Effective subsidies in developing countries.

During the last decades, significant subsidies have been allocated to government-owned water and sewerage enterprises in developing countries. However, water and sewerage coverage is still far from desirable and the poor are particularly affected by the shortage of these services. The truth is that a considerable part of these subsidies have been used up to build huge infrastructure works that would make some construction firms happy, while often decreasing the service costs for the richer. The costs associated of delivering water and sanitation services to the poor are significantly higher, as they often live in slums or irregular urban developments without urban infrastructure. It is possible, and desirable, to improve government's effectiveness through the use of appropriate economic incentives. The Brazilian River Basin Pollution Abatement Program, based on the "output-based aid" concept, is a good example of how this can be achieved. The Program is a success story that shows that the quality of expenditures on sanitation can be considerably improved if governments of developing countries refrain from contracting sanitation infrastructure works and start paying for results, not for promises.     

Water vending activities in developing countries

Millions of people in developing countries obtain water from commercial vendors who deliver it to their homes, yet this phenomenon has received little attention from professionals in the water resources field. This paper describes a water vending system which is in operation in Ukunda, Kenya, a town of about 5000 people south of Mombasa. In this community 45% for water consumed by households is obtained from water vendors who deliver water in carts directly to people's homes. The prices vendors charge for water are high, but vendors are not making exorbitant profits; hauling water manually is simply expensive. People in Ukunda spend about 9% of their income on vended water, which suggests that there are situations in which households are willing and able to pay substantial amounts of money for water even when traditional sources are readily available.     

Environmentally sound urban water management in developing countries: A case study of Hanoi

This paper deals with the major problems related to water management in the urban areas of developing countries. Increasing human activities within the urban areas create water pollution which causes degradation of water quality in rivers and aquifers. Poor urban infrastructure obstructs economic growth and development. Inadequate access to water and sanitation causes degradation of the environment and human health in urban areas. Some of these problems and the major management issues for Hanoi are discussed in this paper. A general planning framework for the water sector to meet the environmental challenges of the next decade for sustainable economic growth and development of the city is outlined.     

Cost recovery in water supply in developing countries

This article discusses trends in cost recovery policies, costs, consumers’ ability and willingness to pay, water tariff structures, fee collection and financial management. Cost recovery, operational technology and appropriate institutions are the key requirements of sustainability. Commonly practised water vending and reselling, while a good indication of actual willingness to pay for water, is a very costly system. In practice free water supply benefits the rich. Progressive tariffs and innovative collection methods should be used instead.     

Evaluation of sludge management alternatives in Istanbul metropolitan area.

The main concern of this paper was to predict the sludge quantities generated from 18 wastewater treatment plants, which were stated to be established in the "Istanbul Water Supply, Sewerage and Drainage, Sewage Treatment and Disposal Master Plan", 10 of which are in operation at present. Besides this, obtaining the required data to compare various treatment schemes was another goal of the study. Especially, the estimation of the sludge quantity in the case of enhanced primary sedimentation was of importance. Wastewater sludge management strategies were discussed in order to develop suggestions for Istanbul Metropolitan city. Within this context, the wastewater treatment facilities, mentioned in the Master Plan that had been completed by 2000, were evaluated in terms of sludge production rates, locations and technical and management aspects. Disposal alternatives of the wastewater treatment sludge were also evaluated in this study. Using of the dewatered sludge as a landfill cover material seems the best alternative usage. Up to the year of 2040, the requirement of cover material for landfills in Istanbul will be met by the dewatered sludge originated from wastewater treatment plants in the region.     

Poyang Lake basin: a successful, large-scale integrated basin management model for developing countries

Protection of water environment while developing socio-economy is a challenging task for lake regions of many developing countries. Poyang Lake is the largest fresh water lake in China, with its total drainage area of 160,000 km2. In spite of rapid development of socio-economy in Poyang Lake region in the past several decades, water in Poyang Lake is of good quality and is known as the "last pot of clear water" of the Yangtze River Basin in China. In this paper, the reasons of "last pot of clear water" of Poyang Lake were analysed to demonstrate how economic development and environmental protection can be coordinated. There are three main reasons for contributing to this coordinated development: 1) the unique geomorphologic features of Poyang Lake and the short water residence time; 2) the matching of the basin physical boundary with the administrative boundary; and 3) the implementation of "Mountain-River-Lake Program" (MRL), with the ecosystem concept of "mountain as source, river as connection flow, and lake as storage". In addition, a series of actions have been taken to coordinate development, utilisation, management and protection in the Poyang Lake basin. Our key experiences are: considering all basin components when focusing on lake environment protection is a guiding principle; raising the living standard of people through implementation of various eco-economic projects or models in the basin is the most important strategy; preventing soil and water erosion is critical for protecting water sources; and establishing an effective governance mechanism for basin management is essential. This successful, large-scale basin management model can be extended to any basin or lake regions of developing countries where both environmental protection and economic development are needed and coordinated.     

