Potential of Constructed Wetland for Wastewater Treatment in Rural Areas in Kosovo

Republic of Kosovo has 1,304 settlements from which only 37 are urban and 1,267 are rural. Shown in percentage, only 39.2% （765,125） of inhabitants live in urban areas. The focus is to work and find the best and cheap solutions for the 60.8% （1,173,370） of inhabitants of the country which live in rural areas. From this number only 42% of them have access to the sewage network while 60.8% of them have implemented individual solutions （latrines） without any treatment, leading to a large pollution of the water bodies. The existing rural sewage networks are built only with septic tanks, poorly designed and do not fulfill the wastewater treatment criteria. Regarding this issue, the Kosovan legislation concerns only urban areas （settlements of more than 2,000 inhabitants） and is expected to be completed in 2014 for rural areas according to the EU （European Union） directive for wastewater discharge. As a pilot project, the CDI （community development initiatives） started with WWTP （waste water treatment plants） based on the Vertical Constructed Wetland option （french model） as it appears to be the most adapted option in this rolling, rural, and temperate climate context, implementing this kind of treatment in 3 villages for the first time in Kosovo. Through this, it is interesting to take a perspective on all the phases of these projects starting from feasibility reports, project design to concept and modalities of implementation and options for operation and maintenance, in order to assess how this technical option is feasible and replicable in the country at a large scale. It finally appears that the potential for constructed wetland in the Balkan region is promising as it provides a simple solution for most of the regional constraints, but requires skills to be developed locally for designing and building as well as a deeper consideration in the national regulation.