Sewage Management in Army Camps

Water is an elementary necessity of human life – required directly for cooking, bathing,
washing, sanitation, etc. The direct human use results in generation of reject water – the
domestic wastewater, commonly known as sewage. One of the derived necessity is safe and
sound management of this wastewater which may not only be a nuisance but also a potential
source of health hazard if not managed properly.

To safeguard environment and human life, the safe management of wastewaters are regulated
by appropriate statutory provisions. This mandates not only controlled consumption of water
(quantitatively as well as qualitatively for various intended uses), but also handling and
management of wastewaters generated through appropriate treatment of wastewater and its
disposal (options and alternatives may vary). Most of the time, the practice of common
collection and treatment of wastewaters (for thickly populated human settlements)

The army camps – establishments at remote geographic locations – are devoid of this basic
provision which necessitate on-site treatment and disposal facility of sewage generated.

Salient features of water consumption and wastewater generation in army camps include;
1. Low water availability (rationing of water consumption) – the army camps may be
stationed at a location where water availability is scarce (quantitatively) or quality is not
fit for direct consumption and burden of its pre-treatment may restrict its free availability
2. Major consumption for sanitation from toilet facilities – the limited availability of water
may force defining priorities/hierarchy among various competing uses (the most basic
being sanitation)
3. Very little grey water (sullage from bathing and washing activities) generation – chief
contribution to wastewater comes from sanitation and cooking
4. Consequent wastewater is very high in solids and organic loading – low quantity of
water availability and high polluting uses results in generation of wastewater which has
much higher pollution load as compared to the conventional domestic wastewater
5. Near border locations may have wide variation in annual ambient temperature (may vary
from -5 to 40°C characteristic of deployments in northern/north-eastern region)

Any treatment and disposal option for the case situation has to specifically keep in mind
following factors;
1. Availability of power – the camps may have limited power availability and its assured
availability through the day may not be there.
2. Limited treated wastewater disposal options – the geographic and geological constraints
may limit the disposal options (in terms of legally permissible options).
3. Availability of manpower for operation and maintenance of the treatment facility – a
treatment facility needing expert intervention for routine operation may not be
favourable.
4. Handling and disposal of secondary wastes (primary and secondary sludges) – the
wastewater being highly concentrated (in terms of solid loading) will result in high
sludge generation that may add to nuisance if not handled properly.
5. Quickness of stabilisation – the treatment facility invariably relies on biological
treatment systems that conventionally take about 2-4 weeks to stabilise (to give desired
treatment efficiency). A treatment system which achieves its performance quicker may
be favourable.
6. Redundancy/resistance to seasonal variations – the intended wastewater treatment system
may have to face extreme seasonal variations especially regarding ambient temperature
(which governs the activity of microbial consortia which are active in the wastewater
treatment system).
7. In-built modularity for relocation of treatment plant (as camps may be temporary and
may need periodic repositioning).
8. Cost of permanent structures – minimising cost of permanent structures (of treatment
plant) finds favour as the camps may need to be periodically relocated.

For a typical camp of about 400 people, deployed in northern region, average characteristics
of the wastewater (as there is chiefly black water) will be us under;
a) Wastewater flow – ~20-30 lpcd
b) BOD3, 27C – 800-1200 mg/l
c) COD – 1200-1800 mg/l
d) Total suspended solids – 600-1000 mg/l
e) Total kjeldahl nitrogen (as N) – 60-80 mg/l
f) Total phosphorus (as P) – 20-30 mg/l
g) Soluble fraction of BOD – 35-45%
h) Flow peaking factor – 6
i) Ambient temperature – -5 to 40°C

The generally acceptable treated wastewater standards;

a) pH  6-8
b) TSS  30 mg/l
c) BOD3, 27C (soluble)  10 mg/l
d) Oil & grease  5 mg/l
e) Total coliform count (MPN)  500/100 ml

The wastewater treatment system is proposed to have;

1. Graded bar screen – meant to remove coarse suspensions
2. Raw wastewater collection-cum-equalisation tank – for flow and strength buffering. The
unit need continuous mixing to prevent settling of suspended matter and to eliminate
built-up of septicity
3. Constant head feed tank – to eliminate surge feeding for downstream flow
4. Primary clarifier – removal of suspended matter (will also result in more than 60%
reduction in BOD present as settleable solids)
5. Up-flow anaerobic bio-filter – first stage of microbial treatment of removal of organic
matter which uses vertical up-flow through the packing medium in which biological
mass of micro-organisms attached to the support material, or kept in their interstices,
 degrades the substrate (organic matter) contained in the wastewater (will achieve more
than 70% COD reduction without any external power requirement)
6. Aerated bio-tower – an aerobic attached growth process for removal of organic matter
wherein the wastewater is continuously sprayed over a packing medium exposed to air
from all sides. The only energy requirement is for continuous pumping of wastewater
over the column and there is no separate sludge recirculation requirement. Bottom
collection basin of the bio-tower is profiled to facilitate clarification.
7. Roughing filter – an up-flow filter which is designed to operate on gravity feed needing
about 1-1.2 m of hydraulic head.
8. UV treatment – needed for improving microbial water quality through disinfection.
9. Constructed wetland system for polishing – during low temperature ambient conditions,
the bio-reactors may not function adequately to give desired performance. The CWS is a
natural growth system (specific plants grown over gravel medium through which
wastewater is allowed to flow through) needing about 0.3-0.4 m2/person of area. The
system is also very effective for excess nutrient (N and P) removal.
10. Sludge digestion – to avoid nuisance of sludge handling and disposal, the anaerobic
facility will stabilize the sludge (from primary and secondary treatment). The stabilized
sludge is easier and better for final handling and disposal (as manure)
11. Digested sludge drying/dewatering (sludge drying beds) – the sludge is contained in
water (~99% water and ~1% solids). Thus, sludge needs to be dewatered and dried
before its safe disposal.

The proposed system has following distinct features;

1. High HRT collection tank (at least 12 hours HRT on average flow basis)
2. Minimal moving machinery (only pump required for raw effluent transfer – will double
up for mixing requirement of the equalisation tank, and for digested sludge transfer)
3. Power required for a 30 kL/day treatment facility will be ~20-30 kW.hour in a day.
4. Two-stage biological treatment will effectively remove organic contaminants
5. Constructed wetland system will effectively cover treatment efficiency drop during low-
temperature condition and will also serve as biological nutrient removal unit
6. Digested sludge will eliminate nuisance due to raw sludge handling and digested sludge
can be effectively used as manure or soil conditioner
7. Sludge digestion will also reduce the quantity of sludge required to be disposed (by
about 40-50%)

Expected performance of wastewater treatment system (STP)

Treatment unit Primary Objective Inlet parameters of Outlet parameters

relevance of relevance
Graded screen Removal of coarse N.A. N.A.
solids
Equalization tank Buffering of N.A. N.A.
fluctuation in raw
wastewater flow
and strength
Primary clarifier TSS reduction TSS – ~1000 mg/l TSS – ~200 mg/l
BOD – ~1200 mg/l BOD – <400 mg/l
Anaerobic process (up- COD/BOD COD – ~700 mg/l COD – <200 mg/l
flow anaerobic bio-filter) reduction
Aerobic process (aerated COD/BOD and BOD – <150 mg/l BOD – <20 mg/l
bio-tower) nutrient reduction
Roughing depth filter TSS reduction N.A. TSS – <30 mg/l
BOD (soluble) –
<10 mg/l
UV treatment Microbial quality N.A. TCC (MPN) –
improvement <100/100 ml