~ Pergamon Wal. Sci Tech. Vol. 40, No.3, pp.

11-17, 1999
<OI9991AWQ
Published by Elsevier SCIence Ltd
Printed 10 Great Britain. All rights reserved
0273-1223/99 $20.00 + 0.00
PH: S0273-1223(99)00415-1

CONSTRUCTED WETLANDS: A CHANCE

TO SOLVE WASTEWATER PROBLEMS IN
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

R. Haberl
Institutefor WaterProvision, WaterEcologyand WasteManagement,
DepartmentFor SanitaryEngineeringand WaterPollutionControl, University of
AgriculturalSciences Vienna, A-1190 Vienna, Muthgasse 18, Austria

ABSTRACT

There is a great lack of proper wastewater treatment in developing countries. With respect to the
enviromnent this situation should be changed as fast as possible. Due to the fmancial situation and to the
more stringent standards, wastewater sewerage and treatment are much more developed in industrialized
countries. Consequently there is an enormous pool of experience and knowledge in these countries with a lot
of different systems based on scientific and practical work.
One of the most promising technologies for application in developing countries seems to be constructed
wetlands (CW), due to their characteristic properties like utilization of natural processes, sunple construction,
simple operation and maintenance (OIM), process stability, cost effectiveness, etc.
Our Institute has been dealing a lot with CW and now feels obliged to transfer its know-how in this field to
developing countries to help them in solving their problems. At the moment we are cooperating with the
following countries: China, Kenya, Mexico, Nepal, Nicaragua, Tanzania and Uganda. Different ways are
being followed to realize this together with several organisations and partners.
The paper will deal with these cooperative arrangements in detail, demonstrating different projects,
describing the procedures in the projects, discussing experiences and last but not least giving
recommendations for future optimum ways of proceeding. 10 1999 IAWQ Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.
All rights reserved.

KEYWORDS

Constructed wetlands; design; developing countries; technology transfer; training; wastewater treatment.

INTRODUCTION

Constructed wetlands (CW) play an important role in wastewater management and water pollution control in
many parts of the world today.

From the historical point of view wetlands in their natural form (natural wetlands) have been used as
convenient wastewater discharge sites for as long as sewage has not been collected (Kadlec and Knight,
1996). In many cases the reason behind this use was disposal, rather than treatment and the wetland simply
served as a convenient recipient that was nearer than the nearest river or other waterway (Vymazal et a/.,
1998). The next step in wastewater treatment technology was the implementation of conventional systems,
beginning with high-loaded systems which have been changed in the course of time to low-loaded ones in
accord with strengthening water laws and water standards.
11
12 R.HABERL
During the last about 20 - 30 years a renaissance of wetlands has become obvious nearly all over the world.
Manifold reasons have been responsible for this, like rising awareness of natural processes, the necessity of
wastewater treatment in low density areas, the application of appropriate wastewater treatment in general,
costs, OIM-demand etc. But not natural wetlands, rather created or engineered or constructed or treatment
ones; these definitions can be found in Hammer (1991) or in Kadlec and Knight (1996). Experts have agreed
to use "constructed wetlands" or ''treatment wetlands" as technical terms although discussions on this never
seem to end.

In these last decades CW for water pollution control have been matter of much discussion, which has had
one very positive aspect, it has caused a lot of research and experiments leading to more knowledge and
experiences. Nowadays CW are applied for treating municipal, industrial, agricultural wastewater and
stormwater.

Due to the more stringent standards and to the finance available, wastewater sewerage and treatment in
general and CW in particular are much more spread and developed in industrialized countries. Consequently
there is an enormous pool of experience and knowledge with a lot of different systems based on scientific
and practical work which should be transferred to developing countries. In this paper emphasis is put on
water pollution control by CW although there is no doubt that pollution prevention always must have
priority with respect to environmental protection activities.

TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER-GENERAL

One of the most promising technologies for application in developing countries seems to be CW, due to their
characteristic properties such as utilization of natural processes, identification of the people concerned with
the system, simple construction, simple OIM, process stability, little excess sludge production, cost
effectiveness etc.

