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Tabernilla, Jhomar P. CE143/A1

CE-3/2010150253

Sewerage/Septic/Drainage Systems in the Philippines

Most Philippine cities have drainage systems of some kind. There are no

separate storm water and waste water (sewerage) systems. Wastewater from

septic systems freely mixes with the stormwater. In practice this is not as bad as it

sounds as the volume of storm water is large and may well flush out the

drainage system and its contents into the streams and rivers. The installation and

maintenance of drainage systems (along with roads and water systems), is a

one of the major responsibility of local government.

The systems are not necessarily centralized. The idea is to get wastewater to a

nearby ditch, stream or river. Most residences will have a septic tank or cesspool

to treat toilet waste. This can provide some very basic level of treatment of

human waste. The output of septic system (septage) is piped to the subdivision

or barangay drainage system. For a description of how we built our Philippine

septic system.

Greywater (wastewater from sinks, showers and washing) is generally

discharged untreated into the drainage system. Sometimes the drainage

system is more or less underground and sometimes it is open concrete ditches.

This can be smelly but cheaper and easier to keep clear than covered drainagesystems. In many places the drainage system is under the sidewalks, the

sidewalks consisting of concrete slabs covering the drainage channel.

Sometimes these are broken, so walk carefully or plunge a few feet into the

malodorous mess. There is no further treatment of the waste before it plunges

into the nearest stream.

Missing slabs show a typical sidewalk over sewer Philippine municipal sewer

system in Tigbauan, Iloilo. In squatter areas the the above scenario breaks down

and there can be more obvious, surface pollution. Iloilo has some big rivers with

strong tidal flows so all that goes into the rivers seems to get promptly flushedaway. My impression is that the situation is better here than in Cebu City where

the streams used for drainage were really disgusting.

When you look at property, ask about and confirm the easy availability of a

good drainage system. We have looked at property in Iloilo City which seemed

so nice but actually had no access to a drainage system. Further, access to the

nearest drainage would involve going through other properties. This may or may

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not be easy. Do NOT expect anyone to inform you of such problems when you

look at property.

Sewerage/Septic/Drainage Systems in Phnom Penh

Since 1998, Phnom Penhs population has doubled to more than 2 million. High -

rise buildings have popped up in the citys center and housing developments

have been hastily erected.

Yet the citys antiquated, decades-old drainage system has undergone little

improvement in that time and experts say the rapid urban growth currently

underway could outpace the drainage systems ability to channel rain and the

increasing amount of water out of Phnom Penh.

Although the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has been working

with City Hall since 1999 to improve the drainage system, there is still no plan to

install a wastewater treatment plant in order to prevent the vast amounts of raw

sewage being pumped into the citys lakes and waterways.

Adding further complications, City Hall has no complete underground plans of

the drainage network and possesses limited means to ensure that piping is

properly maintained. Authorities have no data on how much sewage the city

currently produces.

JICA is currently constructing 20 km of additional piping in central Phnom Penh.Once a toilet is flushed, the wastewater travels down the pipes, through open

canals or the underground drainage system and eventually arrives in Boeng

Trabek, where morning glory and lotus plants partially purify the sewage through

natural process.

Plants in the reservoir absorb the discarded waters bacterial nutrients and break

down the waste before it is funneled, black and fetid, through the Boeng Trabek

pumping station. The Contents are then emptied into Boeng Tampoun and

finally ejected into the Tonle Bassac and Tonle Sap rivers.

Phnom Penh City has been developing very fast and many commercial and

industrial activities have been located in the downtown and peri-urban areas

and the wastewater from these activates is generally high contamination, said

Seng Solsdy, a program officer from JICA, in an email. With this situation, the

construction of a waste-water treatment plant is very important for treating the

wastewater from the city before discharging it to the river and to avoid impacts

on the environment and peoples health.

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Last year, alone the total value of approved construction projects nationwide

increased by 72 percent to 2.11 billion, compared to 1.23 billion in 2011.

Noun Rithy, CEO of Bonna Realty Group, agreed that many private

developments often leave the issue of drainage as an afterthought. This is

coupled with the fact that municipal authorities do very few of their own checkson the drainage provisions of new projects.

