MASTER'S THESIS - SuSanA

5 Learning from already implemented CWs (in Albania and the Balkan region)
The SOS children’s village is one of 155 similar villages worldwide for “orphans or children without proper
family structures” (Gjinali n.y.). The village consists of 13 houses, each for five to seven children, one
“mother” and occasionally “aunts” as substitutes and is located in Sauk, a suburb of Tirana. On the area of
the children’s village there is also a school and a nursery with a canteen located, that is attended by external
children and children that live in the village. While the city of Tirana has a sewer system, the children’s
village is not connected to it and needs therefore an own solution for the wastewater collection and
treatment. With good access from the capital Tirana, the SOS children's village was chosen by GIZ as the site
to build a demonstration constructed wetland. The plant is considered as a model treatment plant for
“training, demonstration, research and replication in peri-urban and rural areas of Albania” that protects
the environment (Gjinali et al. 2011).
Figure 5.4: Workshop at the SOS children’s village in
November 2011 (Niebel 2011)
The Figure 5.4 shows participants of a workshop conducted at the SOS children’s village Tirana in November
2011. In the background of the picture, houses of the SOS children’s village are visible as well as the fence
that protects the constructed wetland area.
5.2.2 Design and Technology
The design of the plant was based on the number of around 500 people living and working every day in the
village, what was converted to 220 population equivalent (PE) (Gjinali et al. 2011). In general, the village has
a low drinking water consumption rate of 16.8 m³/day in winter. In summer, the consumption is even lower
due to a lack of water in summer in Albania (Niklas 2008,a). The design for the plant was developed in order
to meet the EU standard, achieving a BOD value below 30 mg/l and TSS below 25 mg/l (Niklas 2008,a) (BOD
below 30 mg/l equal a reduction of 90 % of the influent load according to the EU Directive 91/271/EEC;
values for TSS reduction could not be found in the law). The amount of faecal coliform shall reach a number
below 10,000 CFU/100ml. These values can be found in the following Table 5.3 together with some other
important values for the dimensioning of the constructed wetland (Niklas 2008,c). The specific area per
population equivalent was chosen to be 2,5 m²/PE for the entire filter bed surface areas (VF and HF).
Normally, this is not correct as only the area of the first filter bed will count if filter beds are used in a row.
Therefore, the specific surface area of the two VF beds would be only 1.5 m².
The old German guideline for constructed wetlands (ATV-A 262) gave a specific area demand for vertical
filter beds with 2.5 m², but this value is now changed up to 4 m²/PE in the new guidelines called DWA-A 262
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