Khalid, Usama

The most appropriate and sustainable solution for wastewater management in any setting is eco-nomically, environmentally, and technically sound, as well as socially acceptable for the specific community. Centralised wastewater collection and treatment systems are criticised for being re-source intensive and technically too complex, especially for sparsely populated regions with dis-persed settlements. Alternatively, the approach of decentralised wastewater treatment appears as a sustainable solution to address these issues related to rural wastewater management. This paper presents a review of the advantages and limitations of various centralised and decentralised ap-proaches to wastewater treatment and management in rural settings. A sustainable solution to wastewater management in rural areas based on the concept of ecological sanitation, with focus on water and nutrients recovery is presented. Based on research and case studies, the potential of an integrated decentralised wastewater system for rural areas is examined from a technical, economic and environmental viewpoint.

RUVIVAL Publication Series is a compilation of literature reviews on topics concerned with the revitalisation of rural areas. RUVIVAL Publication Series is part of the e-learning project RUVIVAL and each of the two contributions in this publication is connected to further interactive multimedia material, which can be reached under www.hoou.de. The first literature review is concerned with energy access for sustainable rural development, with a focus on distributed renewable energy for rural electrification in Africa. Access to electricity is a key mechanism for the improvement of living standards and community services such as healthcare and education, for the reduction of poverty and enhancement of gender justice. However, in 2016, 14 % of the world’s population still lived without electricity, mostly located in rural areas of economically poor areas. Off-grid and mini-grid systems are summarised under the term ‘distributed energy systems’ or ‘decentralised energy systems’ and provide a fast and cost efficient method for rural electrification. Applicable technologies include solar photovoltaics, wind power, small hydro power and energy from residual biomass. Those small-scale renewable energy systems offer significant reductions in fossil fuel combustion and entailed emissions of greenhouse gases. This paper reviews distributed renewable energy systems and concentrates on energy services for electricity generation in rural Africa. The second literature review deals with integrated decentralised wastewater treatment for rural areas with focus on resource recovery. The most appropriate and sustainable solution for wastewater management in any setting is the one that is economically, environmentally, and technically sound, as well as socially acceptable for the specific community. Centralised wastewater collection and treatment systems are found to be resource intensive and complex, especially for low density population regions with dispersed households. Alternatively, the approach of decentralised wastewater treatment appears as a sustainable and logical solution to address issues related to rural wastewater management. This paper presents a review of the advantages and limitations of various centralised and decentralised approaches to wastewater treatment and management. A sustainable solution to wastewater management in rural areas based on the concept of ecological sanitation, with focus on water and nutrients recovery is presented.

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