Irrigated agricultural expansion planning in developing countries: Performance vs. resilience vs. reliability

The conflict between performance measured in terms of economic and income redistribution objectives, resilience and reliability of irrigated agricultural expansions in developing countries is investigated via a planning framework consisting of three sequential optimization models. The first model determines the most economic planning alternatives. The second model examines, in terms of an income redistribution criterion, the social attractiveness of each plan. The third model determines resilience and operating rules of the various alternatives. The planning framework is appled for a hypothetical agricultural expansion on the order of 30 000 hectares based on data from the Nile Delta in Egypt. The trade-off between system performance, reliability and resilience is derived.     

An innovative sludge management system based on separation of primary and secondary sludge treatment.

An innovative sludge management system based on separation of treatment and disposal of primary and secondary sludge is discussed with reference to a sewage treatment plant of 500,000 equivalent person capacity. Secondary sludge, if treated separately from primary sludge, can be recovered in agriculture considering its relatively high content of nitrogen and phosphorus and negligible presence of pathogens and micropollutants. One typical outlet for primary sludge is still incineration which can be optimised by rendering the process auto thermal and significantly reducing the size of the incineration plant units (dryer, fluidised bed furnace, boiler and units for exhaust gas treatment) in comparison with those required for mixed sludge incineration. Biogas produced in anaerobic digestion is totally available for energy conversion when sludge treatment separation is performed, while in the other case a large proportion may be used as fuel in incineration, thus reducing the net electric energy conversion from 0.85-0.9 to 0.35-0.4 MW for the plant considered.     

Sustainable management of leakage from wastewater pipelines.

Wastewater pipeline leakage is an emerging concern in Europe, especially with regards to the potential effect of leaking effluent on groundwater contamination and the effects infiltration has on the management of sewer reticulation systems. This paper describes efforts by Australia, in association with several European partners, towards the development of decision support tools to prioritize proactive rehabilitation of wastewater pipe networks to account for leakage. In the fundamental models for the decision support system, leakage is viewed as a function of pipeline system deterioration. The models rely on soil type identification across the service area to determine the aggressiveness of the pipe environment and for division of the area into zones based on pipe properties and operational conditions. By understanding the interaction between pipe materials, operating conditions, and the pipe environment in the mechanisms leading to pipe deterioration, the models allow the prediction of leakage rates in different zones across a network. The decision support system utilizes these models to predict the condition of pipes in individual zones, and to optimize the utilization of rehabilitation resources by targeting the areas with the highest leakage rates.     

Environmental engineering education for developing countries: framework for the future.

This paper presents the existing philosophy, approach, criteria and delivery of environmental engineering education (E3) for developing countries. In general, environmental engineering is being taught in almost all major universities in developing countries, mostly under civil engineering degree programmes. There is an urgent need to address specific inputs that are particularly important for developing countries with respect to the reality of urbanisation and industrialisation. The main component of E3 in the near future will remain on basic sanitation in most developing countries, with special emphasis on the consumer-demand approach. In order to substantially overcome environmental problems in developing countries, E3 should include integrated urban water management, sustainable sanitation, appropriate technology, cleaner production, wastewater minimisation and financial framework.     

Water, sanitation and hygiene in developing countries: interventions and diarrhoea--a review.

We conducted a search to identify all English language papers (published between 1 January 1985 and 26 June 2003) with evidence on the effectiveness of water, sanitation and hygiene interventions in developing countries, in which diarrhoea morbidity in non-outbreak conditions was reported. A total of 39 studies were identified as relevant after an initial review of over 2000 titles. Data were extracted and, where possible, combined using meta-analysis to provide a summary estimate of the effectiveness of specific interventions, including water supply and water treatment. Most of the interventions (including multiple interventions, hygiene and water quality) were found to significantly reduce the levels of diarrhoeal illness, with the greatest impact being seen for hygiene and household treatment interventions (after removal of studies classed as poor quality). Sanitation interventions could not be assessed as only a single study suitable for meta-analysis was identified.     

Role of hydrophilic organic matter on developing toxicity in decay process of activated sludge.

