In this paper, wastewater treatment requirements for a typical village in the agricultural belt of India has been discussed. Investigations have been made on the available water resources and wastewater generation from the use of water in domestic applications and meeting the requirements for the household livestock. Innovative techniques are described to treat the wastewater generated in the village with the available discarded materials. The energy requirement of the wastewater treatment system could be met from a mix of conventional and the renewable energy resources. There is a gap in the traditional energy supply and demand of the village, which can be bridged with the use of renewable energy. The total water consumption in the village obtained from various sources, i.e. surface water and underground water, was around 190 m(3)/day and the wastewater generated was nearly 150 m(3)/day. The wastewater of the village was polluted in terms of organic matter. Discarded material based mixed adsorbents have been used for treatment of the domestic wastewater in laboratory conditions for optimizing the process. It was estimated that the energy required for treating the wastewater by conventional method would be 225 MJ but with adsorption-based process it would come down to 113.9 MJ, thereby giving a saving of 111.1 MJ. The adsorption-based system would thus be a good option for the villages and other decentralized areas. A hybrid energy system involving blending of the non-conventional and conventional energy should be the solution for meeting the energy requirement of the rural sector wastewater treatment plants. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.