Wastewater - Turning Problem to Solution

Case studies

Persistent challenges

The practicalities of implementing coherent multi-sector policies remain di cult, in particular due to the coordination required. Across sectoral policies, there are often di ering contradictory objectives, making it di cult to develop a coherent system-wide strategy, resulting in important gaps in decision making systems. Better monitoring and reporting is increasingly urgent to support planning and implementation. This recommendation is increasingly urgent, including when focusing in on the issue of reuse.

Cook Islands

INCREASINGLY URGENT

The Cook Islands developed a national policy for sanitation

in 2014, including measures for management of wastewater.

A multi-sectoral and ecosystem approach were central to this policy: ‘The Government

will work in an integrated manner across all relevant Ministries and Agencies, and with communities, businesses and other stakeholders, to achieve the aims and implement the principles of this Sanitation Policy’ (Ministry of Infrastructure and Planning, Cook Islands 2014). The policy identi es the importance of appropriate wastewater management for the health of the economy, people, visitors and the environment. It does not, however, expand into reuse. Adoption of indicators under the SDGs to measure the proportion of safely treated domestic/industrial wastewater and ambient water quality are important tools for measuring progress and ensuring accountability in implementation.

Sweden

STILL RELEVANT

A key challenge is scaling the innovations appropriately to speci c socioeconomic and geographic contexts.

In Sweden, a urine-separating toilet

integrated with a urine dryer has been developed to turn human urine into a solid fertilizer, reducing the nitrogen load in the in uent to the wastewater treatment plant (Simha 2021).

The infrastructure required for wastewater treatment can be very expensive and technologically challenging, requiring large investment of public funds. Although there are successfully applied and lower-cost nature- based solutions that exist, and these could be appropriate in some circumstances.

China

STILL RELEVANT

There are examples where states with access to nance and technology have made signi cant advances in the last decade.

Municipal wastewater treatment coverage in China increased from 32% in 1999 to 96% in 2019. In 2021, China set a target by 2025 to: further increase wastewater treatment capacity an additional 20 million cubic metres per day; add an additional 80 000 kilometres of wastewater collection pipes; and require 25% of sewage to be treated to reuse standards (Global Water Intelligence 2021). Globally, however, there is still a long way to go befre there is su cient wastewater treatment capacity to meet SDG target 6.3 (Jones et al. 2022).

Source: GRID-Arendal/Studio Atlantis, 2022

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