It is known that the toxicity of effluent is more intensive than that of influent in the activated sludge process. In this study, we applied bioassay using cultured human cell lines to the decay process of activated sludge to evaluate the toxicity of organic matter generated and/or released from activated sludge bacteria. We also applied this bioassay to hydrophilic fraction of samples. The bioassay results showed that: (1) the variation in the dose-response relation obtained from assay with original samples was observed during decay; (2) on the other hand, the response curves of only hydrophilic fraction at each time show the same relationship between TOC and viability of MCF7 cells; (3) this trend was confirmed by plotting the time course of EC50. These results imply that: (1) the hydrophilic organic matter controlled for developing toxicity during decay process of activated sludge; and (2) the character of hydrophilic organic matter is not changed during the experimental period.     

Contaminants in sludge: implications for management policies and land application.

Policies on sludge (or biosolids) management vary widely, particularly when decisions must be made on what to do with the final product. This paper examines the two principal rationales with which such decisions are made, and through which scientific knowledge is included in the process. These rationales are risk analysis (risk assessment and management), and the criterion of sustainability. Both are found to be potentially arbitrary due to the difficulty in defining the individual constituents necessary to relate environmental phenomena to environmental policy. To place the difficulties in a practical context, this paper presents research results from three recent projects concerned with contaminants in sludge (phosphorus, flocculant polymers, and polymer-surfactant aggregates), and uses the findings to exemplify the dilemma encountered in policy making. A path forward is proposed.     

Sustainable sludge management--what are the challenges for the future?

Sewage sludge is a serious problem due to the high treatment costs and the risks to environment and human health. Future sludge treatment will be progressively focused on an improved efficiency and environmental sustainability of the process. In this context a survey is given of the most relevant sludge treatment options and separate treatment steps. Special attention is paid to those processes that are simultaneously focused on the elimination of the risks for environment and human health and on the recovery or beneficial use of the valuable compounds in the sludge such as organic carbon compounds, inorganic non-toxic substances, phosphorus and nitrogen containing compounds. Also, a brief assessment is given of the specific future technological developments regarding the various treatment steps. Furthermore, it is discussed how to assess the various pathways which can lead to the required developments. In such an assessment the technical and economic feasibility, the environmental sustainability, the societal acceptance and the implementation route are important factors. The optimal approach also strongly depends on the local and regional situation of concern and the relevant current and future boundary conditions.     

Effluent standards for developing countries: combining the technology- and water quality-based approach.

It is a challenge for developing countries to realize socio-economical development without impairing water resources in an unacceptable way. A possible means for controlling water pollution is through defining, applying and enforcing effluent standards for wastewater discharges. However, in many developing countries the definition of effluent standards is still poor. They are either too stringent because they are based on standards from developed countries, or too relaxed and therefore they do not guarantee the safe intended uses of water. In order to define an approach for setting effluent standards that suits the needs and means of developing counties, water quality management practices in the USA, the EU, the New Independent States (NIS) and the Philippines were analyzed and compared. Four criteria (protection of the environment, technical viability, economic feasibility and institutional capacity requirements) were used to assess the suitability of these practices for developing countries. It is concluded that a combined approach that is based on best available technology not entailing excessive costs and environmental quality standards is the best way to define effluent standards that restrict water pollution against affordable costs.     

Sustainable water development and management

This report, prepared on behalf of the United Nations Environment Programme, provides a state‐of‐the‐art synthesis of current knowledge on sustainable water development and management. It concludes that there is no single ‘best’ approach for sustainable water development. Enunciation of the concept of environmentally sound development is not a difficult task. While we have had reasonable success in integrating environmental considerations at the project level and some success at the sector level, we have not succeeded in designing means of integrating environmental concerns effectively at the national policy and planning levels, except in very general terms.     

Restoration of small lakes through cooperative management: A suitable strategy for poverty‐laden areas in developing countries?

