Comparative study of sustainable drainage systems for refugee camps stormwater management

To meet the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs 2030) without leaving vulnerable people such as the refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) behind, it is important to upgrade drainage systems across refugee and IDP camps using innovative technologies such as sustainable drainage systems (SuDS). Retrofitting the existing surface water drainage systems using SuDS technologies can improve the living conditions of the refugees by addressing environmental challenges such as flooding, erosion and outbreak of water-related diseases across the camps. In this paper, evaluation of pollutant removal and hydraulic performance of laboratory experimental set-up of SuDS technologies mimicking stormwater management conditions for African IDP and refugee camps is presented. Two rigs of engineered wetlands and two rigs of filter drains (FDs) constructed using locally sourced low-cost sustainable materials were evaluated for stormwater attenuation and pollutants removal efficacies. The results showed that both the engineered wetland systems and FDs for simulated refugee camp conditions showed a significant reduction in the organic loading levels for chemical oxygen demand, biochemical/biological oxygen demand and turbidity and nutrients present in the stormwater. In addition, the engineered wetlands and FDs are effective in attenuating significant proportion of precipitation.