushing, lawn sprinkling and irrigating some crops grown near the house and its water can either be pumped using simple solar pumps or protective covers removed and water hauled using small buckets and applied wherever its needed. The black water in the simple septic tank will be used to generate bio-gas which can be used to meet part of the household's energy demands. The digested effluent from the septic tank will be channelled  through a series of small buckets containing aggregate to purify it more and at the end there will be buckets planted with flowers that will use the purified effluent as irrigating water, mean while the sludge from the septic tank can be dried and modified and used as manure to improve crop yields. This will solve the problem of unregulated discharges of sewage into open channels which are major causes of water born diseases. It will also ensure sustainable utilisation of the fast depleting water resources. 

Artificial wetland utilisation for sewage treatment and management on a larger scale is even looked at as a very good innovation, this makes a localised artificial wetland at household level even much more innovative with much accrued benefits and sustainability as compared to the conventional artificial wetland and other centralised waste water treatment facilities. 

The solution is an application of an existing technology of the conventional artificial wetland scaled down to household level. It will incorporate all technologies applicable to the conventional artificial wetland with the only difference being that there is no external delivery of sewage as its in the conventional ones and also that there will be separate collection systems of waste water from the house (One for light grey water and the other for black and other remaining grey water) 

Many researches point to failures of conventional wetlands and other centralised waste water treatment facilities due to low discharge of the sewage into it during certain times of the year and due to too much evaporation during summer, the above problems are due to design challenges where accurate data can not be accurately arrived at, but with the ease at which water consumption and waste generation at household level can be arrived at, the localised artificial wetland will satisfactorily perform and help to solve the selected problem its intended to solve. 

Currently none, in one year 100 household urban dwellers will benefit from it and in 5 years more than 1,000 households will benefit from my solution. 

My main goal is to train a considerable number of people on my solution approach to solving the selected problem and they will be availing this service to the beneficiaries with only minimal supervision so that as many as possible people benefit from the services. This will create employment to such people too. My other goal is to continuously invest much of my time in research so as to refine the solution for better performance and sustainability. 

The biggest barrier at the moment is financial to help me design and construct a demo for people to learn from. The other long term problem is dealing with people's perceptions on recycling waste water for beneficial utilisation including irrigation, bio-gas generation for cooking, etc. 

Constant awareness including conducting test on treated effluents/sludge and showing results to the communities that they are not harmful to our health will help solve the the problem of wrong perceptions on waste water recycling. Designing and constructing the first Demo at my own home and also proposal writing to potential donors will help me to lobby for financial support to scale up the idea. 

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Since its still an idea, its only me still available, but the number will increase as the real solution kick starts.

I hold M. Tech. (Civil)-Engineering, P. G. D in construction project management and Bsc. Civil Engineering with vast experience and interest in waste management for beneficial utilisation. All the above better places me to solve the problem. 

I am currently sharing my idea with those in academia like my professors and also my fellow workmates.