17th WEPA Annual Meeting (22 April 2022)

WEPA Action Program in Lao PDR

Sengkeo Tasaketh1, Phengxay Deevanhxay21)Department of Natural Resources and Environment Inspection,

Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment2)Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Natural Sciences,
National University of Laos

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Contents

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1. Introduction of Lao PDR
2. Current situation of wastewater management in Lao PDR
3. Vision, strategy and legal frame work related towastewater management in Lao PDR
4. Key challenging
5. WEPA action program in Lao PDR
6. Summary

3Introduction of Lao PDR• Lao PDR is a landlocked country
surrounded by China, Vietnam,Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar.
• Total land area: 236,800 km²• Population: 7,337,000 (2020).
• Mekong river running from north tosouth of about 1,865 km. More than 15
rivers and tributaries.
• Urban population increased from 17% in
1995 to 36% in 2020.
• Increasing of urban population increased
solid waste and wastewater in urban
area

Percentage of urban population (%)• GDP per capital: US$2,500 (2017)4035302520
1510501995

Percentage ofUrban population2005

20152025

Year

Data: World bank statistic (2022)

Current situation of wastewater management
Water quality in urban cities• Water quality in urban cities is getting deteriorated due to thedischarged wastewater from household, restaurant andcommercial facilities without treatment.
• Water color is quite dark and there are many plants in the canals.
• The BOD and DO are out of range of the national standard, which
made the aquatic creature could not alive and changed theecosystem.

Hongxeng canal in Vientiane capital4Current situation of wastewater management
Water quality monitoring in public canals (Vientiane capital)
The JICA’s Technical cooperation project conducted the monitoring of
the water quality at 9 points of public water body during November
2015 to September 2016 [JICA, 2017]• BOD in the public canal were in the range of 2-38 mg/L.
• it is found that upstream of Hong Ke and Hong Xeng were heavily
polluted due to discharge of wastewater from households, factoryand commercial facilities.
• BOD in every point did not meet the national standard of Laos.

Source: Project completion report-the project for urban water environment improvement in Vientiane Capital in the Lao PDR, JICA (2017)5

Current situation of wastewater management
Present domestic wastewater treatment system• Majority of households have a pour flush latrine or dry pit latrine toeliminate black water and soak pit to eliminate grey water.
• Latrine with septic tanks have been widely used in urban area. Septic tanks
are usually built from concrete or bricks.

• Wastewater facilities (latrine, septic tank, sludge treatment plant,
latrine's vacuum service) have poor maintenance and poor effluent
drainage system.

photos of Pour-flush toilet
Source: Water and Sanitation Program (2016)

General septic tank6

Current situation of wastewater management

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Existing decentralized wastewater treatment facilities in Lao PDR• Approximately 29 decentralized wastewater treatment facilities wereinstalled in 9 provinces during 2009 to 2020
• Most of them are anaerobic treatment systems• Recently, there are some anaerobic and aerobic system (Johkasou)• Treatment capacity: 1-200 m3/day
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Numbers30
25201510502009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2020
YearNumbers of decentralized wastewater treatment system in Laos

8Current situation of wastewater management
Performance of existing decentralized wastewater treatment systems in the country• Chanthavilay et al. reported BOD5 of two pilot decentralized
wastewater treatment systems in Vientiane capital• Influent• 226 mg/L for community(Thongkhankham)• 87 mg/L for school(Khaulaung),• Effluent 162 mg/L and 21mg/L,
respectively

Source: International Journal ofAdvance Research, 5(4), 335-344.

• The JICA’s technical cooperation project estimated that theeffluent BOD from septic tanks (for black water only) to be about
50-100 mg/L.
• Information of wastewater treatment systems and theirperformance is limited

Current situation of wastewater management
Fecal sludge treatment• Fecal sludge management is also an important issue• In Vientiane capital, fecal sludge gathered from the septic tanks aredelivered by vacuum trucks to the fecal sludge treatment plant(FSTP) in Nahai village (Xaysettha District), and KM 32 landfill.
• However, there is no technical guideline or SOP for de-sludge
process (sludge collection, transportation and disposal)

FSTP in Nahai village Xaysettha District (from 2017)
Source: Somsanouk Phommakhot (2020)
Updates of Water Environment Governance in Lao PDR

