Sustainable Development Goals: Ensuring Clean Water and Sanitation, Addressing Climate Change, and Improving Sustainable Communities via Predictive Wastewater Treatment in Rural Communities

Wastewater treatment protects the environment and human health. Conventional wastewater treatment is energy-intensive and complex, making it impractical for rural and under-resourced communities. “Low-tech” wastewater treatment technologies exist that can be leveraged globally for improved sanitation, such as wastewater treatment ponds, but unfortunately, the factors that control pond performance are poorly understood. Because the basis of operation for ponds is microbiological, studying the pond microbiome should allow us to determine the extent to which treatment performance is controlled by deterministic mechanisms, and within those factors under engineering control, which are the most important. Such an approach is far easier than performing large-scale time- and space-intensive sampling campaigns, yet should yield similar information. This research addresses outcomes related to SDGs #6 and #11 while also touching on SDG #13.