Water Briefs
Sanitation and Wastewater Management
Saving Public Health and Sustaining Environment
THE BASICS
Sanitation refers to hygienic practices of disposing human waste in ways that do not harm the environment and general public health. Good sanitation greatly depends on household responsibilities to choose, use, and maintain the technology, such as a toilet and a septic tank.
Most cities should also have a utility taking responsibility for a wastewater management system that collects and treats wastewater coming from septic tanks and sewer lines before being released back into the natural environment. In rural areas, community-managed systems are also required to protect people's health and environment.
Fully-functioning wastewater treatment and management schemes are rare in Asia, though. Many systems have fallen into disrepair and disuse, which means untreated wastewater is being discharged directly into important water resources. If not in disrepair, systems are nonexistent, such as in overcrowded slums and remote, rural areas.
The key to improved sanitation is a steady supply of clean water, appropriate technology, behavior change, and environment-friendly wastewater management strategies.
For many countries in the developing world, setting up an efficient sanitation system, complete with running water, is nowhere in sight. This reality makes communities highly vulnerable to epidemics, which can be more costly to manage than what would have been needed to prevent one through simple sanitation and wastewater measures.
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SANITATION AND THE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS (MDGs)
A report by Asian Development Bank (ADB) and key United Nations (UN) agencies, Asia Water Watch 2015, has both good and grim news of the progress of Asia and the Pacific. By 2015, countries have agreed to halve the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and sanitation—MDG Target 10.
As of 2002, Asia Water Watch finds that many countries in the region will meet their sanitation targets—and at impressively rapid rates. Many of these same countries, however, started the MDG race in 1990 with remarkably low coverage rates. As a result, meeting their minimal MDG targets in 2015 will still leave hundreds of millions of Asians and Pacific Islanders without decent sanitation.
Consider the realities: Of the 3.8 billion people in the Asia and Pacific region, 2 billion of them still do not have access to decent toilets—that is equivalent to 1 in 2 Asians without improved sanitation. Of that
2 billion figure without, 725 million of them are in the People's Republic of China alone. The country, however, is expanding its access to improved sanitation facilities at an impressive rate that would help achieve the UN MDGs.
In measuring progress, there is a great disparity between urban and rural areas. Although sanitation coverage levels tend to be remarkably lower in rural communities, cities tend to gain more development attention because of the greater health risks posed by high population density and concentrated pollution levels. Rural areas, however, must not be left behind.
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THE ECONOMIC GAINS
Sanitation is not only about providing toilets for everybody. Sanitation is also about maintaining the hygienic conditions brought about by having improved sanitation systems. A safe and clean environment, in turn, would
- increase workers' productivity and income because of reduced time spent on recuperating from waterborne illnesses;
- reduce expectant mothers' susceptibility to diseases, and generally improve women's health; and
- increase children's potentials to reach higher levels of education hindered by the high incidence of diseases and infant and child mortality.
The Water Watch report says that for every country to achieve the MDG milestone in 2015, a minimum annual investment of $8 billion is needed.
ADB's new Water Financing Program aims to more than double its investments in the water sector over the next 5 years. By 2010, the program aims to provide 200 million people in the region with sustainable access to safe drinking water and improved sanitation.
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IT TAKES MORE THAN TOILETS
Whether in urban or rural areas, sanitation improvements in households and public institutions, especially in schools, will not last without activities that would maintain and sustain them. These activities include
- promoting safe hygiene practices;
- educating children to become agents of behavioral change;
- promoting affordable, and socially- and culturally-acceptable sanitation technologies and practices; and
- developing innovative financing and partnership mechanisms.
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MAKING HASTE TO CONTROL WASTE
ADB's water website, www.adb.org/water, is full of stories about Asia's developing countries initiating sanitation improvements, such as in
- Azerbaijan, where new sewerage systems have been constructed;
- Bangladesh, where successful hygiene-awareness campaigns were conducted in the Chittagong Hill Tracts;
- India, where low-cost toilets and taps have been constructed for the rural poor and pay-and-use toilets in densely populated urban areas and markets;
- Nepal, where gender-sensitive approaches to hygiene and sanitation have been piloted for replication elsewhere; and
- The Philippines, where community-managed water supply and sanitation systems are sparing the environment.
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