Greywater is water from the bathroom and kitchen sinks, bathing area and washing machines. While greywater may look ‘dirty’, it is a safe source of water (after natural purification) for watering your home garden. Letting it mix with the sewage water from your toilets and go into the drain is a criminal waste of water when India is in the midst of a huge water crisis.
WHY IS REUSING GREY WATER IMPORTANT?
According to the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), more than 70% of water supplied per household per day in India is consumed in the kitchen, in the bathing area and for washing clothes. Treating this grey water, reusing the purified grey water for watering your home garden and then channelising it into the ground will result in:
- Huge saving of water and reduction in your water bill.
- Keeping the grey water out of the sewer system, thereby not allowing it to pollute the local water bodies.
- Improving the ground water table in your neighbourhood.
This film and blog explains how grey water from your home can be treated and purified naturally in a simple and cost effective way and be directed into the ground to recharge the ground water table where you live. With 70% of India’s water aquifers having dried up and India facing a huge water crisis, every urban and rural family having an independent house can contribute towards improving our nation’s rapidly depleting ground water levels by implementing grey water management in this natural way.
STEPS FOR PURIFYING GREY WATER AND DIRECTING IT INTO THE GROUND
Re-route Grey Water from the House to the Garden Area
The first step is to re-route the pipes from your bathroom (carrying the water from the washbasins and the bathing area), area where the clothes are washed and the kitchen sink in your house to your garden area such that they do not mix with the pipe carrying the sewage water from the toilet flushes. This would require some plumbing work but is easily doable in an individual house either at the stage where the house is being constructed or even later. Mrs Savargaonkar did some plumbing work in her house much after it was built in such a way that the 3 pipes carrying water from her rooftop garden, washing machine area and kitchen sink drain at 3 different places in the garden patch outside her house.
Make Pits to Treat and Purify Grey Water in a Natural Way
Mrs Savargaonkar got 3 pits dug in her garden for treating the grey water coming out of the 3 pipes. Size of each pit is 1 metre by 1 metre by 1 metre. Each pit has been given a 4 to 6 inch slope at the bottom in the direction of the natural flow of water on the road next to the garden. At the bottom of each pit, gravel has been put for about 6 inches. Above that sand has been put for 12 inches. Whatever place was left at the top, dry leaves were put. Dry leaves act as natural carbon material which is a very important part of the grey water purification process.
“When I started doing the grey water filtering process, I realised that with water going into the pits, the dry leaves would get compacted. I simply put more dry leaves on the top of the pits. In addition to dry leaves, you can also use wood husk, dry tree branches, tree barks, crop husk, plant residues (any of these or in combination) as carbon material in the grey water purification pits,” says Poornima Savargaonkar.
Put Naturally Water Purifying Plants around the Grey Water Pits
After 3 months, Mrs Savargaonkar planted naturally water purifying plants such as Kaina, Banana, Syngonium, Umbrella Palm and Spider Lily around the 3 grey water pits in her garden.
“I do not use non-chemical based natural detergents for washing utensils and clothes in my home but use commercially available soaps and detergents. This soapy grey water is filtered through the layers of carbon rich dry leaves, sand and gravel in the pits before it reaches the ground. These water purifying plants do the job of soaking the leftover chemicals in the grey water. This ensures that the water going down into the ground is pure, chemical free water. Banana plant has been specifically put next to the water outlet pipe from the kitchen which has only the non-soapy water that drains out after washing vegetables, grains and pulses. This nutrient rich water helps in getting good quality bananas for consumption by my family members,” says Mrs Savargaonkar.
Use Natural Insecticide to keep Mosquitoes & Bugs Away from the Grey Water Pits
Twice a year and specifically once before or after the monsoon rains, Mrs Savargaonkar puts a handful of Rakh (powder obtained from burning of wood) or Choona (lime used in construction of houses) in the grey water pits as this acts as a very effective natural insecticide to keep mosquitoes and bugs away.
I personally found no smell or saw any stagnation or any mosquitoes or bugs around Poornima Savargaonkar’s grey water pits and can personally vouch for how happy the plants in her garden looked! If every family who has an independent house in India (in every village, every town and every big city) implements grey water management like Mrs. Savargaonkar, we as citizens can make a huge difference in improving the depleting ground water levels of our country and avoiding day zero scenarios when our taps will run dry.
Feedback
For any comments, feedback or clarifications on this blog, please write to the author Neelam Ahluwalia at this email id: healingourcities1@gmail.com
For any further clarifications on grey water treatment talked about in this blog, reach out to poornima.skar@gmail.com
Links to Other Water Blogs & Films on this Website
https://healingourcities.org/2020/04/27/water-aerators-reduce-water-use-substantially/
https://healingourcities.org/2020/04/28/rain-water-harvesting-and-recharge-at-home-level/
https://healingourcities.org/2020/04/06/water-rich-homes/
https://healingourcities.org/2020/02/23/water-rich-communities/
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