Domestic wastewater management in South and Southeast Asia: the potential benefits of a decentralised approach

Abstract

Owing to its enormous construction and maintenance costs, the management of wastewater in many urban centres of developing countries via a centralised wastewater management approach is very difficult. Often, untreated wastewater is directly discharged into adjacent natural water courses, causing a grave threat to both public health and the aquatic environment. A decentralised wastewater management approach is a prospective solution to overcome this adverse situation because of its low cost, simple operation and revenue return. To identify the potential of a decentralised wastewater management system in developing countries, the wastewater management policies, institutional frameworks, reuse practices and sanitation situations in selected Asian countries were reviewed and recommendations for effective wastewater management are proposed.

Keywords:

• centralised and decentralised wastewater management
• reusing wastewater
• sanitation conditions
• South Asia and Southeast Asia

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank the Department of International Development, UK for its financial support to accomplish the review for the project titled ‘Capacity Building for Effective Decentralised Wastewater Management’ through GHK International.