Ecoconcern

Client: Ama Ghar
Location: Bisankhunarayan, Godawari Municipality
Year: March 2020 - April 2021

Background:

Ama Ghar is a permanent care home that provides shelter, education, and healthcare to homeless children. It is funded by Ama Foundation and was established in 2001. It is home to around 50 children and 8 staff housed in its building in Bisankhunarayan, Godawari Municipality in Kathmandu. A Decentralized Wastewater Treatment System (DEWATS) was constructed within its boundary to treat wastewater generated from the premises. The system was built at around 2010 by Environment and Public Health Organization (ENPHO) and has been providing service for the past 10 years.

Photograph 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-

a. Bio-Gas Digester (BGD)
b. Settling tank (ST) (volume 6 cum) & Anaerobic Baffled Reactor (ABR) (volume: 7 cum)
c. 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 the 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, and 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.

Photograph 2: Inundation of wastewater near the inlet Photograph 3: Cleaning of filter media by the worker
of HFCW

Objective:

The objective of this project is to provide technical assistance for the rehabilitation of the Decentralized Wastewater Treatment System at Ama Ghar.

Project Accomplishments

EcoConcern 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 beds were cleaned and broken parts of the plaster were removed and then plastered. 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 is now fully ready for use.

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

Photograph 5: The condition of Ama Ghar DEWATS during an assessment visit

Completed