Sludge disposal at KM32 landfill

9Vision, strategy, legal framework related to wastewater management

10Vision, strategy, Development Plan
• The vision 2030 aims to reach the status of an upper-middle-income
country with a green growth orientation by 2030.
• 10-Year Socio-Economic Development Strategy (2016–2025)• 9th National Socio-Economic Development Plan NSEDP (2021-2025)• The Natural Resources and Environment Sector Vision (NRESV)
towards 2030 and Ten-Year Strategy (2016–2025)• Vision to 2035, and 9 year strategy on development of water supplyand sanitation sector (2022-2030) (No. 6485/MPWT, dated 18 March2022)• National green growth strategy

Legal frame work11• Lao PDR’s Constitution (1991, amended in 2013)• Law on environment protection (promulgated in 1999, amended in2012)• Law on water and water resources (2017)• Law on chemical management (2016),• Law on management of ground water (2019),• Law on Hygiene, Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (2011)• Law on water supply (2009)• Industry processing law (2013)• National environmental standard (2017)• The presidential decree on registration and service fee No. 2 (dated17 June 2021)• Decree on Environment impact assessment (2018)• National policy on water supply, sanitation and hygiene (2019)• Prime Minister’s Decision on Management and Development of
the Water Supply Sector (No. 37/PM of 30/09/1999)

Key challenging
1. Lack of information on wastewater quality and performance ofexisting decentralized wastewater treatment facilities
2. Lack of technical guideline or Standard Operation Procedure forfecal sludge management
3. Limited technic in monitoring and maintenance of wastewater
treatment facilities
4. Limited number of staff and capacity of stakeholders on
enforcement of regulation and implementation
5. Limited financial support such as funding for capital investment,
operation and maintenance
6. Limited public awareness on water quality

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WEPA program in Lao PDR

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Objectives of WEPA program in Lao PDR:
The main objective of the action program is to provide scientific basis
for improvement of wastewater management system and strengthen
the capacity of relevant agency’s officers for water environment
improvement.
The specific objectives are:1. To identify legal, institutional, financial, technical issues for improving domestic
wastewater management systems in Lao PDR
2. To study the domestic wastewater quality in public canals in 6 cities andperformance of some decentralized wastewater treatment facilities in Lao PDR.
3. To develop “Technical guidelines (Standard Operation Procedure) for de-sludgeof Septic tank and decentralized waste water treatment system"
4. To strengthen the capacity of relevant agency’s officers for regulation
enforcement for water environment improvement.

WEPA program in Lao PDRExpected Outcomes• Understand the current institutional frame work of wastewater
management in Lao PDR• Obtain scientific data on wastewater quality in 6 cities of Laos andcurrent performance of decentralized waste water treatment
facilities in Lao PDR• Provide Technical Guideline or Standard Operation Procedure offecal sludge management• Enhance technical capacity of relevant stakeholders for a better
domestic wastewater management.

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WEPA program in Lao PDR

15Approach
FY 2022-2023

1. Literature review on legal, institutional, financial and technical issues onwastewater management in Lao PDR
2. Survey for information on domestic wastewater in public canals and existing
decentralized waste water treatment facilities.
• literature review• conduct field survey for wastewater quality (Temperature, pH, Conductivity,Turbidity, DO,TSS, BOD, COD,T-N, T-P) in 6 cities
3. Disseminating the results, sharing information, and outcomes of the WEPA
Action Program at the annual workshop and stakeholder meeting
FY 2023-2024

1. Monitoring of some decentralized wastewater treatment systems
2. Draft of guideline (SOP) for de-sludge of Septic tank and decentralized wastewater treatment system
3. Strengthening capacity of technical officers in relevant authorities and privatecompanies

Summary16• Water quality in urban cities is getting deteriorated due to thedischarged wastewater from household, restaurant and commercial
facilities without treatment• The current wastewater treatment in urban and rural areas of Lao
PDR is an onsite disposal decentralized system which is mainly
latrines and septic tanks.
• Installation of decentralized wastewater treatment system incommunities and commercial buildings has been increased• Information on wastewater quality and the performance ofdecentralized wastewater treatment systems is lacking.
• WEPA action program in Lao PDR will focus on providing scientificbasis for improvement of wastewater management system andstrengthen the capacity of relevant agency’s officers for water
environment improvement.

Acknowledgement
 Ministry of the Environment, Government of Japan(Support fund for this WEPA action program) Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) Dept. Water supply, MPWT17

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Thank you very much