Towards Safely Managed Sanitation in South East Asia

Presentation for International Water Resource Association

Webinar: World Toilet Day 2017Freya Mills

Senior research consultant – Institute for Sustainable Futures University of Technology Sydney

Summary:

• Why do we need to care aboutsanitation and where the poo goes?

• Sharing findings from recent work in South East Asia: Indonesia, Vietnam and Philippines

• Looking across the service chain –some key challenges and tools for improvement

• Moving forward – key ideas

More than a toilet - Why focus on wastewater?

User interface Treatment Reuse and/or disposalContainment Emptying/Transport

Safely managed sanitation required across all steps of the service chain:

But in reality, it often looks like this…

Photos F. Mills

Current status: most flows are not safely managed

Hanoi Vietnam: Faecal Waste Flow Diagram (SFD)

SFD Promotion Initiative – Hanoi Vietnam Report Eawag 2016 www.sfd.susana.org

Unsafe management of sanitation impacts:• Health• Environment• Economy

Sustainable Development Goals - 6.2 and 6.3

• Safely managed sanitation across the entire sanitation service chain is now a target under SDG 6.2

• While safe treatment of wastewater is a target under 6.3

JMP ladder for sanitation

• Safely managed is defined as: Use of improved facilities that are not shared with other households and where excreta are safely disposed of in situ or transported and treated offsite

WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme 2017 report

Achieving progress across the service chain

• Current status and challenges

• Tools and examples of progress

User interface Treatment Reuse and/or disposalContainment Emptying/Transport

Based on recent work with Institute for Sustainable Futures-University of Technology Sydney, SNV, World Bank and IFC in Indonesia, Vietnam and Philippines

0102030405060708090

100

Urban Populationwith Septic Tanks

Septage Treated WastewaterTreated

% U

rban

Po

pu

lati

on

Indonesia

Vietnam

Malaysia

China

(Source: World Bank, East Asia Pacific Urban Sanitation Review 2013)

Status of Urban Sanitation – Indonesia and Vietnam

Containment:

Indonesia Philippines VietnamAt least basic 77 79 91

- Latrines and other 14 5 0

- Septic tanks 63 72 88

- Sewer connections 2 2Limited (shared) 15 17 4Unimproved 2 2 3Open Defecation 5 3 2

Status:- Predominately on-site sanitation- Water based (pour or cistern flush)

Challenges:- Often not a standard design septic tank- Contamination of groundwater supplies- Effluent is often not considered- Limited space and land ownership issuesWay forward:- Indonesia government funded output based aid linked

with FSM improvement- Innovative septic tanks for small areas- More research needed to improve existing systemsTools:- Baseline surveys - e.g. SNV/Arkflow rapid assessment- Shit flow diagram – classification of “safely contained”

WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme 2017 report

Sanitation in Urban Areas

Emptying and Faecal Sludge Transport:Status:- Mix of manual and mechanical emptying- Private and government service providers

Challenges:- Difficult access dense areas and pits under house- Unsafe manual emptying practices- Low demand: 75% of the septic tanks in Vietnam

and 66% in Indonesia never emptied (WSP 2015)Way forward:- Scheduled desludging – efficient service delivery- Formalise and improve private sector services - Innovation in emptying, e.g. mobile transfer stationTools (many):- Septage management costing toolkit (USAID)- Scheduled desludging lessons (World Bank, SNV)- Safe emptying practice (SNV)

Conveyance: SewerageStatus:- Low coverage of population but receives priority focus- Low utilisation of existing sewerage

Challenges:- Open sewers are not considered safe in SDG- Dense urban areas – difficult to construct but maybe

only option if no space for building septic tanks- Treatment often prioritised over connections – focus

on downstream environmental protection over reducing exposure in immediate living area

Way forward:- Output based aid to increase connections to existing network –

DFAT Indonesia- Community scale decentralised sewerage in Indonesia - Solids free sewerage – smaller pipes, less deep- Tunnelling pipes in built up areas – Bali

Treatment and ReuseStatus:- Small percentage of wastewater and sludge treated- Reuse can be via direct use of collected excreta or indirect through

use of contaminated drains/waterways.

Challenges:

- Many treatment plants were built in Indonesia in the 1990’s but without effective FS emptying services many stop functioning

- Utilisation low – or systems over-designed for realistic demand

- Treatment targets difficult to achieve with low cost technology and often focused on environmental not health objectives

- Treatment technology mismatched with operation capacityWay forward:- Modular designs better match capacity to demandTools:- Multiple barrier approach WHO Sanitation Safety Planning

Oversized treatment can lead to function issues

Safe operation needs to be considered in design

Moving forward - some key considerations

Complex decisions require information, tools and support - focus on solutions rather than technologies.

There is no “one size fits all” - develop evidence based policy and programs and build upon what is already in place to meet the sanitation needs of that city

Reduce inequalities – “leaving no one behind” must ensure consideration of informal settlements and renters, disadvantaged groups (considering gender, age, disability).

Smart enforcement – need to encourage increased sector participation while also regulating to ensure quality and safe services.

Consider broader citywide urban sanitation context, ensuring all types of sanitation are included in governance and planning and the roles and responsibilities of various actors clarified.

Conclusion

• Progress is needed in both on-site and off-site sanitation. Sewers and wastewater treatment are not the only way forward

• Sanitation is not just about toilets: must consider the whole sanitation service chain

• Solutions should consider local conditions, realistic demand and operation – modular or step-wise improvements based on local data

• Competing priorities require trade-offs and short and long term objectives

• Continue to share lessons: successes,failures and innovations

References

Recent project outputs referred to in this presentation:• Various references from ISF-UTS on community scale sanitation, supporting enterprises in WASH,

sanitation planning and finance available at: https://www.uts.edu.au/research-and-teaching/our-research/institute-sustainable-futures/our-research/international/water

• World Bank report on septage management in Indonesia 2016 http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/276581468253746008/Indonesia-Septage-management-pilots-and-capacity-building-in-Indonesia-technical-assistance-synthesis-report

• World Bank report on increasing connections to sewers and improving on-site sanitation in Indonesia and Vietnam 2014: http://www.wsp.org/sites/wsp.org/files/publications/WSP-Improving-On-site-Sanitation-Connections-to-Sewers-Southeast-Asia.pdf

Resources by other organisations:• FSM tools - http://www.snv.org/project/FSM, https://www.sswm.info and

http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/sanitation/brief/fecal-sludge-management-tools• JMP - http://www.unwater.org/new-publication-whounicef-joint-monitoring-programme-2017-report/• WHO http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/publications/ssp-manual/en/