Policy and Effort on decentralized
domestic wastewater treatment
in Vietnam

Presented by: Dr. Dang Thi Thanh Huyen

OUTLINE
 Brief review on WW management in Vietnam
 DEWATS development in Vietnam
 Policy adjustment in DEWATS promotion
 Other efforts: Technologies and Public
Awareness Raise Concluding Remarks

DEWATS in Vietnam

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RECENT WW MANAGEMENT IN VIETNAM
 About 15% of collected drainage/seweragetreated by nearly 40 centralized wastewater
treatment plants (WWTP)
 More than 40 centralized WWTPs are underconstruction/design
 Only 03 WWTPs received SSS-based flow (BuonMa Thuot, Da Lat, Thu Dau Mot plants). So, >90%of WWTPs received CSS-based flow Nearly $4 billion dollars has been invested inwastewater management during the past twodecades
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RECENT WW MANAGEMENT IN VIETNAM
 About 35% WW will be treated (based ontreatment capacity) as of 2020.
 Another 80 WW projects are under call-forinvestment or waiting-for-approval About $6 billion dollars will be needed to invest
in this sector towards 2025
 Reduce from 90% to 85% ODA loan for WWprojects

Financial constrains!
DEWATS in Vietnam

4RECENT WW MANAGEMENT IN VIETNAM

Stronger Promoting
DEWATS as a cheaper
approach for treatmentof WW (in somepotential cases)

DEWATS in Vietnam

5DEWATS IN VIETNAM
 Introduced 30 years ago
 Advantages

••••
•
•

More affordable
Less investment and O&M costs
On-site reuse
Encouraging participation
Low-cost technologies
Step-wise approach...

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DEWATS IN VIETNAM
 Main current applications: office buildings, publictoilets, hotels, factories, hospitals, newcommunities, trade villages, etc. (Q<1000 m3/d)
 Thousands of DEWATS Projects:– by DESA group, IESE
– projects of GIZ and KfW, ADB– BORDA (about 20 projects in Vietnam)– private investors and firms

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DEWATS IN VIETNAM

DEWATS in Vietnam

Source: VA Nguyen, 20108

DEWATS IN VIETNAM

DEWATS in Vietnam

Source: VA Nguyen, 20109

DEWATS IN VIETNAM
Barriers for applications

 No promotion policy
 No incentives
 Lack of knowledge of decentralized options
 Low rate of household connection,
 Traditional acceptance of untreated wastewater disposal
by most of people

DEWATS in Vietnam

Source: VA Nguyen, 201310

DEWATS IN VIETNAM
Barriers for applications

 There are still very few decentralized technical options

developed and applied.
 Systematic review has not been conducted in terms ofperformance and cost, Lack of detail guidelines for DEWATS
 Quality of design and construction, associated with– consultants’ competency,– administrative appraisal procedures, Capacity building component during project implementation ispoor Problems in O&M, M&E (qualified work force for O&M)
DEWATS in Vietnam

Source: VA Nguyen, 201311

POLICY ADJUSTMENT IN DEWATSPROMOTION New policy: Decree No 80/2014/ND-CP dated 06
August 2014 on drainage, sewerage and wastewatertreatment
Article 4. Issue National Technical Regulations (NTR) onWastewater
Based on the water receivers, MONRE promulgates NTR for
DEWATS to meet the requirement of effluent quality, easier forO&M.

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POLICY ADJUSTMENT IN DEWATSPROMOTION

New policy: Decree No 80/2014/ND-CP dated 06
August 2014 on drainage, sewerage and wastewatertreatment
Article 7. Local regulations on wastewater management

In each province, there must have regulations on application ofcentralized and decentralized wastewater treatment;

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POLICY ADJUSTMENT IN DEWATSPROMOTION

New policy: Decree No 80/2014/ND-CP dated 06
August 2014 on drainage, sewerage and wastewater
treatment
Article 23. Provisions on decentralized wastewater treatment
1. The decentralized wastewater treatment solution is applicable toresidential complexes or clusters, new urban centers, households,production, business, service and cottage industry production
establishments, craft villages, markets, schools, tourist resorts or
areas which cannot or have not been connected to centralized waterdrainage systems due to geographical and terrain difficulties.
2. The application of the decentralized wastewater treatment solution
must ensure economic efficiency and environmental protection andreduce polluting wastewater sources and direct impacts of wastewateron the environment.
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POLICY ADJUSTMENT IN DEWATSPROMOTION

New policy: Decree No 80/2014/ND-CP dated 06
August 2014 on drainage, sewerage and wastewatertreatment
Article 23. Provisions on decentralized wastewater treatment
3. The application of the decentralized wastewater treatment solution
must take into account the possibility for future connection tocentralized wastewater treatment systems and conform withapproved planning.
4. The Ministry of Construction shall guide the management ofdecentralized wastewater treatment.

