Financial sustainability of urban water cycle services in developing countries: a case study in Mozambique

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 1068-1076
Author(s):  
A. Monteiro ◽  
J. Matos ◽  
F. Megre ◽  
A. Silva ◽  
A. Nunes ◽  
...  

A management strategy to achieve financial sustainability of urban water cycle services in developing countries is presented, based on the development of the Long Term Water Supply and Sanitation Services Investment Plan for the Water and Sanitation Infrastructure Administration (Administração de Infra-estruturas de Água e Saneamento (AIAS)) of Mozambique. AIAS is responsible for water supply and sanitation systems of 151 cities and towns (9.38 million inhabitants in 2015, 17.55 million expected in 2040). The needs in this sector are considerable, financial resources are scarce and, as a result, the Millennium Development Goals are still off track to be achieved. An integrated approach was applied to estimate the investments needs, considering differentiated levels of service depending on the urban area characteristics and taking into consideration the household income limitations, in order to achieve an economically sustainable increase in coverage and service level. The work developed resulted in an action plan aligned with the national strategy vision and adaptable to every city and town of Mozambique, including two decision support tools to enable stakeholders' decision making on potential investments: the Water and Wastewater Database (Base de Informação de Água e Saneamento) and the Dynamic Economic tool to support investments in water supply and sanitation services.

Water Policy ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 298-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. C. Almeida ◽  
P. Vieira ◽  
P. Smeets

The urban water cycle (UWC) is often managed by several stakeholders dealing with specific components of the cycle such as water supply, wastewater systems and water bodies management. Therefore, risk management in the UWC benefits from an integrated approach to incorporate the interdependencies between elements. The water cycle safety plan (WCSP) provides a common risk management framework for stakeholders in the UWC. It is based on the water safety plan (WSP) approach for water supply and incorporates the latest developments in risk management approaches, such as ISO 31 000:2009 and ISO Guide 73:2009. Apart from protection of public health, the WCSP also addresses public safety and protection of the environment. The proposed WCSP is divided into nine steps including stakeholders’ commitment and team assembling, establishment of scope of the plan, characterisation of water systems, identification of risks, risk analysis and evaluation, selection of risk reduction measures, development of protocols for communication, monitoring and review. The WCSP approach was developed in the PREPARED project with a focus on UWC adaptation to climate change but can be applied in a broader context. This preventive and systematic risk approach supports decisions on adaptive measures and strategies for the whole UWC based on the best available knowledge.


Water Policy ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Duncan Mara ◽  
Graham Alabaster

To achieve the Millennium Development Goals for urban water supply and sanitation ∼300,000 and ∼400,000 people will have to be provided with an adequate water supply and adequate sanitation, respectively, every day during 2001–2015. The provision of urban water supply and sanitation services for these numbers of people necessitates action not only on an unprecedented scale, but also in a radically new way as “more of the same” is unlikely to achieve these goals. A “new paradigm” is proposed for low-cost urban water supply and sanitation, as follows: water supply and sanitation provision in urban areas and large villages should be to groups of households, not to individual households. Groups of households would form (even be required to form, or pay more if they do not) water and sanitation cooperatives. There would be standpipe and yard-tap cooperatives served by community-managed sanitation blocks, on-site sanitation systems or condominial sewerage, depending on space availability and costs and, for non-poor households, in-house multiple-tap cooperatives served by condominial sewerage or, in low-density areas, by septic tanks with on-site effluent disposal. Very poor households (those unable to afford to form standpipe cooperatives) would be served by community-managed standpipes and sanitation blocks.


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
S Bonetta ◽  
C Pignata ◽  
S a Bonetta ◽  
E Gasparro ◽  
E Lorenzi ◽  
...  

