TADOX ® Technology for Open Drains and surface water rejuvenation: Making Habitats Sustainable

Untreated sewage and domestic wastewater flowing through open drains is a huge problem faced by many developing and underdeveloped countries, which poses severe environmental, public health and occupational health hazards. Open drains find route to surface water bodies mainly due to absence of dedicated conveyance of wastewater to centralized or decentralized wastewater treatment facilities. Hence, there is an urgent need for onsite treatment of open drains. In this regard, TADOX ® (TERI Advanced Oxidation) Technology from TERI (The Energy and Resources Institute) assumes significance as it provides end-to-end treatment together with small footprint and higher efficiency. It utilizes UV/ TiO 2 photocatalysis at the secondary stage of wastewater treatment in an indigenously developed technology. This paper presents a case study of an open drain passing through TERI campus, which when treated with TADOX ® Technology, improved physico-chemical and microbiological parameters and degraded some micropollutants. The open drain which could not even meet the Class E of Water Quality Criteria laid down by Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Government of India in its untreated form, attained Class A Water Quality Criteria after end-to-end TADOX ® Treatment in 5h. It thus opens the possibility of treating open drains and TADOX ® as a promising decentralized wastewater treatment (DWWT) technology to rejuvenate surface water bodies, enhancing safe reuse, thereby making habitats sustainable. Thus, such an on-site treatment approach not only helps in achieving United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6, but also contributes towards achieving SDG 3, 11 and 15.