Cleaning your own waste water

No chemical treatments

On a larger scale, this tends to mean chemical treatments are applied to the water that cause even further environmental damage, as well as often leaving us with water that may be 'clean' but now contains other chemicals in order to make it safe. We think there's another way.

Waste water management for communities

Working together on a smaller scale, communities can clean their own waste water and return it to the environment in a clean, natural way that can also generate cooking gas at the same time. The system can be done on an individual household basis, but works better when residences join forces in small groups - hamlets and villages, for example.

Producing biofuel

The start of the process would be to drain all waste water into a biodigester, where there are three chambers. Sewage enters the first chamber where it is broken down by bacteria in an oxygen-free environment (or 'anaerobically'). It is in this stage that methane is given off as a by-product of the degradation process and, with enough sewage heading into the tank often enough, it is possible to collect and store this gas and use it to cook with.

Producing fertiliser

We drain the sludge from the first chamber, where it can be mixed with lime and returned to the land as pellets of fertiliser. With the sludge removed, the remaining liquid heads through to the second chamber - which is where the grey water joins the process too. In the second chamber, the waste is digested aerobically (with oxygen) by different bacteria that find it easier to break down the soaps and bleaches that tend to be found in grey water. It all goes into the third chamber, where fresh water from the pond above is introduced into it so that there is a certain amount of reoxygenation taking place before it leaves the biodigester.

Cleaning water

The water is then passed through a series of flow forms - water features that re-oxygenate the water through a series of  swirling patterns and vortexes so that by the time the water reaches the plants in the reed bed it is alive again. It then works its way through the snakelike design of the reed beds, which cleanse it even further taking up toxins and heavy metals as it flows slowly through. By the time the water has reached the end of the reed bed, it is actually clean enough to drink.

Environmentally friendly water treatment

The process is cheap, easy, and has the capability of producing energy to cook with and fertiliser to use on the land. The water flowing through the reed beds does not smell and in the summer time the area is a haven for wildlife: filled with dragonflies of many colours,butterflies, frogs, wild ducks and other birds.