Summary

The rural upland landscape also has challenging sanitation environments. These are locations where clay soils, rock or seasonally high groundwater and wetlands make pit latrines and septic containment impractical, odorous and/or dangerous to people’s health. Moreover, some rural areas have shallow groundwater that must be protected, not polluted. Our adapted HandyPod works well in all these rural environments, too, providing simple cost-effect wastewater treatment.

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For challenging upland sanitation, we often use a HandyPod treatment process that’s supplemented with a corridor of planted gravel bed wetland (also known as a constructed wetland or treatment wetland), followed by a small discharge pond for polishing the water with natural fauna and flora features. 

​A number of suburban areas in developed countries are now using gravel bed wetland treatment due to their low cost, reliability and low maintenance features. 

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A HandyPod coupled with a gravel bed wetland and an appropriate final discharge feature (such as agricultural irrigation, water body, etc.) works well in rural environments. Our land-based HandyPod adapted with a planted gravel bed can be sized for a household, school, large farm labor force or an industrial park. It is perfect for areas where pit latrines or septic containment  are basically non-functional due to impermeable soils, high groundwater or costly maintenance.