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Water Champion: Maria Sevilla
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Hon. Maria Sevilla is the Mayor of Liloan, a small municipality in the province of Cebu, Philippines. A medical doctor by profession, she is now on her 2nd three-year term as the town's chief executive, having started in July 2001.
Although Liloan is essentially an agricultural municipality, tourism contributes significantly to the town's economy. When water pollution due to poor sanitation threatened said industry, Mayor Sevilla and her municipal council sought the assistance of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to help the town eradicate the problem. Through a pilot and demonstration activity (PDA), a small grant from ADB's Cooperation Fund for the Water Sector, the municipality established a decentralized wastewater treatment facility that uses local technology. The success of the project has drawn representatives from neighboring towns to learn about the project. |
Much as I hate to admit it, we're alike most Philippine local government units (LGUs) in that our sanitation services have a lot of gaps. We try to conform to the basics, such as water sealed septic tanks for residential dwellings or regular residual garbage collection. We're also very vigilant when it comes to apprehending people who throw garbage in canals and waterways.
Despite our best efforts, though, we constantly face challenges related to sanitation. For instance, overflowing septic tanks not only leave our town looking unsanitary; they also create foul odors and contaminate our water, risking our people's health. This situation worsened in 2004 when waste from our public market's septic tank that is being directly discharged into Liloan's coastal waters-resulting in unattractive and highly contaminated waters-caused a sharp decline in our tourism industry and an escalation of water-borne diseases among tourists and locals alike.
We constructed a decentralized wastewater treatment facility (WTF) that uses a locally-made technology called the "Rotating Biological Contactor." This facility, I am proud to say, is the first of its kind in Northern Cebu. It treats 60-100 cubic meters of wastewater a day, and has such a radical impact on our health, sanitation, and tourism situation.
The concept of decentralized wastewater treatment was first introduced to me and the Liloan Municipal Council by representatives from the regional environmental authority, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). They said international funding agencies support the dissemination of decentralized wastewater treatment technologies as a cost-effective solution to addressing sanitation problems.
ADB gave us the funding to construct the WTF, and DENR gave us the technical assistance to see the project through. But ADB and our municipal government had different procedures for fund disbursements so among the first things we ironed out were the administrative arrangements.
The facility is located in the middle of our town center, and I can tell you that setting up an adequate power supply for such a technical facility in such location was no mean feat.
Another major barrier we broke was the town's negative attitude towards pollution control. Because of the people's "I don't care attitude," pollution control was always relegated to the bottom of the priority list. In implementing this project, we made sure that communities are involved every step of the way, and that they understood what their gains would be. Towards the end, we saw a dramatic shift in attitude-people now have the "I care and I pay" attitude.
We founded a cooperative composed of Liloan market vendors, trained them in the operation and maintenance (O & M) of the WTF, and eventually turned over the management of the facility to them. We also gave them the opportunity to operate the communal toilets at our public market. To date, user charges for the WTF and the public toilets generate more than enough to cover the O & M costs of the WTF, and a considerable amount is saved by the cooperative. (See the article on Liloan's Smarter Sanitation for details.)
We've also identified other cost recovery schemes, such as recycling or selling treated wastewater for use in flushing toilets or for gardening. How all these cost recovery strategies will hold up in the future remains to be seen, of course. But so far, the community is enthusiastic about the WTF project and the initial financial results are promising.
Budget is important, of course, as in any major undertaking. But beyond that, conducting dialogues and building consensus among local officials, residents, and other stakeholders are necessary ingredients since they will be heavily involved in the project. Developing reliable feasibility studies is also a must, as well as finding the right technical experts who can serve as content specialists and facilitators throughout the entire process.
Definitely. For starters, we'd like to duplicate the decentralized WTF in other clustered communities within Liloan. We're now looking at internal and external funding possibilities for this. Too, we're trying to source funds so we can construct and operate a training center near the WTF site. It's amazing how many students and community representatives from neighboring towns visit Liloan to learn how the WTF works. Just a few months after its operation, our coastal waters have become clearer and contamination has completely receded. I think that's a strong come-on for other LGUs, and if we can help by sharing our knowledge, then we will.
First is the value of awareness and understanding. On the political side, it's important to convince the local council of the validity of this strategy. The people, too, should understand how sanitation improves their health, livelihood, and overall quality of life. This way, you can rely on their cooperation during the different stages of project implementation.
Secondly, while one decentralized WTF works wonders, it is important to conduct clean-up drives as well as prompt industries, subdivisions, and commercial establishments to have their own sanitation facilities if they are located too far away from the decentralized WTF.
Finally, we only keep the ends if we sustain the means. That's why we need to keep the decentralized WTF in full operation and working order. Needless to say, cost recovery is a must.
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