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The proliferation of urban waste has direct impacts on sanitation in India. With crowded cities and significant poverty, millions of people in Indian cities are directly exposed to the harmful effects of all urban waste, especially from fecal and sewage sludge from rivers and lakes. The economic costs of these harmful effects are indeed dire.
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(b) Sewage |
(c) Fecal Sludge |
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Sludge removed from all kind of on-site sanitation systems such as septic tanks (settled solids, scum and liquid), bucket latrines, pit latrines etc.
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Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) is more commonly known as trash or garbage. MSW includes commercial and residential wastes generated in municipal or notified areas in either solid or semi-solid form excluding industrial hazardous wastes but including treated bio-medical wastes. It consists of household waste, wastes from hotels and restaurants, construction and demolition debris, sanitation residue, and waste from streets.
Sewage is defined as untreated municipal liquid waste requiring treatment in a sewage treatment plant. Sewage contains about 99.9% of water, while the remaining content may be organic or inorganic. Sewage denotes both black water and grey water at the household level, where black water refers to waste water generated in toilets and grey water to the waste water generated in kitchen, bathroom and laundry.
Sewage sludge is the semi-solid precipitate produced in wastewater treatment plants. Such sludge can also occur in untreated sewage disposed off into lakes and other water bodies. Sewage sludge generation in India is increasing at a faster rate as more and more sewage treatment plants (STP) are being developed. Sewage sludge and effluents from these STPs are frequently disposed off on agricultural lands for irrigation/manure purposes.
Sludge of variable consistency collected from so-called on-site sanitation systems, such as latrines, non-sewered public toilets, septic tanks and aqua privies is denoted as fecal sludge. The fecal sludge comprises varying concentrations of settleable or settled solids as well as of other, non-fecal matter. Fecal sludge from septic tanks which consists of settled solids, scum and liquid is termed as Septage.