Two years ago Denny (1997) stated that governments from the north and donor agencies needed to be
convinced of the value ofCW in environmental health and water quality improvement. This statement has to
be repeated just now and all available efforts must be undertaken to realize this idea in the future.

Denny (1997) mentioned three reasons for the relatively slow spread of CW to developing countries
although most of them lie within the sub-tropical and tropical zones with their favourable climate for the
operation of these systems: (i) aid programmes from developed countries tend to favour technologies which
have commercial spin-off for the donors; (ii) developed world advisors are often unable to transfer their
conceptual thinking to the realities and cultures of the third world; (iii) rather than assisting developing
countries to develop their own CW technologies the tendency has been to translocate northern designs to
tropical environments.

These facts are generally well known today, although the practical application is often not in coincidence
with the theoretical viewpoint. This paper does not go into detail of the first mentioned reason, rather it
focuses on the second and third ones.

Before dealing with technological details of CW their objectives have to be considered. Kadlec & Knight
(1996) define primary (water quality enhancement) and secondary ones, like photosynthetic production,
food chain and habitat diversity, secondary production of fauna and aesthetic, recreational, commercial and
educational human uses. During this Conference emphasis is put on the primary objective, water quality
enhancement, but in special cases the other objectives may also be important.

Various designs ofCW and features are known, some of them are listed below:

• systems with free water surface

• systems with subsurface flow (horizontal, vertical)
• hybrid systems
• one-stage, multi-stage systems
• type of pretreatment
 Constructed wetlands 13

• type of substrate (soil, sand, etc)

• type ofplants
• influent, effluent construction
• continuous or intermittent loading
• type of water to be treated (wastewater - domestic or industrial, stormwater, groundwater, surfacewater)
• primary, secondary or tertiary treatment ofwastewater

This list does not claim to be complete but demonstrates clearly that the one and only CW does not exist. In
every single case the appropriate one has to be chosen out ofthe numerous possibilities.

A CW must not be considered as a "black box" but rather as a special technology including a lot of details
Whichrepresent the CW Technology. We must not transfer systems, even well-established ones in the north,
to developing countries without full reflection.

TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER - AN AUSTRIAN APPROACH

When mentioning the "Austrian approach" in this paper the activities of the Institute for Water Provision,
Water Ecology and Waste Management, Department for Sanitary Engineering and Water Pollution Control
(IWGA-SIG) at the University of Agricultural Sciences Vienna are meant. The IWGA-SIG has been dealing
a great deal with CW for nearly 20 years and now feels obliged to transfer its know-how to developing
countries to help solve their environmental problems. Our Institute is in the fortunate situation of having a
long tradition of cooperating with developing countries. In the past, emphasis has been put on African
countries, but nowadays a number of others are integrated into our activities.

At the moment cooperation exists with China, Kenya. Mexico. Nepal, Nicaragua, Tanzania and Uganda and
new ones are in preparation. By means of several examples the different ways of working are described in
detail, always following a certain structure consisting of organisation. project andfunding.

Organisation: EC-project.
Partners in Europe: Germany (University of Cologne and Engineering Office for Applied Limnology),
Partners in China: Institute of Hydrobiology of Wuhan. Hangzhou University and Shenzhen Institute of
Environmental Science.
• Meetings of the project partners in China and in Europe.
• Chinese scientists stay in Europe for a period to get experience.

Project: Biotechnological approach to water quality improvement in tropical and sub-tropical areas for reuse
and rehabilitation of aquatic ecosystems.

The goal of the project is to treat the polluted water of lakes (each Chinese partner institute is located at a
different lake) for reuse (irrigation. drinking water etc.) and for rehabilitation of the water body. The
development of CW is seen to be a valuable way to an economical low-cost operation and maintenance of
water purification units.

