Option of last resort or pragmatic solution? Social perspectives on onsite wastewater treatment systems in northern Argentina

ABSTRACT

The unplanned and rapid expansion of metropolitan areas reduces accessibility to existing and often outdated centralized water and wastewater systems. In this context, sanitation policies that focus exclusively on centralized systems become expensive and unfeasible. Using Q methodology, we identified three different social perspectives on onsite wastewater treatment systems (OWTS) in the metropolitan area of the Lerma Valley in northern Argentina. We focused our analysis on the legal, environmental, and technical aspects of onsite sanitation. The perspectives found were: ‘OWTS have advantages’, ‘Hard path for sewerage’, and ‘Process before technology’. We describe the perspectives identified and we provide an analysis of their differences and similarities to discuss their possible policy implications for our study area and comparable regions in the country and beyond.

KEYWORDS:

• Argentina
• decentralized sanitation
• onsite sewage treatment
• Q method

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in 4TU.ResearchData at http://doi.org/10.4121/2de1f1c4-ef3e-45bf-845d-6748b82dc74d.

Author contribution

Sorani, J.: Project administration; Conceptualization; Formal analysis; Methodology; Writing – original draft

Seghezzo, L.: Supervision; Formal analysis; Methodology; Writing – review & editing

Brannstrom, C.: Supervision; Writing – review & editing.

Rodriguez-Alvarez, M.S.: Supervision; Writing – original draft.

Albesa, F.: Design and construction of the Q Platform.

Iribarnegaray, M.A.: Supervision; Formal analysis; Design of the Q Platform; Methodology; Visualization; Writing – original draft; Writing – review & editing.

Notes

1. Available at: https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal6. Last accessed 28 July 2023.

2. From: Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas y Censos (National Institute of Statistics and Census of Argentina). Available at: https://www.indec.gob.ar/. Last accessed 28 July 2023.

3. See: http://plataformaq.unsa.edu.ar. Last accessed 5 August 2023.

4. Available at: http://schmolck.org/qmethod/. Last accessed 5 August 2023.