Abstract The global action plan on antimicrobial resistance reports the necessity to develop standards and guidance for the presence of antimicrobial agents in the environment, especially in wastewater, highlighting its possible role in the antibiotic resistance spreading. In addition, the New European One Health Action Plan against Antimicrobial Resistance underlines the need to support research into knowledge gaps on the release of resistant microorganisms into the environment and their dissemination. The aim of this study was to evaluate the presence of Antibiotic Resistance Bacteria (ARB) and Antibiotic Resistance Genes (ARG) in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). At this scope, untreated sewage and treated effluents of three different WWTPs (A, B and C) were sampled for one year. Sample dilutions were plated on R2Agar added/not-added with 4 different antibiotics (ampicillin 32mg/L; tetracycline 16 mg/L; chloramphenicol 32 mg/L; sulfamethoxazole 50,4 mg/L) to evaluate the percentage of antibiotic resistant bacteria and their WWTPs removal rate (%). DNA extraction on the filter used to concentrate the wastewater samples was performed to reveal the ARG presence; subsequently specific PCRs for ARG (blaTEM, tetA, sul II, sul III) were carried out. ARB were detected in all samples analysed. The highest antibiotic resistance percentage was revealed in the sewage (mean 21,7%±4,8) and effluent (mean 21,1%±3,0) of the three wastewater treatment plants for sulfamethoxazole. Moreover, sul II was the most present gene in the samples (81% of all samples, 89 % of sewages and 72% of effluents). The lower WWTPs removal was recovered in the plant B for the tetracycline (95, 7%). The results obtained underlines the need to monitor WWTP as critical hot spot for the antibiotic resistance spreading also considering the One Health approach. Furthermore, the results obtained could suggest interventions to reduce the spread of the antibiotic resistance in the integrated urban water cycle. Key messages The information obtained could provide usefulness information about the role of wastewater treatment plant in the antibiotic resistance spreading. The results could contribute to suggest the interventions targeted to reduce the antibiotic resistance phenomenon in the integrated urban water cycle.


2007 ◽  
Vol 7 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 101-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Lee ◽  
G. Pak ◽  
C. Yoo ◽  
J. Yoon

Water cycle analysis was performed for Gunja basin located in metropolitan Seoul using Aquacycle model in order to assess the problems of urban water cycle. From the water cycle analysis of Gunja basin, it was found that 75% of total rainfall occurred in the form of surface runoff, and groundwater recharge only accounted for about 7%. This suggests serious distortion of water cycle which can be attributed to urbanization. Feasibility analysis of reuse scenarios such as rainwater use and wastewater reuse was then performed to examine their influences on improving the water cycle. From the analysis of water reuse options, it was shown that imported water supply savings of 13% can be achieved through rainwater use, and water supply savings of 31% through wastewater reuse.


1991 ◽  
Vol 23 (1-3) ◽  
pp. 211-213
Author(s):  
Alexander H. Rotival

The International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade (IDWSSD) was launched by the General Assembly of the United Nations in November 1980 with the goal “to provide all people with water of safe quality and adequate quantity and basic sanitary facilities by 1990”. The World Bank estimates that despite the efforts during the Decade less than 50 percent of developing country populations have access to adequate water supplies and only 20 percent to adequate sanitation facilities. Major factors for the situation are the continuing population explosion and the economic stagnation of developing countries. Qualitative breakthroughs have been made however, through (i) improved coordination for sector inputs at the global and country levels, (ii) systematic formulation of country strategies, (iii) rationalization of the management of the sector, and most significantly through (iv) community involvement and (v) the adoption of low-cost sustainable and replicable technologies. The UNDP/World Bank Programme and the UNDP/WHO Decade Programmes have played a catalytic role in developing activities in these five areas. To maintain Decade momentum beyond 1990 and to accelerate the provision of water supply and sanitation services to all, with emphasis on the unserved rural and peri-urban poor, by using a coordinated programme “Decade” approach, a Framework for Global Cooperation has been established. A series of meetings of a Collaborative Council of External Support Agencies (ESAs) is involved, leading to a global consultation in India in 1990 for all developing countries to define and achieve consensus on a water and sanitation sector strategy for “Beyond the Decade”.


2012 ◽  
Vol 65 (3) ◽  
pp. 410-417 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. W. K. Leung ◽  
D. C. H. Li ◽  
W. K. Yu ◽  
H. K. Chui ◽  
T. O. Lee ◽  
...  

Development, population growth and climate change have pressurized water stress in the world. Being an urbanized coastal city, Hong Kong has adopted a dual water supply system since the 1950s for seawater toilet flushing for 80% of its 7 million inhabitants. Despite its success in saving 750,000 m3/day of freshwater, the saline sewage (consisting of about 20–30% of seawater) appears to have sacrificed the urban water cycle in terms of wastewater reuse and recycling. Can seawater toilet flushing be applied without affecting the urban water cycle with respect to sustainable water resource management? To address this issue, we examined the entire urban water cycle and developed an innovative water resource management system by integrating freshwater, seawater and reclaimed grey water into a sustainable, low-freshwater demand, low-energy consumption, and low-cost triple water supply (TWS) system. The applicability of this novel system has been demonstrated at the Hong Kong International Airport which reduced 52% of its freshwater demand.


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