Therefore as a first step 5 small-scale plots (SSP) were constructed in the pilot plant to simulate the
conditions in China. The 5 SSPs are filled with the same substrate but are planted with 10 different plant
species. The particular construction of the system gives the advantage of having a downflow chamber
regularly flooded and also regularly drained in the upper layer, and an upflow chamber which is always
completely water saturated and therefore planted with obligate helophytic species like Cyperus papyrus or
Schoenoplectus lacustris. The downflow chambers are planted with other species like Arundo donax or
Phragmites australis.

During two years of operation of the SSPs the best way (with optimum treatment performance at a
maximum ofloading capacity) of operating the system should be determined (Perfler et al., 1999).
Funding: European Union.
14 R.HABERL
Mexico

Organisation: University cooperation with Universidad Nacional Autonoma de MexicolMexico City.

• Exchange of professors and students.
• Workshops and seminars in Mexico City and in Vienna.
• Students work on their diploma thesis or a report in the foreign country, two students
(home and foreign) work together for one year (half a year in each country).

Project: Design and construction of pilot plants in Mexico for treating wastewater and surface water as
demonstration facilities. The first pilot plant was situated within the University area and consisted of several
0,3 m 3.plots with vertical-flow in which different plants and different operational modes were tested to
prove the suitability ofeW to treat contaminated waters.
2
The second pilot plant with an area of 75 m has been operating since March 1998. In this horizontal-flow
plant highly-contaminated surface water is treated with the goal to use it for irrigation of a tree nursery
(Haberl, 1997; Kneidinger, 1997; Rios et al. , 1997; Schaller, 1998).

Funding: Each country pays travelling costs for its own students, Austria pays for accommodation and living
costs for both sides (special institutions of the universities are responsible for financial affairs).

Organisation: PhD study of a Nepali student at our University in Vienna by means of a "sandwich-
programme", having a duration of 3 years. (i) First step: Nepali student stays in Austria for about 0.5 years
and gets involved in a running project to get familiar with our CW-technology. (ii) Second step: he returns
home for about 1.5 years and applies this technology under the special circumstances there. He gathers data.
operates and controls the system. It is not obligatory but in this case a Austrian student went to Nepal to
support the field works in Nepal. (iii) Third step: back again in Austria for about 1 year the Nepali PhD-
student evaluates and interprets his data and finishes his thesis.

Austrian supervisors hold meetings and courses in Nepal to inform and train the native specialists - "train
the trainer" principle.

Project: Design and construction of a CW for treating the wastewater of a hospital.

To treat the wastewater of the hospital at DhulikheVNepal (40 beds, 10 staff members) a two-stage CW was
constructed with a settlement tank (Imhoff) as pretreatment. The CW consists of a horizontal-flow bed as
first stage and a vertical-flow bed as second stage. Different phases of operation (high and low water level
within the soil profile, series operation, one stage operation) are being investigated.

The aim of the project is the elimination of organic compounds, nitrification and significant reduction of
indicator bacteria within the system

• for the construction as well as OIM for which it is not necessary to import anything from outside
Nepal.
• which Canbe operated without electricity.

Also the plant serves as a demonstration unit during excursions to introduce this "new technology" to
interested people (Laber et al., 1999).

Funding: Austrian Exchange Office (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) pays for travelling, living costs and
accommodation of the foreign student, and for the travelling costs of the Austrian supervisor to visit the
project site in Nepal. Austria does not pay for the construction and operation/maintenance of the CW in
Nepal.
 Constructed wetlands 1S
Nicaragua

Organisation: Austrian students carry out their Diploma thesis in Nicaragua under supervision of IWGA-
SIG staff. At the same time they are employees of an Austrian Consultant Company which is responsible for
them in Nicaragua and is providing the infrastructure for their work. The Austrian students cooperate with
native ones. This construction guarantees an appropriate proceeding by direct know-how transfer.

Project: Installation of the first CW in Nicaragua for treatment of domestic wastewater.

