Ama Ghar DEWATS Rehabilation project

Ama Ghar which means “Motherly Home” is an abode to homeless children who have been abandoned, trafficked or have lost their home and family to poverty, drug/alcohol abuse or illness. The objective of this foundation is to provide a homely atmosphere with proper education and healthcare facilities to these children who are nurtured through counselling, playing and special outings so as to ensure a child’s whole development.  Ama Ghar is not a “home” in the institutional sense, but a place that the children grow up in and can always come back to.

                      

Fig 1. Ama Ghar                                               

Features of DEWATS

A Decentralized Wastewater Treatment System (DEWATS) was constructed by ENPHO in 2010 to treat wastewater generated within its premises. The treatment system is a simple DEWATS system that mainly consists of 3 components-

  1. Bio-Gas Digester (BGD) for primary treatment that partially reduces the pollutants and produces bio-gas as a bi-product,
  2. Settling tank (ST) (volume 6 cum) & Anaerobic Baffled Reactor (ABR) (volume: 7 cum)
  3. Horizontal Flow Constructed Wetlands
  • Area: 76 sq m.
  • Depth: Inlet 47 cm, Outlet 60 cm

Recently problems were encountered in the DEWATS due to clogging of the filter media in HFCW (Horizontal Flow Constructed Wetlands) which resulted in pooling of water over the sand bed. Other problems included overflow of water at ABR (Anaerobic baffle reactor) compartments, dirty water at ABR’s last chamber, blockage in the sub-surface which hindered the flow of wastewater through the compartments hence causing inundation over the filter media. (Horizontal Flow Constructed Wetlands). Other secondary problems included damage in the lids of ABR and inlet of HFCW causing seepage of wastewater and cracks in the walls of HFCW. In order to solve this obstacle, Eco Concern Private Limited was approached to rehab this problem.

                

Fig 2: Inundation of wastewater near the inlet of HFCW           Fig 3: Cleaning of filter media by the workers

Project Accomplishments

Eco Concern was successful in tackling all the major agendas of the project in Ama Ghar within the stipulated time-frame of one month. Upon completion of this project, all the broken lids on-site were removed and reconstructed followed by desludging and cleaning of the walls of ABR. Additionally, HFCW bed were cleaned and broken parts of the plaster were removed and then replastered. The filter media used in the system was removed, washed thoroughly and refilled. The old vegetation reed plants were replaced by canna plants. All the broken pipes in the inlet of ABR and outlets of HFCW were successfully replaced. The DEWATS system was fully recovered and now fully ready for use.

 

   Fig 4: The condition of Ama Ghar DEWATS before (top) and after (bottom) project completion