This case study is about a constructed wetland system for wastewater treatment and reuse in the SOS children’s village in Sauk, a suburb in the South of Tirana, Albania, constructed in 2009. In the village 70 children live permanently with their „mothers“ and „aunts“. Together with external children visiting the school and the nursery of the village and the stuff, around 500 people are every day in the village. This number of persons produces wastewater and was transformed into 220 PE (population equivalent). The flow rate for the project design was 16.8 m3/d of domestic wastewater. The pilot plant, one of the first established in Albania, consists of a "Dortmund tank" (a settling tank with vertical flow) combined with another settling tank for pre-treatment, two vertical filter beds that are fed alternately by pump and one horizontal filter bed. Effluent is collected for reuse purposes. For sludge treatment, a planted sludge drying bed was implemented. The total area used for the plant is around 1,600 m2. As several problems with plant operation occurred in the beginning, reconstruction works were done in 2010. After a site visit and sample taking in the end of 2011, it can be stated that the plant is working very well at the moment. The constructed wetland plant was financed by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH (at that time called GTZ) and the Albanian General Directorate of Water Supply and Sewerage. Construction was done by a local company. Recommendations for reconstruction were given by a German specialist.

Bibliographic information

Gjinali, E., Niklas, J., Smid, H. (2012). Wastewater treatment using constructed wetlands Tirana, Albania Case study of sustainable sanitation projects Sustainable Sanitation Alliance (SuSanA)

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Constructed wetlandsGreywater or wastewaterPeri-urbanSchoolsUrban (entire city)Case studies in SuSanA templateEnglish

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