Lake Rupa is a small, subtropical, shallow lake with a surface area of 100 ha situated 600 m a.s.l. in Central Himalaya, Nepal. This degraded lake was studied between 2000 and 2006, with the goal of determining whether or not it could be restored by a community‐based cooperative of local people living in its catchment. Main threats to the lake, its aquatic life and its very existence include encroachment by excessive aquatic vegetation, sedimentation, and low in‐lake concentrations of dissolved oxygen (DO). Small lakes (≤ 500 ha) are relatively prone to the process of ‘succession and climax’, although they also can be of social, environmental and ecological importance. Thus, their disappearance could spark social chaos and disorder in areas already having to cope with other rapid environmental changes. This means that credible mechanisms for revitalizing or protecting small lakes are an important goal. Accordingly, a lake cooperative of 329 households living in close vicinity to Lake Rupa was formed in 2002, by prioritizing traditional fishers, women and other deprived community members with the goals of respecting the citizenry and equity. Following the cooperative's campaigns directed at weed removal and fish stocking, encroachment of vegetation on the lake margins was halted, its aquatic weeds became under control, and its fisheries improved. In addition to the cooperative's restoration activities, several water quality parameters, including water transparency and DO and chlorophyll‐a concentrations, were monitored on a monthly basis. The measured water transparency was inconsistent, exhibiting large variations between 2000 and 2003. Relatively low, but consistent, values, however, were measured after 2004. The results imply that the removal of weeds, and sufficient nutrients and solar radiation are subsequently available to the lake's phytoplankton communities. Supporting this notion is that the chlorophyll‐a concentration spiked to 205 µg L⁻¹ in November 2006, the water transparency became consistent, and the DO concentration increased to >3.8 mg L⁻¹ during the critical months (March–May) after 2004. These water quality indicators indicated improvement in the degraded Lake Rupa, suggesting that the establishment of cooperatives such as that highlighted in this study could be a powerful and sustainable mechanism for restoring degraded lakes in similar socioeconomic settings by maintaining equity, by connecting communities with their resources, and by facilitating integrity, equity, citizenry and social justice.     

Decision-making criteria and indicators for water and sanitation projects in developing countries

Water and sanitation projects for solving the needs of small communities in developing countries are complex in nature and involve complex decision-making, which must consider technical, socioeconomic and environmental dimensions. Multicriteria analysis (MCA) is a suitable decision-aid method that scores a finite number of options on the basis of a set of evaluation criteria. The main challenge in MCA is choosing the appropriate criteria and evaluation indicators to use for assessment. The aim of this paper is to present a comprehensive and wide list of criteria and evaluation indicators as a guideline in MCA of water and basic sanitation projects in small rural communities of developing countries. First, the paper details the general criteria to be considered in all the projects, which are classified in to 4 main groups: technical (e.g., local resources use, appropriate management); social (e.g., local community participation, overcoming discrimination of conflict); economic (e.g., low cost, employment of local staff) and environmental criteria (e.g., atmospheric emissions, water pollution). Then, it describes technical criteria to be additionally considered in each specific type of project: water supply (e.g., water needs, independent access), water treatment (e.g., constant resource availability, flexibility of use for different types of water) and basic sanitation projects (e.g., maximum number of people per system, effluent quality).     

A measure for provisional-and-urgent sanitary improvement in developing countries: septic-tank performance improvement

Although many cities have planed to develop sewerages in developing countries, sewerage establishment still requires huge investment and engineering efforts. Improvement of existing sanitation facilities may contribute the betterment of urban sanitation before sewerage establishment. The purpose of this study is to propose a measure to improve urban sanitation in areas where a sewerage development plan is proposed but has not been yet established, based on a case study in Hanoi, Vietnam. We found that 90.5% of human excreta flowed into septic tanks. However, 89.6% of septic tanks have never been desludged in the past and their performance was observed to be at a low level. The study also showed that if they introduce regular desludging with a frequency of once a year, they can eliminate 72.8% of COD loads from septic tanks. It was indicated that the performance can be dramatically recovered by regular desludging, which could contribute urban sanitation improvement in Hanoi. In conclusion, the performance recovery of septic tanks by regular desludging was proposed as a provisional-and-urgent measure for urban sanitation improvement, together with the septage treatment in sewage sludge treatment facilities, which should be established earlier than other facilities of sewage treatment systems.     

Municipal sludge management and disposal in South Korea: status and a new sustainable approach.

Based on figures from 2002, 5216 ton/d of the municipal sludge is produced from 184 large municipal wastewater treatment plants in 111 cities with total treatment capacity of 19,229,745 m3/d. Even though the large amount of sludge disposal has depended greatly on ocean disposal and landfills until recently, the fraction of sludge reuse has gradually increased from 2.7% to 7%, since 1991. Due to a need of resources recovery from the sludge, high cost requirement of incineration and legislative regulation, recent new research is mainly focused on resources recovery and its reuse from the municipal sludge, such as high performance acid fermenter with pathogen reduction, crystallization (struvite and hydroxyapatite) using waste lime, cofermentation of municipal sludge with food waste, aerobic composting with P crystallization, vermistabilization, lime treatment, etc. Current research and practical activities with some efforts for the new technical development as well as environmental law and regulation are reviewed.