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POLICY ADJUSTMENT IN DEWATSPROMOTION
New policy: Circular No 04/2015/TT-BXD dated 03 April,2015 on implementation guideline of Decree
80/2014/ND-CP
Article 1. Management of decentralized wastewater treatment
2. Options for decentralized wastewater treatment:a) On-site decentralized wastewater treatment: shall be applied forindividual discharger with total generated wastewater volume of lessthan 50m3/day; wastewater treatment facilities/equipment shall beplaced within the property of the discharger.
b) Cluster-based decentralized wastewater treatment: shall be applied
for neighbouring dischargers with total generated wastewater
volume from 50 – 200 m3/day. Based on the actual situation, thetreatment facilities can be placed at the property of a discharger or aseparate location, making it convenient for collection of wastewater fromthe dischargers.
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POLICY ADJUSTMENT IN DEWATSPROMOTION

New policy: Circular No 04/2015/TT-BXD dated 03 April,2015 on implementation guideline of Decree
80/2014/ND-CP
Article 1. Management of decentralized wastewater treatment
2. Options for decentralized wastewater treatment:c) Regional decentralized wastewater treatment: shall be applied in aparticular administration area with total generated wastewater
volume from 200 to 1,000 m3/day. The location of the decentralizedwastewater treatment plant/facilities shall be in line with the construction
planning or drainage planning approved by the competent agency.
PPC, based on the wastewater generation sources and receiving
sources, economic conditions, topography, local capacity in operation andmanagement of drainage and sewerage system, shall make decision on
selection of appropriate decentralized wastewater treatment options.
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POLICY ADJUSTMENT IN DEWATSPROMOTION

New policy: Circular No 04/2015/TT-BXD dated 03 April,2015 on implementation guideline of Decree
80/2014/ND-CP
Article 1. Management of decentralized wastewater treatment
4. Technologies applied for decentralized wastewater treatment:a) Septic tanks;b) Baffled anaerobic tank;c) Improved baffled septic tank with anaerobicd) Anaerobic ponds, aerobic-anaerobic ponds, facultative lagoons;e) Wetlands;f) Sequencing batch reactor;g) Others.
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POLICY ADJUSTMENT IN DEWATSPROMOTION
 New policy: Decision No 589/QD-TTg issued on 06
April, 2016 on Amended Orientation on Urban andIndustrial Development towards 2025 and vision 2050
Point of View: Combination between Centralization WWT (CWAT) andDecentralization WWT (DEWATS) to improve the rate of wwtreatment before discharging to the environment.
 Application of DEWATS or improved ON-SITE treatment forareas without WW collection system and CWAT.

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POLICY ADJUSTMENT IN DEWATSPROMOTION
 New policy: Decision No 589/QD-TTg issued on 06
April, 2016 on Amended Orientation on Urban andIndustrial Development towards 2025 and vision 2050
Implementation:
Application of CWATS and DEWATS, rainwater harvesting,wastewater reuse, sludge reuse that is appropriate with local
natural, socio-economical conditions and complies with National
Technical Regulations.

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OTHER EFFORTS
 Organize frequent workshops on DEWATS topromoting DEWATS in provinces: by BORDA –Vietnam Agriculture Water Research (VAWR),
ADB, MOC
 Introduced some DEWATS projects in priority listof WW projects 2016-2025

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CONCLUDING REMARKSBEFORE ( in 2010)

AFTER (at present)

Lack of Commitment

Still Lack of Commitment even though it
has mentioned in Law (Decree 80 andCircular 04)

Vietnamese environmental standards
are still not fully developed

Has developed National TechnicalRegulation for DEWATS

Less experience in design andconstruction of DEWATS projects

Has earned some experience via
thousands of projects

Inexperience in O&M

Still inexperience in O&M

Few decentralized technical options

Still few decentralized technical options

Financial aspect is an issue

Still an issue

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CONCLUDING REMARKSAt present, DEWATS technology can not meet the requirement of stricter
effluent quality!

WHAT SOLUTIONS SHOULD BE ?
DEWATS in Vietnam23

THANK YOU!

Dr. Dang Thi Thanh Huyen
Email: huyendtt@nuce.edu.vn
Hanoi, Vietnam
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