You are here:
DECENTRALIZED WASTE TREATMENT AND ENERGY RECOVERY IN KIGALI, RWANDA
Description:
Currently, there is almost no treatment of wastewater in Kigali, Rwanda. A sustainable and inexpensive alternative to the power and capital intensive needs of traditional centralized wastewater treatment plants is required for Rwanda, an energy and capital poor country. Appropriate decentralized technologies (rainwater harvesting, upflow clarification, anaerobic digestion, biogas generation and biosolids reuse) will be combined in an innovative design to improve water quality in the Kigali watershed and conserve natural resources for future generations.
A scalable wastewater treatment process will generate biogas and fertilizer for Kigali. This project will be implemented by a unique collaboration between village administrative cells, and engineers. This team has the capacity to develop policies and methods to significantly improve the quality of life for people living in similar climates and topography throughout the world. This project is a collaboration between the City of Kigali (CoK), Kigali Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), National University of Rwanda (NUR), Gonzaga University (GU), The Pennsylvania State University (PSU), Tetra-Tech (TT), and EWB-USA (EWB).
Components of the decentralized wastewater treatment system will be designed and demonstrated to improve water quality in the Kigali watershed, generate biogas and biosolids. The design will be modular, scalable and easily adapted to similar climates and topographies. The project, if implemented and replicated, is expected to have a significant health and economic impact on over 600,000 inhabitants of Kigali and those living downstream.