August 6, 2024

Current status of domestic
wastewater treatment in Asian
countries and examples of initiatives
aimed at solving the issues
Dr. Yoshitaka Ebie
National Institute for Environmental Studies, Japan1

Self-introduction• Name: Dr Yoshitaka Ebie (yoshi)• Research fields: Wastewater
treatment engineering, molecular
microbiology, greenhouse gas
inventory, and disaster management.

2International activities
 ISO TC224/WG8: Guidelines for the management ofbasic onsite domestic wastewater services
 2013 Supplement to the 2006
IPCC Guidelines for National
Greenhouse Gas Inventories:Wetlands 2019 Refinement to the 2006
IPCC Guidelines for National
Greenhouse Gas Inventories

3

Millennium Development Goals• Sanitary issues– Open defecation– Bucket/container– Pit latrine without slab
– Shared– No tank/sewer pipe4Percentage of global population withaccess to improved sanitation (2015)5

Pour flush toilet

Septic tanks• Primary treatment• No maintenance• Overflow (full of sludge) or infiltration(bottomless)Sustainable Development Goals
Goal 6.3
Halving the proportion ofuntreated wastewater by2030
MDGs
Sanitary issues
Open defecation
Bucket/containerPit latrine without slab
SharedNo tank/sewer pipe

SDGs
Environmental issues
Primary treatment
Secondary treatment
Tertiary treatment

8

SDGs

MDGs

WATERMDGs

9

On-site and off-site
On-site/decentralized• Individual (ex. 1 HH; 5 PE)• Communal (ex. 2-10HH; 10-50 PE)
Off-site• Settlement scale: ex. 50～20,000 PE• City scale: ex. >20,000 PE

Centralized treatment facilities inAsia

Source: WEPA

11

Length of sewer pipe
490,000 km
in Japan

380,000 km
to the moon＞Case in Japan

On-site domestic
wastewatertreatment
You don’t need to wait sewer
pipe network comes to you.

A Key Message for reliable and sustainable wastewater
management

SDG global indicator: Proportion of domestic andindustrial wastewater flows safely treated• Standardization of wastewater treatment
systems in National, Regional or Internationallevel– Necessity– Difficulty

Structure
O&M
Pollution load
per capita

Performance
evaluation
Building
permission
14

5 things we need to consider for
dissemination of appropriate
wastewater treatment technologies
1. Effluent standards
2. Structure standards and/or standardized
performance evaluation
3. Standardized O&M and monitoring4. Standardized Sludge collection,treatment and disposal
5. Standardized license for technicians
and/or service providers
15

Regulation has been updated• Ministry of Environment and Forestry has issued neweffluent standard for domestic wastewater (2016).
• This new and stringent regulation for domestic
wastewater is a major step forward to improve waterenvironment.

Parameters

Unit

pHBOD
COD
TSS
Oil and Grease
Ammonia
Total Coliform
Discharge

mg/L
mg/L
mg/L
mg/L
mg/L
N/100 mL
L/person/dayOld
Regulation
6-9100100
10-NewRegulation
6-930
100
30
510
3,00010016

On-site/decentralized domestic
wastewater treatment facilities

Septic tank

BiofilIPAL

Are they all
reliable?
septic tank?
17

5 things we need to consider for
dissemination of appropriate
wastewater treatment technologies
1. Effluent standards
2. Structure standards and/or standardized
performance evaluation
3. Standardized O&M and monitoring
4. Standardized Sludge collection,treatment and disposal
5. Standardized license for technicians
and/or service providers
18

Compliance to the regulation may not be ensured

You don’t need to worry
about new effluent
standard with our newproduct.
National structure
standard.

Nobody knows!
We need a standardized performance testing
method and reliable certification system

Major standards in the world
European Standard (EN)EN12566-3: Small wastewater treatment systems for up to 50 PE

The United States
NSF/ANSI Standard 40: Residential Wastewater Treatment Systems
Australia
AS/NZS 1546 Part 3: Aerated wastewater treatment systems
Japan
Performance testing method for Johkasou

20Platform for the standardization...
Stakeholders Meetings

Industry-academia-government
collaboration
SNI 9161:2023
Standardized testing method ofdomestic wastewater treatment plantin Indonesia21Advantages• If you have no standard, it would be chaos.
• If you have different local standards in
different area of your country,
manufacturers need to have different kindof products for each area.
– This must exert upward pressure on price.

• If we standardize these local standards,
we can make a big market within the area
sharing the same standard.
22

5 things we need to consider for
dissemination of appropriate
wastewater treatment technologies
1. Effluent standards
2. Structure standards and/or standardized
performance evaluation
3. Standardized O&M and monitoring
4. Standardized Sludge collection,treatment and disposal
5. Standardized license for technicians
and/or service providers23• If you have standardized structure or
performance evaluation, O&M proceduresand frequency could also be standardized.
Otherwise, you must learn many
O&M procedures for every
single site and prepare manykinds of tools.

24

5 things we need to consider for
dissemination of appropriate
wastewater treatment technologies
1. Effluent standards
2. Structure standards and/or standardized
performance evaluation
3. Standardized O&M and monitoring
4. Standardized sludge collection, treatment
and disposal
5. Standardized license for technicians
and/or service providers
25

• Regular desludging is closely related with thestandardization of treatment facilities.
– Japanese law requires annual desludging, thenmanufacturers design the capacity of the sludge
storage tank with this condition.

• Desludging procedures also rely on thestandard of the treatment facility.
– Manhole size, desludging port size, depth, etc.
26

5 things we need to consider fordissemination of appropriate
wastewater treatment technologies
1. Effluent standards
2. Structure standards and/or standardized
performance evaluation
3. Standardized O&M and monitoring
4. Standardized Sludge collection,treatment and disposal
5. Standardized license for technicians
and/or service providers
27

Construction

Operation

National vocational qualification(Registration to the prefecture)

Desludging
Private qualification(Approval from the municipality)• Civil engineering, microbiology, mechanicalengineering, etc.
• Quality control of services
28

Thank you for your kind attention.

Your valuable comments andsuggestions would be highly
appreciated.

30