Water Environment Partnership in Asia

Policy BriefSeries

6March 2014

Working for Better Water Quality – The
State of Water Quality Management inWEPA Partner Countries
Low water quality is one of the most pressing
environmental problems threatening humanhealth and sound economic development, andstill remains a critical problem even in someareas of WEPA partner countries that havemitigation or preventive measures in place,especially urban areas. The partner countries
have each unilaterally developed policies andmeasures both to combat the growing threatof water pollution in critical areas and to avoid
future outbreaks in other areas.
Certain aspects of water environmental
m a n a g e m e n t d i ff e r a c r o s s t h e p a r t n e r
countries – due to contextual factors such as
the duration, gravity, cause and level of socio-

economic development – but some, suchas pollution source control, are common to
all as basic measures. Conducting reviewsof water environmental management in thepartner countries is useful in order to gauge
what progress has been made and to identify
common management challenges, as wellas to promote more knowledge sharing for
future WEPA activities. This brief gives an
overview of the state of water environmental
management and some of the common
challenges facing WEPA partner countries
which were identified through discussions
and reviews in the WEPA second phase (April2009- March 2013).

Overview of Water Environmental
Management in WEPA Partner Countries

Agenda setting - Goals and Targets of Water
Environmental Management

This section overviews the current water
environmental management frameworks
existing in the WEPA partner countries,
focusing on water quality conservationin public water bodies. In considering
policy development and implementation
cycle, the current water environmental
management framework is looked atfrom the following three perspectives:

It is important to set clear policy objectives
and targets, because clear goal-setting
enables actions taken by governments andother stakeholders including polluters to beproperly reviewed at a later stage. Most WEPA
countries have set out a basic environmental
law stipulating protection of human health,ensuring a safe human environment andprotection of the environment as a basis
for sustainable development, and theseobjectives also apply to water environmentalmanagement. Myanmar has no such basic law
but did pass the“Environmental Conservation
Law” in 2012. More detailed definitions ofwater environmental management objectives
are laid out in laws or acts specific to waterpollution control in some countries, such as
the Sub-Decree on Water Pollution Control(Cambodia), Water Pollution Control Law(Japan) and Clean Water Act (the Philippines).

1) Agenda setting – goals and targets ofwater environmental management illustrated
in legislation, policies and strategies
2) Measures to ensure implementationand compliance, focusing on wastewater
management;
3) Other factors contributing to enforcement
and improvement measures.

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Ambient water quality standards are theadministrative targets dictating the levels ofwater quality that need to be maintained. In
principle, each country plans and applies
policy measures to achieve the targets. Asof December 2013, Nepal, Myanmar andSri Lanka do not have ambient water quality
standards, though Nepal has a few water
quality standards for different beneficial
uses such as recreation and conservationof ecosystem, and Sri Lanka has set forth
proposed standards. No ambient water
quality standards exist in Myanmar, butdeliberations are now underway as mandated
by the Environmental Conservation Law(2012). The other countries have ambient
water quality standards for river quality. A few
countries have more than two standards withdifferent conservation purposes. For example,
Cambodia has two types of standards forhuman health and for ecological conservation;
Japan and the Republic of Korea have thosefor human health and for living environment
as well as ecological conservation. For

estuaries and coastal waters, ambient waterquality standards have been set by eight
countries, namely China, Indonesia, Japan,Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand
and Viet Nam. Few have set standards forgroundwater, and drinking water quality
standards are used to evaluate water quality
in countries without standards.

Measures to ensure implementationand compliance, focusing
on wastewater management

effluent for fulfillment of ambient water
quality standards. China, Lao PDR, Nepal,Sri Lanka, Thailand and Viet Nam have set
industrial effluent standards according to thetype of industry; Cambodia’s vary accordingto proximity of pollution sources to sensitiveenvironmental or ecosystem conservation
areas; those of China, Indonesia, Lao PDR,
Malaysia and Sri Lanka were introduced orrevised since 2000 to strengthen effluent
management; Japan and Republic ofKorea introduced a system to control total
pollution loads in specific water bodies in
addition to effluent control via pollutant
concentration; and Myanmar has effluent
guidelines for the industrial sector but has
no standards for effluent from domestic andagricultural sectors at the national level.

