| NSF Org: |
BCS Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | August 2, 2016 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | August 2, 2016 |
| Award Number: | 1628014 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Jeffrey Mantz
jmantz@nsf.gov (703)292-7783 BCS Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences SBE Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences |
| Start Date: | August 1, 2016 |
| End Date: | July 31, 2020 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $252,798.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $252,798.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
321-A INGRAM HALL AUBURN AL US 36849-0001 (334)844-4438 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
7030 Haley Center Auburn AL US 36849-0001 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): |
Cultural Anthropology, EPSCoR Co-Funding |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.075 |
ABSTRACT
Increasing water shortages and contamination have pushed communities and policy makers to reconsider their reliance on centralized wastewater treatment systems and to experiment with decentralized ones. A decentralized project is a small-scale treatment system operated in a city drain, a neighborhood, or an institutional setting without long distance transfers of wastewater through underground and above-ground pipes. But the planning and effective operation of these projects require wholesale changes not only in technology but also in institutional frameworks and systems of governance, which produces a nexus of effects across scales that is not yet well understood. The research funded by this award will address this information gap. Anthropologist Dr. Kelly D. Alley (Auburn University) and her team will study the interactions between institutional structures, governance mechanisms, geophysical landscapes of wastewater flows, and cultural practices in the context of decentralized responses to water contamination and shortage. Their project will also produce case studies in treatment, recycling, water monitoring, and environmental regulation that can be shared across communities and countries.
The research will be undertaken in India, where a wide range of decentralized water reuse and pollution reduction experiments and pilot programs are planned or underway in the heavily polluted Ganges river basin. Cleaning up the Ganges is complicated by the fact that the river is, on the one hand, culturally significant as a Hindu Goddess while, on the other, it is being diminished by escalating extractions for agriculture, industry, power, and urbanization. It is the combination of these factors that makes a sample of Ganges-related projects ideal for investigating the intersectional effects of decentralized wastewater treatment approaches. The cross-project comparison will allow the researchers to identify the cultural, institutional and political conditions and constraints that make decentralized projects institutionally feasible, financially viable, and culturally acceptable. The researchers will focus on projects connected to a sample of the 144 drains that pour wastewater into the river system. The researchers will collect data through site visits and mapping of wastewater drains and treatment facilities. They will carry out structured interviews with industry and government representatives. They will conduct surveys in neighborhoods with large drains to assess cultural and political understanding of wastewater problems and acceptability of experiments and pilot projects. Findings from the research will inform policy makers anywhere who plan to undertake decentralized wastewater treatment systems. Findings will also contribute to improved social science theory of the role of infrastructure in social and cultural systems. Funding the research supports two graduate students and enhances international research collaboration.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
Wastewater flows have multiplied energetically since the early stages of industrialization in every part of the world. The situation in India has become dire over the last half century: now seventy percent of the country's fresh water sources, including surface rivers, streams and lakes, are contaminated by wastewaters of various kinds. This project has addressed the widespread problem by examining how citizens of India are treating these wastewaters and experimenting with reuses of treated wastewater at the community level. This research has explored the emerging mechanics of small-scale, decentralized sanitation and the growing acceptability of wastewater reuse.
Over four years, we collected data pertaining to 200 small-scale projects in housing societies, universities, parks, office buildings, and hotels. In these locations, we discussed, interviewed, and surveyed persons involved in treatments and reuses. We documented the machine and infrastructure operations, experiences, knowledge exchanges, rules and regulations surrounding these decentralized and distributed sanitation systems. The data showed that residents, business managers, researchers, engineers, and consultants were differentiating grades of grey and black waters while identifying and experimenting with specific reuses, such as using treated water for bus cleaning, horticulture, toilet flushing and AC cooling towers. Our research found that continual experimentation proved to be a strong determinant or motivator for the functionality or success of a treatment or reuse process. We also addressed the reasons for infrastructure failures that occurred as participants were attempting to optimize machines to meet effluent standards. Governance failed when end users of treated water were not involved in planning, decision-making and operating their community treatment plants. Decentralized systems worked best when users, as residents of housing societies, hotel managers, municipal leaders, and university researchers, were engaged with decision-making on technology, design, financing, installation, and the maintenance and monitoring of small-scale treatment plants.
The research also found that bioreactors and tertiary filtration devices must be designed for constrained spaces; machines must be constantly optimized to meet changing government standards; and bacterial communities must be managed to promote and sustain the digestion of wastewater biomass. To account for all these activities and processes, the project developed a human-machine-microbe framework linking governance, infrastructural, and microbial functions.
The experiences of participants break through the disgust factor and introduce us to the world of gradients and multi-purpose situations in which wastewater is valued as a resource. The project documents small-scale steps in addressing the problem of wastewater influx which endangers fresh or blue water on local and planetary scales. The case studies generate support for the sixth Sustainable Development Goal of water and sanitation for all.
Last Modified: 11/29/2020
Modified by: Kelly D Alley
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