Municipal Wastewater Management in Developing Countries

This book discusses various approaches to municipal wastewater management to protect both public health and the environment, with the major focus being on waterborne diseases. Developing countries can be divided into countries in transition with higher growth rates, with rapid industrialisation and urbanisation, and countries with slower growth. It is important that approaches should be tailor-made and site-specific.

In general, the major trends of water pollution control have significantly contributed to the development of “conventional sanitation” approaches in terms of legal, financial and technological frameworks. Despite advances, 95% of the global wastewater is released into the environment without treatment. Only 5% is properly treated using “standard” sanitation facilities, mainly in developed countries. The majority of the world’s population is still exposed to waterborne diseases, and the quality of water resources has rapidly degraded, particularly in poor developing countries.

The challenge is to provide adequate water and sanitation, especially for the poor. Despite billions of dollars of investment every year, billions of poor people still suffer and die due to poor sanitation. At the beginning of this century, about 1.1 billion people lived without access to clean water (compared to about the same number in 1990), 2.4 billion without appropriate sanitation (compared to 2.3 billion in 1990) and 4 billion without sound wastewater disposal.

Water resources will be further depleted by growing population and poor pollution control, particularly in developing countries. Considering segments of society, particularly types of housing areas, will indicate the level of socio-economic, mentality and knowledge, important for any planned changes in lifestyle and social engineering. It is also important to segregate the funding framework of proposed projects: high-income urban communities are generally willing to pay for services, so a designated system can be provided.

The “conventional sanitation” approach has been criticised and many concepts have been proposed on “sustainable sanitation”. Sustainable sanitation is flexible in approach any community, poor or rich, urban or rural, water-rich or water-poor and requires lower investment costs compared to conventional sanitation approaches. The framework of sustainable sanitation is much easier to adopt in developing countries, where infrastructures are still in developing stages.

This comprehensive reference, prepared by leading international authorities, will provide an invaluable reference for all those concerned with the management of sanitation services in developing countries worldwide.