Normally wastewater is seen as something to get rid off as soon as possible. This philosophy has influenced the development of Western water and wastewater treatment technologies and has led to expensive and high energy consuming treatment plants with negligible reuse of nutrients and water. The recycling of treated sewage sludge to agriculture is decreasing due to reduced acceptance by farmers and consumers. A major reason for this development is the mixing of all different wastewaters commonly practised in municipalities: domestic wastewaters from households, industrial wastewaters containing hazardous chemicals and storm-water loaded with heavy metals, etc. are evacuated together. If you want to reuse certain components of wastewater, it is easier to separate these at the source (as is now commonly done with solid wastes).

This project focuses on tourism facilities in remote areas without public sewers, so we mainly deal with domestic sewage. An important step will be to distinguish "black" from "grey" water. Black water is that used for flushing toilets, while grey water represents all the other used water from a household, mainly from washing and cleaning. If black and grey water are not mixed in the same sewer, then new and interesting solutions for their treatment, purification and reuse are accessible. Grey water consists of high amounts of water with low concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus and has low concentrations of pathogens. After treatment in a well designed constructed wetlands system the water will have a hygienic quality better than bathing water and it can be used for different purposes like irrigation of gardens or agricultural surfaces or for toilet flushing. The concentrated black water also offers new possibilities. It can be composted or normally treated. After further separation of the urine from water free urinals urine can be directly used as a fertiliser. There are a lot of new processes and actions possible which are already individually tested but not implemented and working as an integrated system. Constructed wetlands as an efficient method for treating wastewater have also to be adapted to these new challenges. The innovative approach of SWAMP is to implement these possibilities and to test them. A main contribution of the project will also be to establish contacts and co-operation between wastewater treatment system manufacturers and re-users.

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