Implementation Strategies

Policy Theme 7

Encourage Energy Efficiency in Water and Waste Management and Producing Renewable Energy

Strategy 1: Enforce segregation and recycling of waste material in the residential, commercial, and construction sectors.

Strategy 2: Build a waste-to-biofuel or biogas plant for the city.

Strategy 3: Install a centralized in-situ wastewater treatment plant that generates renewable energy.

Strategy 4: Create a plan for water harvesting.

Strategy 5: Encourage and incorporate natural ways of treating waste and wastewater.

Some of the important aspects of encouraging Water and Waste Management in a city are to ensure that strict guidelines are developed to increase the efficient use of water and recycling of solid and liquid waste, switching to newer and efficient technologies for water and waste management in buildings, increasing awareness about recycling, providing a communication platform for exchanging best practices and finally water and waste management. Components for encouraging water and waste management in the city are highlighted below;

Enforce segregation and recycling of waste material in the residential, commercial, and construction sector

Recycling is one of the simplest ways to reduce the carbon footprint of a city. Encourage and enforce segregation and recycling of waste in residential, commercial and construction sectors.  Create awareness campaigns and create lists of recyclables and non-recyclables. Create intuitive designs for trash cans to encourage waste segregation in public areas. Develop capacity to conduct inspections to ensure compliance with the recycling program in a city. Issue appropriate penalties for those who do not comply with the recycling program.

Build a waste-to-biofuel or biogas plant 

Integrating waste management with the city's energy planning can be a very useful way of ensuring that the city's energy needs are met in a sustainable way.  The city must thus invest in a waste bio-energy power plant. Currently, many local governments use pyrolysis or direct combustion as a means to produce energy from waste. However, such processes often lead to problems associated with air pollution. Thus, local governments must invest in plants that use technologies such as anaerobic digestion or fermentation to produce biogas or biofuels respectively. The capacity of such a power plant should be planned by taking into account the amount of waste that is generated. The energy can either be supplied through gas networks for the purpose of cooking or heating or can be utilized to generate electricity or as fuel in the transportation sector.

Install a centralized in-situ wastewater treatment plant that generates renewable energy

To encourage the reuse and recycling of water the city must install a centralized in-situ wastewater treatment plant. But such a plant must also tap the tremendous energy that wastewater can generate. Given that wastewater treatment is energy energy-intensive process, such energy derived from wastewater can be used to offset energy requirements. Biodegradable wastes in sewage and food wastes from the kitchen can be digested to produce biogas, which can then be used to generate energy that can either be used to power the wastewater treatment plant or can be used to generate electricity for the town. Such a plant should be planned by taking into account the wastewater generated in the city. Further treated water can be used for purposes of irrigation, landscaping, flushing toilets, or in industrial processes. This ensures that the water resource is used judiciously.

Create a plan for water harvesting

Water harvesting must be integrated into the planning of a city. Appropriate drainage systems and rooftop harvest must be implemented. Such systems not only help in reducing demand on public water supply systems but can also help in mitigating rainstorm runoff and floods in cities.

Encourage and incorporate natural ways of treating waste and wastewater

Natural ways of treating waste and wastewater such must be incorporated into waste and water planning.  These natural biological treatment systems include various forms of ponds, land treatment, and wetlands systems. The potential of wetlands as a carbon sink as well as to recharge aquifers has been discussed in section 2. However, wetlands can also play a big role in wastewater treatment.

Constructed wetlands for water treatment utilize the natural processes involving wetland vegetation, soils, and their associated microbial assemblages to assist in treating wastewater. Some such methods and case studies have been discussed in the section below.