Based on several researches on existing ponds which have proved to have very poor performance the idea
was born to improve the environmental situation in the future by application ofCW instead of ponds. In the
city of Masaya this first CW has been installed consisting of a primary treatment and of four CW plots (350
m2 each) with horizontal flow. As a substrate different local volcanic materials have been applied, as well as
native macrophytes.

The main goal of the CW-project is to implement such systems and to find out the appropriate construction
and operating modes. Another very important goal is to produce irrigation water for different crops.

In the meantime the first CW has been in operation now for more than 2 years with good performance. It
serves as a reference plant. At the moment a second system is under construction and several new ones are
planned for domestic and industrial wastewaters (Haidinger, 1997; Huber, 1995; Platzer, 1995; Spalt, 1998;
Stepan, 1994).

Funding: Austrian Development Co-operation (Ministry of Foreign Affairs).

Organisation: Experts from the IWGA-SIG are responsible for evaluation and design of CW for different
purposes. By missions to Uganda in co-operation with the local Austrian Bureau all the necessary local
details are collected. Workshops are organized on the one hand to inform the local experts and on the other
hand to learn the special circumstances, parameters and demands ofthe country.

Project: Improvement of the environmental situation of the leather industry by reorganisation of the solid
waste and wastewater management.
As well as recommendations for cleaner technologies and preventive measures the implementation of CW
represents an important part of the whole integrated project (Haberl et al., 1997; Lechner, 1998).

Funding: United Nations International Development Organisation.

Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda

Organisation: University cooperation between University of Agricultural Sciences and Makarere University,
Kampala, University of Dar es Salaam and Moi University, Eldoret.

Project: Based on the aims defined at a start-up workshop a "Scientific cooperation on the use and
adaptation ofCW for wastewater treatment in East Africa" is going to be implemented.
The proposed research co-operation is based on some general conditions:
• construction ofsmall pilot systems at the campuses ofthe three universities,
• operation with domestic wastewater,
• operation with continuous, intermittent or alternating feeding of the reed beds for a period of2 years,
• working out of a design and operation manual for the use of CW in East Africa,
• exchange of experience and adaptation of general design and operation guidelines at two workshops
in Africa (with participants from Austria),
• dissemination of experience at university level and among decision makers by 1-2 workshops at each
participating country in Africa (without participants from Austria).
16 R.HABERL
The co-operation should be extended to include and focus on the whole problem of environmental sanitation
and not only on wastewater management to enable local decision makers to choose an appropriate and
sustainable sanitation system for a given location.

In addition to the research co-operation on CW a workshop "Sustainable Environmental Sanitation" has

been proposed with the aim to make people aware not only of the need for wastewater treatment but also of
the necessity and the possibilities of reducing water consumption. This workshop should work out and
inform on all possible sanitation techniques according to the needs and the demands of the partners in
developing countries and form a base for the universities engaged to work out an East African sanitation and
wastewater management system of their own, independent from the developed countries.

Funding: Austrian Development Co-operation (Ministry of Foreign Affairs).

RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUMMARY

The basic aim of every development co-operation lies in the improvement of standards of living, reduction
of poverty and in meeting the necessities of the people in developing countries. Only by meeting these basic
principles can co-operation with developing countries be successful.

Some essential pre-conditions for the success of developing activities are:

• developing countries themselves have to define and formulate their needs,

• the north has to respect the developing countries needs and specialities,
• definition of priorities in co-operation between north and south,
• co-ordination and co-operation in general,
• installation of endogenous structures and development of centres of expertise in developing countries
(education of experts in the south, being able to spread the new technologies),
• sustainability of all actions,
• ownership of facilities by local communities or organisations (decentralization).

To be able to fulfill these pre-conditions several supporting measures have to be taken into account:

• the awareness of environmental problems in developing countries has to be created,

• use designs, materials, skills and knowledge ofthe south,
• know-how transfer in both directions as a dialogue (never forget that the north also has to learn from the
south),
• performance of sustainability by withdrawal of the donors after finishing a project,
• improvement of the future project control,
• tying the science into development activities.