Identifying pollution sources andpreventive measures – One of the firststeps is to identify pollution sources. For
industrial wastewater, most countries request
industries to provide notification to designatedauthorities (at the national or local level)
or apply for approval or permits therefrom
before commencing operations that discharge
effluent, the requirements for which vary bytype and size of industry. The Environmental
Impact Assessment (EIA) is used in mostcountries, particularly for industrial anddevelopment activities with potentially highenvironmental impact, to prevent pollution.
For example, all industries are required
to obtain the Environmental Compliance
Certificate, which is issued under the Decreeof Environment Impact Assessment (No112/PM) for their operations. Cambodia’s SubDecree on Environmental Impact Assessment
also requests all development activities
and investments that require approval fromthe Council of Development of Cambodia(CDC) and industries that have obtained
the certificate to follow the monitoring andreporting requirement of the EIA related
guidelines.

Setting effluent standards – All countries
have set national effluent standards, whichshould be satisfied by those who discharge

2Time-bound specific targets are set out in
China, Indonesia, Republic of Korea, and Viet
Nam, and periodical reviews are conducted.
Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Thailand havedeveloped national water environmental (orpollution control) plans and strategies withspecific time spans, but not necessarily withspecific numerical targets. In Japan, which
has no specific plans or strategies for water
environmental management, time-bound andspecific targets are established for certain
water bodies under a total pollution loadcontrol system.

At the implementation stage, various
measures to ensure compliance areused. The introduction of economic
instruments such as Viet Nam’s wastewater
discharge fee is an area of growinginterest for many partner countries.

The state of monitoring to check
whether targets are satisfied

Ambient water quality monitoring - Monitoringof ambient water quality is essential to knowwhether quality standards are being met andalso to evaluate policy and any measurestaken. Ambient water quality monitoring is
conducted on a project basis or for specificpurposes (e.g., irrigation or drinking water)such as in Nepal, Myanmar and Sri Lanka.
Other countries have regular monitoring
systems especially for rivers but the numberof monitoring points, parameters andmonitoring frequency differ from country tocountry depending on needs and institutionaland financial capacity. The factors of capacityand finances for monitoring, storage andmaintaining ambient water quality data areoften pointed out as key challenges.

partner countries. In general, national
government sets overall goals, targets andrules and local government implement them.
Duplication and weak coordination among
relevant ministries and line agencies indifferent sectors but related to water quality
management are ongoing issues for thepartner countries. Capacity developmentof local governments is also a commonchallenge.

Effluent monitoring - Monitoring of effluent
quality is a key tool to check compliancew i th e ffl u e n t sta n dards. For i ndustri al
wastewater, in principle, all owners ofpollution sources are obligated to monitor
effluent quality throughout the WEPA partnercounties. In Korea and Thailand, on-line
monitoring of effluent was introduced forpollution sources with certain volumes ofeffluents. On the other hand, monitoring
is not always conducted by the owners or
managers though it is their obligation, andresults are not always stored for easy accessor do not reach the intended authorities.
This means authorities can neither assess
the state of compliance nor effectivenessof any measures taken. Keeping records
of monitoring results was not an obligation
placed on business entities in Japan until arevision to the Water Pollution Control Law
in 2010 mandated the duty of recording andstoring results, with penalties applied in theevent of non-compliance.

Local government is assumed to handle
local water environmental management
in many countries. Now a new concept
termed ‘basin management’ is incorporated
into water environmental management insome countries. In Viet Nam, for example,
a basin level management plan covering
water quality aspects in three major river
basins is underway; in the Philippines,“water quality management areas” (underthe Clean Water Act) have been created,which are designated by hydrological insteadof administrative boundaries. To implementbasin management, stakeholder engagement
is considered is a key to promote it.

Institutional Arrangements forimplementation - Roles of national

and local government in water quality
management differ in respective WEPA

Inspections and penalties for noncompliance - Inspections and penalties

play an important role in addressing noncompliance. Systems for inspection,
governmental guidance and penalties arein place in countries which set effluent
standards. Measures to counter noncompliance in effluent management (such as
violations of effluent standards and effluent
quality recording obligations) have been
beefed-up in Indonesia, Japan and Viet Nam.

