Because of the burgeoning urban population, there is huge pressure on both natural resources and basic urban infrastructure, especially sewerage systems, with Indonesia as no exception. It is estimated that about 95% of human waste in Indonesia ends up untreated or partially treated in septic tanks before being discharged in the natural environment, contaminating the living environment as well as adversely affecting human health and economic development. This study conducted a comprehensive investigation on septage management in Bandung City, Indonesia, to gain a better understanding of the challenges and opportunities for improved performance of on-site sanitation systems as well as septage management across its sanitation service chain. The results showed that the following issues are the main reasons behind poor sanitation in Bandung city: a) poor design and construction of septic tanks with no or only partial lining, resulting in leaking (>90% of septic tanks are malfunctioning); b) irregular desludging, i.e. about 2/3 of population desludge their septic tanks only once in more than 5 years; c) lack of proper guidelines and awareness about the benefits of regular monitoring and operation of septic tanks; d) lack of good sanitation service providers; and e) lack of funds for building sufficient capacity of septage treatment plants.
Microplastics (MPs) are an emerging pollutant in the aquatic environment, and this has gradually been recognized in the Asian region. This systematic review study, using the Scopus database, provides an insightful understanding of the spatial distribution of scientific studies on MPs in freshwater conducted across the Asian region, utilized sampling methods, and a detailed assessment of the effects of MPs on different biotic components in freshwater ecosystems, with special focus on its potential risks on human health. The results of this review indicate that research on microplastics in Asia has gained attention since 2014, with a significant increase in the number of studies in 2018, and the number of scientific studies quadrupled in 2021 compared to 2018. Results indicated that despite a significant amount of research has been conducted in many Asian countries, they were not distributed evenly, as multiple studies selected specific rivers and lakes. Additionally, around two-thirds of all the papers focused their studies in China, followed by India and South Korea. It was also found that most of the studies focused primarily on reporting the occurrence levels of MPs in freshwater systems, such as water and sediments, and aquatic organisms, with a lack of studies investigating the human intake of MPs and their potential risks to human health. Notably, comparing the results is a challenge because diverse sampling, separation, and identification methods were applied to estimate MPs. This review study suggests that further research on the dynamics and transport of microplastics in biota and humans is needed, as Asia is a major consumer of seafood products and contributes significantly to the generation of plastic litter in the marine environment. Moreover, this review study revealed that only a few studies extended their discussions to policies and governance aspects of MPs. This implies the need for further research on policy and governance frameworks to address this emerging water pollutant more holistically.
Decision making in sanitation planning is often complex, with inherent trade‐offs among sociopolitical, environmental, technical and economic factors. The selection of appropriate and sustainable sanitation systems for municipal wastewater treatment involves multiple criteria with conflicting stakeholder preferences. To fulfil conflicting yet complementary objectives, one of the best known and most widely used multi‐criteria analysis (MCA) approaches called the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) has been employed as a decision support tool to aid decision makers in sanitation planning process in developing countries. AHP, in combination with life cycle assessment (LCA) and a proposed set of multidimensional criteria, has worked as an effective decision support tool for the sustainability assessment and selection of appropriate wastewater treatment system with a capacity of 1200 m3/day, in a case study in Toan Thang, a small town in Vietnam. Results from this case study have indicated that the public's understanding of trade‐offs is critical in gaining public support for long‐term sustainability of the solution. The findings from this study have also shown AHP as an effective and flexible communication tool for group decision making in sanitation planning.
Daily total water consumption per capita has been used as a basic unit for the future planning of water supply for domestic use. However, for innovative water utilization designs that consider various scenarios, including the effects of policy direction and global warming, and more strategic and efficient water use, it is absolutely essential to consider water usage divided by residential activities, such as toilet flushing, cooking, clothes washing, and bathing. We collected micro-component data by direct measurement from each household outlet, and developed small accumulative meters. Measurements were conducted at 56 households for 2 months in Hanoi, Vietnam, and the average consumption was 18.6 L/p/d for toilet, 16.2 L/p/d for laundry, 10.4 L/p/d for bath, and 15.7 L/p/d for kitchen. We then analyzed the representative values and the distribution of water consumption for every usage from social and economic perspectives. In addition, we compared the results in Hanoi with those in Chiang Mai, Thailand, where we investigated water consumption a few years ago, and their value seemed similar except for bathroom use, but the substance was different. One distinct outcome of our investigation was the recognition of the cultural and methodological challenges to end-use assessment of water consumption in modernizing Asian communities.
This paper analyses roles of integrated approach to establish a regional mechanism for sustainable hydropower development in the Mekong River Basin. Based on a critical review of the current trend of hydropower development, it argued that existing approach of uncoordinated Mekong mainstream hydropower development cannot ensure sustainable development; rather it causes negative impacts on food security, livelihoods, biodiversity, and ecosystem across the river basin, especially countries in Lower Mekong Basin (LMB), including Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam. As a result, it fails to bring positive net benefits at both national and regional level. Specifically, if all proposed mainstream dams are constructed and fully operated, Lao PDR is the only economically winner of billions USD after 20 years, while Thailand, Cambodia, and Viet Nam are losers, and total net value will be minus 275 billion USD. Early recognition of the "nexus" interactions amongst hydropower development and cross-border food security, water security and livelihoods can minimise the risk of diplomatic conflicts and social unrest, and is only enabled when member states are willing to divert high-level government priorities from national interests to transboundary interests, as implementing the nexus approach throughout the river basin could contribute to reducing trade-offs between hydropower development and basin-wide socio-economy, and increase synergies through implementation of benefit-sharing mechanisms towards a win-win outcome. It recommends strengthening the Mekong River Commission via bolstered resources and coordinating authority, and encourages China to participate as a full member. It also argues that transboundary Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) of river projects should be conducted to reflect the synergic and trade-off nexus effect across the whole river basin.
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