Soil Aquifer Treatment

One of the main advantages of recharging an aquifer and thus elevating the ground water table is the ability to store excess water from times of great precipitation for when there is no or little rainfall. Additionally recharge techniques can be modified to improve the quality of waste water in a way that is cost effective, does not require a lot of engineering know-how and has a small footprint on the surface (Nema et al. 2001).
This has been termed Soil Aquifer Treatment and involves using pre-treated or raw sewage water for recharge and recovering it through wells. The water will travel through the aquifer and pollutants will be removed either though the mechanical filtration of the sediment or biodegraded by microorganisms (Amy & Drewes 2007).
SAT is a particularly interesting approach to waste water treatment for India because existing recharge structures can be adapted to improve water quality. It has the added benefit of making waste water available for re-used and thus alleviate water scarcity as is the case in the Musi river watershed (Perrin et al., 2011).
 
References:

G. Amy, J. Drewes. 2007. Soil aquifer treatment (SAT) as a natural and sustainable wastewater reclamation/reuse technology: fate of wastewater effluent organic matter (EfOM) and trace organic compounds. Environmental Monitoring & Assessment 129 (1–3), 19–26.
P. Nema, C.S.P Ojha, Arvid Kumar, P. Khanna. 2001. Techno-economic evaluation of soil-aquifer treatment using primary effluent at Ahmedabad, India. Water Research 35 (9), 2179-2190.
J. Perrin, S. Ahmed, L. Dinis, V. Aellen, P. Amerasinghe, P. Pavelic, R. Schmitt 2011,  Groundwater processes in a micro-watershed influenced by wastewater irrigation, peri-urban Hyderabad, Scientific report IFCGR/IWMI