O t h e r f a c t o r s c o n t r i b u t i n g t o used for WQI calculation are decided byenforcement and improvement measures each country. Other countries performing
Disclosure of information on whether policy
targets are satisfied or not is an importantfactor to increase public attention andalso promote stakeholder engagement. In
many countries the state of water quality
is mainly reported to the general public via
annually published environmental quality
reports. The Water Quality Index (WQI) is
used for evaluation of overall status of water
quality in some countries, such as China,Malaysia and Thailand and the methods

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annual assessments of water quality (Japan,Republic of Korea, Philippines and VietNam) use specific parameters to represent
water quality (e.g., BOD or COD for organicpollution). In some countries, such as China,
Republic of Korea and Thailand, the public
can view real-time monitoring data on awebsite, which is updated by live feeds frommonitoring stations.

Future Challenges
A l l W E PA c o u n tr i es have attempted tostrengthen their water environmental
management systems over the past decade.
The “WEPA Outlook on Water Environmental
Management 2012 (WEPA Outlook 2012)”
identified the following key developments
common to all partner countries:
1) Strengthening of effluent management,including setting up and revisions to effluent
standards, and introduction of wastewater
charges2) Attempt to introduce a framework
for river basin management embracing
aspects of water quality conservation
3) Incorporation of concerns surrounding
ecosystem conservation
Table 1 shows major developments over thepast decades; all countries have taken up
the challenge of dealing with water quality
management issues at the domestic level. Insum, a framework for water environmental
management has already been established inmost of the WEPA partner countries, leaving
the issue of how to ensure implementation tobe resolved.

Major developments in water environmental management in WEPA Countries

Table1Year

Major development in organizational setting

2001

Establishment of Ministry of theEnvironment, upgraded from Environment
Agency (Japan)

2002

Establishment of Ministry of Natural
Resource and Environment as a restructureof central government agencies (Thailand,Viet Nam)

Revision of the Framework Act on Environmental Policy (ROK)Approval of National Environment Policy (Malaysia)
Addition of zinc as a parameter of water quality environmental standards, inconsideration of protection of aquatic ecosystem (Japan)
Establishment of Environmental Management Policy (Nepal)
National Environmental Management Policy (Sri Lanka)
Set up the National Strategy for Environmental Management until 2010 and vision
toward 2020 (Viet Nam)
Introduction of environmental protection charge for wastewater (Viet Nam)

2003

2004

Major development in legislation
Revision of Environment Act (Sri Lanka)

2000

Establishment of Ministry of Natural
Resource and Environment as a restructureof central government agencies (Malaysia)

Introduction of total maximum daily load system (TMDLs) (ROK)
Revision of the Clean Water Act (Philippines)
Decree on Licensing for exploitation, utilization, use and discharge of waste water(Viet Nam)

2005

Addition of chemical substance parameters to standards (ROK)Approval of the National Water Environment Master Plan (2006-2015) (ROK)
Adoption of the National Water Policy (Nepal)
Revision of Law on Environmental Protection (Viet Nam)

2006

Inclusion of 16 water pollution projects in mid-term plan (China)
Start of regular monitoring in 35 major rivers (Indonesia)
Revision of the Lake Water Law (Japan)
Approval of basin management project in three major basins (Viet Nam)

2007

Enacted the Law on Water Resources and Management (Cambodia)
Revision of the Water Quality Conservation Act (renamed as the Water Quality andEcosystem Conservation Act) (ROK), which further emphasize conservation ofecosystems
Revision of Water Quality and Ecosystem Conservation Act and its Enforcement
Decree (ROK)Approval of national ambient and efﬂuent water standards (Lao PDR)
Approval of the National master Program for Natural Resource and Environment
Monitoring until 2020 (Viet Nam)2008

Establishment of the Ministry of Environment
Protection (MEP), upgraded from the State
Environmental Protection Administration(SEPA) (China)
Set up the Vietnam Environment
Administration (VEA) (Viet Nam)

