ASIA WASTEWATER MANAGEMENT PARTNERSHIP:ESTABLISHING A COMMON PLATFORM FOR COLLABORATIVEACTION TO ADDRESS ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION IN THE
ASIAN/SUB-ASIAN REGION
Vicente B. Tuddao, Jr. Ph.D.
Assistant Regional Director for Technical Services
Department of Environment and Natural Resources
MIMAROPA, Philippines
Engr. Erlinda Gonzales
Technical Officer
Manila Bay Environmental Management OfficeEnvironmental Management Bureau
Philippines

Rationale• The fast development and population growth of economies ofAsian countries, particularly the ASEAN countries will directly
impact to its environment should management of wastes
from domestic, agricultural, commercial and industrial
sources are not properly undertaken. One of the major effectof improper wastewater management is its adverse impact onwater supply thereby affecting water security.
• A milestone agreement made on September 2015, when
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted during
the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit. The
Target 6.3 of SDGs stipulates that “by 2030, halving theproportion of untreated wastewater” should be accomplished

RationaleParadigm Shift: A More Focused and Participatory
Approach through Wastewater Partnership• More engaging involvement• Output Oriented• Effective institutional and Support System

Proposed Title of the New Partnership:
Asia Partnership and Convergence Initiatives forWastewater Management (APC-WM)

The convergence initiatives referred hereto shall be tohighlight a more engaging and output- oriented
action of the participating countries to formulate andact through collaborative action to solve common
wastewater management issues.

Goal and Objectives of the ProposedPartnership:
The goal of Partnership is to help reduce waterpollution through efficient management of wastewaterby each country in the region, and create a functional
wastewater management network in Asian countries
with varying capacities, through better understandingof gaps, issues and concerns facing wastewater
management, and finding common solutions andthrough a more engaging action and collaborative
partnership based on established common framework
for action, in order to help achieve Target 6.3 of SDGs
which stipulates that “by 2030, halving the proportionof untreated wastewater” should be accomplished.

Objectives of the Partnership are:
• To formulate common platform or framework for action which will be thebasis in finding functional solutions to wastewater management issues
and concerns;• To seek agreement among the participating Asian countries on thecommon areas of concerns, limits and boundaries of collaborative
partnership given their varying capacities;• To share best practices developed by each of the participating countries in
the Partnership initiative;• To provide and share information through the development of a morefunctional information platform ranging from current wastewater
management operations, initiatives, and approaches of each participating
country, available technologies employed in effective and efficientwastewater treatment, existing current institutional and governancesupport programs and approaches, policy support and policy gaps, andinvestment requirement needed from both public and private sectors;

Objectives:
••

•

•

To agree on the development and operation of a functional decision
support system for planning and decision process for the efficient andeffective management of wastewater among the participating countries
within Asia/ASEAN region;
To capacitate participating countries on the operation and use of current
and cost effective technologies and protocols for efficient management ofwastewater;
To generate wastewater generation and disposal, prevention, control andother related wastewater management data in each participating country
as basis to gauge improvement made under the Partnership; andTo assess the impact of the initiatives under the partnership on thereduction of wastewater generation and pollution of water resources, andimprovement of water availability for sustained water supply for domestic,agricultural and industrial use, in relation to the support of achieving theTarget 6.3 of the SDG.

Proposed Vision and Mission Statement
VisionAn Asian Region with ensured sustainable clean water supply, available
and accessible by all, for domestic, agricultural and industrial use;
available clean water in the environment for the sustenance of
biodiversity, wildlife resources, and its habitat which will be achieved
through efficient and effective wastewater treatment, and control ofwastewater generation through the use of proper and cost-effective
technologies, and strict government regulation and law enforcement .

Proposed Vision and Mission Statement
MissionInstitute effective governance, technical andoperational strategies and interventions for the proper
management of wastewater which will be supportedwith the development and strict enforcement ofpolicies, rules and regulations; application of better
monitoring and sustainable financial mechanism,
operationalize a functional decision support system,
and create a platform for sharing information and bestpractices for ready adoption and application.

Proposed Vision and Mission Statement
MissionInstitute effective governance, technical andoperational strategies and interventions for the proper
management of wastewater which will be supportedwith the development and strict enforcement ofpolicies, rules and regulations; application of better
monitoring and sustainable financial mechanism,
operationalize a functional decision support system,
and create a platform for sharing information and bestpractices for ready adoption and application.

Proposed Framework Plan for Wastewater Management Towards Attaining
Environmental Quality in the Asian Region/Sub-Region

Partnership Formation and Operations Flow Process

Proposed Activity/Program Components of the PartnershipTechnical and operational component• Identification, development and application of Wastewater
treatment technologies/protocols for efficient wastewater
treatments• Support to identification of infrastructure needs andestablishment of cost effective infrastructures/facilities forwastewater treatments and utilization of treated wastewaterand sludge.Proposed Activity/Program Components of the Partnership
Institutional development component• Identification of sustained financing mechanism• Support to development/formulation of relevant policies andregulations (including the establishment of missing
major/significant effluent standards and criteria forwastewater disposal in the receiving water bodies, andformulation of market- based instruments for wastewatermanagement)• Development of regional/national coordination mechanism• Capacity building

Proposed Activity/Program Components of the Partnership
Governance component• Development of appropriate monitoring and evaluation
system• Development of Decision support system• Development and operation of Database Information
Management System for data storage, retrieval, analysis
and presentation.
• Information Dissemination and advocacy campaign

Challenges• Differences in the priorities and program direction of thegovernments of the Partnership member-states;• Incomplete or absence of crucial wastewater effluent standards insome countries which is a significant barrier for effective regulatory
control and efficient wastewater management;• Apathy of some countries in their involvement to the Partnership;and• Varied level of available baseline data among participating countries
which is needed in the development and application of decision
support system and in decision making process.
• Varied levels of available supporting policies to regulate wastewater
control, prevention and management.
• Difficult to achieve the target 6.3 of SDG as it require huge financial
investment, and needs strong policies and its strict implementation

Thank you for your Kind Attention