The role of science in this field can be stated as the first priority.

The human society wants the scientific community to make proposals to solve global problems, and
doubtless the environmental problems are global ones. The universities have to be integrated in this priority
topic, the northern as well as the southern ones. The scientific dialogue between north and south is of major
importance. This can be proved easily: the comparison of the number of scientists related to I Million
population with 3000 for the north and 200 for the south demonstrates clearly the scientific lack in
developing countries (Zauner, 1998). The northern countries seem to be obliged to transfer their capacities
to the south to improve the scientific situation there with respect to developing their own technologies.
Another important aspect of involving the university people in developing programmes is that they have to
work in tight contact with the local people and their problems.

According to the above mentioned situation in developing countries applied research should be emphasized
in order to improve the output of co-operation projects. What is needed are high science but low technical
solutions. We should keep in mind further important contributions of universities and science to a successful
and sustainable development:
 Constructed wetlands 17

• To strengthen the "south - south" communication and co-operation.

• In addition to carrying on with the CW research co-operation generates pre-conditions for local experts
to realise the problems connected with wastewater generation and treatment.
• Discuss and work out a range of possible technical solutions for environmental sanitation and
wastewater treatment. The emphasis is put on simple measures that people can manage and sustain.
• Develop appropriate and useful standards and solutions for environmental sanitation.
• Develop appropriate technologies and management systems.
• Initiate networks and develop information strategies (e.g. Internet etc.).

In conclusion let me make some remarks concerning our university co-operations and PhD programmes.
Both turned out to be approved strategies for a successful development co-operation. Therefore both
programmes are intended to be intensified in future. As far as PhD programmes are concerned in accordance
with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in future emphasis will be put on "sandwich-programmes" with
students who can show a working place at home and who can be expected to return to this place in their
home country. The topic they are dealing with has to have relevance for their home country. Besides the
supervisor at the northern university they should have one also at the home university or at any other state or
official organisation.

Following all these recommendations it can be taken for granted that the northern development activities
will be in harmony with the realities and cultures of the south assisting them to develop, implement and run
their own technologies rather than to transfer our designs and technologies to partner countries.

REFERENCES

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Haberl, R. (1997). Constructed Wetlands in Europe with Emphasis on Austria (Humedales construidos en Europa con Enfasis en
Austria) . Proceedings, 3. Int. Seminar of Experts on the Treatment of Industrial Effluents and Residues. 3. - 9.4.97,
Mexico City.
Haberl, R; Lechner, M., Laber, J. (1997) . Assistance to the National African Leather and Footwear Industry Scheme. Cleaner
Technology options for implementation in selected tanneries in Uganda. Final Report, UNIDO.
Haidinger, F. (1997). Einsatz von Pflanzenklllranlagen zur Abwasserreinigung in Nicaragua. Diplomarbeit am Institut fUr
Wasservorsorge, Universitlit fUr Bodenkultur Wien.
Hammer, D.A. (1992). Creating freshwater wetlands. Lewis Publishers, Boca Raton, Ann Arbor, London .
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Kadlec, R.H ., Knight, R.L. (1996). Treatment wetlands. CRC, Lewis Publishers, Boca Raton, New York, London, Tokyo .
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Laber, 1., Haberl, R., Shresta, R. (1999). Two stage constructed wetland for treating hospital wastewater in Nepal. Wat. Sci. Tech.,
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Lechner , M. (1998). Assistance to the National Africa Leather and Footwear Industry Scheme . Report, UNIDO.
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Platzer , M. (1995) . Erhebungen und Planungsarbeiten im Zusammenhang mit der Erweiterung der Abwasserentsorgung der Stadt
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Rios, R., Jansson, M., Zibuschka, F., Haberl , R., Luna, V., Duran-de-Bazua, C. (1997). Removal of Microorganisms from
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Spalt, S. (1998) . Evaluation of the ew in Masaya (Nicaragua) and of the attached irrigation project.
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