Revision of series of efﬂuent standards (2008-2011) (China)
Start of regular ambient water monitoring conducted by the central government(Cambodia)
Establishment of new efﬂuent standards (Sri Lanka)
Establishment of Marine Pollution Prevention Act (Sri Lanka)
Revision of ambient quality standards for surface, coastal and underground waters(Viet Nam)
Revision of series of efﬂuent standards (2008-2010) (Viet Nam)
Establishment of ambient quality standard for groundwater (Viet Nam)Approval of Decree 120/2008/ND-CP on basin management (Viet Nam)

2009

Revision of the National Environment Law, aiming to strengthen implementation,
especially control of point sources (Indonesia)
Revision of efﬂuent standards (Malaysia)
Approval of Bagmati Action Plan (Nepal)
Approval of a new national environmental policy and its action plan (Sri Lanka)
Start of classiﬁcation of water bodies (Philippines)

2010

Adoption of the mid-term development plan (2010-2015), which states reduction targetsfor pollutants (China)Revision of the Water Pollution Control Law, which address water quality related
accidents and efﬂuent management (Japan)
Introduction of on-line wastewater registration system (Malaysia)
Establishment of Wastewater Treatment System Efﬂuent Standard (Thailand)

2011

Establishment of Ministry of Natural Resourceand Environment (Lao PDR)
Establishment of Ministry of Environmental
Conservation and Forestry (Myanmar)

412th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) (China)
Revision of the Water Pollution Control Law, which strengthen groundwater qualitymanagement (Japan)

Authors:

The following points were identified by
WEPA Outlook 2012 as implementation
challenges requiring further exchangesof knowledge through WEPA.

KATAOKA Yatsuka
Senior Coordinator(Networking and Outreach);Principal Policy Researcher

1) Legislation and Organisation:
Detailed systems, rules and capacities
to implement a legislative framework
should be developed.
2) Data and Information: Ensuring
monitoring of ambient water quality
and effluent, and keeping records ofthe results. Sharing mechanisms ofdata and information among different
organisations are common issues.
3) Organisational arrangements:
Coordination among relevant waterrelated organisations and capacity ofmanagement at the local level are key
issues for effective management.
4 ) Wa t e r q u a l i t y m a n a g e m e n t a t
the basin level: Conventional water
environmental management is basedon administrative boundaries, butmany countries in the region now
incorporate the new concept of river
basin management into water policyor strategies. Therefore, managing thewater environment at the basin levelis an important challenge in the nearfuture. Stakeholder involvement is also
a key issue in this field.

Layout:Yumi NishimuraInstitute for GlobalEnvironmental Strategies, Japan

Contact:
WEPA secretatiat
Institute for Global Envrionmental Strategies[IGES]Natural Resources and Ecosystem Services Area•

Reduction of Chemical Oxygen
Demand (COD) concentration:
China and Republic of Korea•

Lake water quality andeutrophication: China, Japan,
Republic of Korea, Malaysia•

Non-point source control: China,
Republic of Korea, Philippines•

Heavy metal pollution: China•

C h e m i c a l p o l l u t i o n :R e p u b l i c o f K o r e a•

Groundwater quality improvement:
China, Japan, Philippines•Coastal water quality improvement:
Philippines•Consideration of emerging needsfrom society for creating a newwater environmental management
scheme: Japan and Republic ofKorea

NOTE:This brief is the summary of Chapter 1 Outlook on Water Environment
Management in “WEPA Countries in “WEPA Outlook on Water Environmental
Management in Asia 2012” (http://www.wepa-db.net/pdf/1203outlook/01.pdf).

2108-11 Kamiyamaguchi, Hayama, Kanagawa,
240-0015, Japan
TEL: +81-46-855-3700, FAX: +81-46-855-3709
E-mail: contact@wepa-db.net
URL: http://www.iges.or.jp/5

WEPA Outlook 2012 also identified
specific problems that more than two
WEPA countries showed as concernsthat should be addressed in near future.
These issues could be topics that WEPA
will address in future activities.

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