Sanitation and Wastewater Management: Saving Public Health and Sustaining Environment

Abstract

Small piped water networks are viable, innovative, inexpensive, and empowering interim solutions for bringing water to Asia's urban slums. These networks can be quickly set up and some are able to provide 24x7 service, which users have proven they are willing to pay. The key to improving these small networks is in the ability of their entrepreneurial providers and utilities to work closely together from the beginning to ensure higher quality of water and smooth transition when the utility is able to provide service in the area.Sanitation refers to hygienic practices of disposing human waste in ways that do not harm the environment and general public health. Good sanitation greatly depends on household responsibilities to choose, use, and maintain the technology, such as a toilet and a septic tank. Most cities should also have a utility taking responsibility for a wastewater management system that collects and treats wastewater coming from septic tanks and sewer lines before being released back into the natural environment. In rural areas, community-managed systems are also required to protect people's health and environment. Fully-functioning wastewater treatment and management schemes are rare in Asia, though. Many systems have fallen into disrepair and disuse, which means untreated wastewater is being discharged directly into important water resources. If not in disrepair, systems are nonexistent, such as in overcrowded slums and remote, rural areas. The key to improved sanitation is a steady supply of clean water, appropriate technology, behavior change, and environment-friendly wastewater management strategies. For many countries in the developing world, setting up an efficient sanitation system, complete with running water, is nowhere in sight. This reality makes communities highly vulnerable to epidemics, which can be more costly to manage than what would have been needed to prevent one through simple sanitation and wastewater measures.