Sewerage/Septic/Drainage Systems in Fiji

Sewerage is a significant contributor to the release of greenhouse gasses into

the atmosphere; gasses that contribute directly to global climate change that

threatens the very future of Pacific Island nations. It also makes the immediate

area around the sewerage treatment plants an unpleasant place to live or work

in and creates a vast amount of sludge that finds its way into landfills (if we are

lucky) or is dumped without any real concern for the environmental and health

issues. The cost of the treatment is significant. Sewerage treatment uses a great

deal of electricity and again, in Pacific Island States, this leads to increased

imports of diesel fuels and an added strain on the countrys economy. Now a

new technology for sewerage treatment is being introduced to Fiji by a Fiji-

owned company, for Earth South Pacific. Based in Nadi, the company has taken

Australian developed technology and experience, which is already proven in

Australia, China, Thailand, and is about to be introduced into the India, Dubai

and USA markets, and made it available throughout the South Pacific.

This technology has not been developed anywhere else in the world and is atotally unique concept. The basis of the treatment is the use of a selection of

specific beneficial bacteria that are naturally found in wastewater, but are

generally not sufficiently strong to provide optimum reactions and therefore

need to be supplemented to increase efficiency. Existing treatments do not

break down all the contaminants and they leave behind a large residue of

sludge, which ultimately has to be removed and disposed of at a significant

cost. All sewerage plants are biological plants but the beneficial bacteria are

seldom available in the required volume. This new technology introduces

additional beneficial bacteria to the process. They are selected because of

their ability to maintain durability in harsh and toxic conditions and for theirappetite for waste nutrients commonly found in human, animal and green

waste. The beneficial bacteria are first generation cultured from laboratory

conditions. They are held dormant in liquid form and can be stored for up to

three years.

By adding the liquid to the waste treatment process the Biological Nutrient

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removal is dramatically accelerated, converting the greenhouse gases in the

waste to non-toxic and harmless gasses and breaking down the components of

the sludge, leaving absolutely zero biological sludge as residue. There is also no

odour, with Hydrogen-sulphide, the most common unpleasant smelling gas

(commonly known as rotten egg gas) being converted to other types of gas.

After treatment the water can be recycled for watering gardens and golfcourses. The beneficial bacteria also assist in the control of algae when it is

released into storage ponds. The new treatment method is based on a

combination of three new technologies, which goes under the name PLEA

System, standing for Probiotic Low Energy Aeration System. It is extensively

proven and is AQIS approved by the Australian Quarantine InspectionService.

Aqis is recognised as one of the strictest codes in the world.

The treatment system can be introduced to existing plants with no structural

changes required. Parts of the old system are decommissioned and some minor

new installations are put in place. As well as the benefits of odour and sludge

reduction there is a dramatic reduction in power consumption, in the order of asixty percent saving. The process can also be used to treat landfill sites, removing

all global warming gasses and odours and treating the leachate (the water that

drains out of garbage at all landfill sites) so that it can be recycled. It is also

effective in soil reconditioning where there has been pollution from

hydrocarbons (such as oil on service station sites) and in the breakdown of

manufacturing waste before release into the sewerage system.

Austrade have been instrumental in the introduction of the technology into Fiji,

arranging workshops and introductions for the new company to a wide range of

industries such as manufacturing, hotel and resort operators, water treatment

facilities and waste disposal site operators.

Sewerage/Septic/Drainage Systems in Gujarat, India

Almost half of the urban Indian population still depends upon groundwater

sources for drinking, cooking and bathing which puts them at direct risk from the

polluted water, Sunita Narain, director general of CSE, said.

Other experts at the meeting shared details of how serious the water-sewage

situation was getting as India urbanizes. They warned that the country faced a

more complicated challenge as the process of urbanization would still leave

millions in the villages who would depend upon the river and groundwatersystems.

Tushar Shah of International Water Management Institute said India was by far

the highest user of groundwater with more than 20 million irrigation wells across

the country and almost 80% people still depending on self-supply of water for

personal consumption.

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The lack of focus on water-sewage systems has led to a position where not a

single city in the country has a sewage system that covers the entire population.

Only four cities - Pune, Chennai, Surat and Gurgaon - claim to connect at least

70% of the population through a network of closed drains. In most cities, the

sewage simply mixes into the open drains and storm water drains, polluting

water sources.

Almost 40% of the total sewage treatment capacity of the country exists in just

two cities - Delhi and Mumbai. Class I and II towns - which are expected to grow

and absorb most of the migration in the coming years are faring the worst.

Untreated sewage flowing into water bodies has almost doubled from around

12,000 million litres per day to 24,000 million litres per day in Class I and II towns.

There are 302 Class I cities and 467 Class II towns with no sewage treatment

facilities. Of the 21% of sewage passing though treatment plants in B towns, only

60% really meets the required standards. Overall, this means that just about 12%of sewage generated in Class I cities and Class II towns meet the standards, said

Deepak Kantawala, an independent consultant told the conference.