On the outskirts of urban areas, new houses appear at a remarkable pace, and while the city grows on the fringes, infrastructure such as water supply and sanitation system take time to reach the periphery.


Basic sanitation methods contaminate groundwater with nitrates and bacteria. Since new layouts depend on borewells, the very source of water gets polluted. But this 'fouling of the nest' can be avoided.

On the outskirts of urban areas new houses appear at a remarkable pace. The city grows on the fringes but the infrastructure such as water supply and sanitation system take time to reach the periphery, especially sanitation in the form of sewerage services. Since most of the houses and layouts are formed hastily there is generally no infrastructure to take care of waste water.

Households therefore dig a deep pit and send in wastewater from the toilets, kitchen and bathroom directly into it. These pits are sometimes outside the property and in the pavement or even on the road itself.

Some households build septic tanks but again the excess liquid from the septic tanks are lead into soak pits.

All these forms of basic sanitation end up contaminating the groundwater, especially with nitrates and bacteria. Since these layouts and houses are dependant on borewells for their water supply they end up polluting the very source of water they depend upon. A clear case of 'fouling of the nest.'

What are the alternatives?

While a regular underground sewage system with a treatment plant is the best solution certainly, other house-level solutions do exist. One of them frequently used in rural areas is the twin leach pit system.

Only the toilet in the house is connected to the twin leach pits. The toilet usually has a steeply sloping pan which will require only two litres for flushing. Otherwise one can use water-efficient flushes too.