Wastewater Management and Treatment

This report combines for the first time data reported by Member States on collection and treatment of urban waste water6 and on implementation programmes7. This gives a clear view on the compliance gaps and the intended action by Member States to fill those gaps, as well as the estimated investment needs and timelines to meet them.

Other languages available at http://ec.europa.eu/environment/water/water-urbanwaste/implementation/implementationreports_en.htm

The Compendium of Sanitation Systems and Technologies was first published in 2008 during the International Year of Sanitation. Since then it has been translated into several languages and distributed digitally by various sector organizations. The document’s popularity lies in its brevity - structuring and presenting a huge range of information on tried and tested technologies in a single document. As in the first edition, we do not consider sanitation technologies that are under development for that exist only as prototypes. Also, we only include “improved” sanitation technologies that provide
safe, hygienic, and accessible sanitation. Like the first edition, we include the whole range of urban, peri-urban and rural technologies (e.g., from single pits to conventional sewers).

The Compendium is a guidance document for engineers and planners in low- and middle-income countries, primarily intended to be used for communicative planning processes involving local communities. It is also intended for persons/experts who have detailed knowledge about conventional high-end technologies and require information on infrastructure and different system configurations. It is not intended as a stand-alone document for engineers, making decisions for the community, e.g., expert-driven decision-making.

Sanitation21 is an important component of the global sanitation toolkit, which presents a planning framework based on international best practices. Initially developed in 2006, this updated version builds on recent experiences where good planning has formed an integral part of achieving improvements in urban sanitation.
In the context of this document, planning is essentially about responding to real needs and making informed decisions about investments for sanitation improvements involving the prudent use of resources to meet recognized priorities. It helps to identify where investments are required, secure the necessary finances for implementation, and enable cost-recovery for long-term sustainability of sanitation services.
The document sets out key principles and process guidelines to help city stakeholders develop appropriate and affordable solutions to sanitation problems, taking into account technology issues, management arrangements, institutional challenges and demands for improvement from different stakeholders.

There is a great need for wastewater treatment for all sources of pollution < 2,000 p.e. in Central and Eastern Europe and there is an obvious potential for natural treatment systems. There is more and more scientific evidence that the natural treatment systems are very efficient treatment technologies
and there are many fine examples of the use of natural treatment systems for purification of many types of wastewater, sludge handling and use of purified water for irrigation.

The publication “Natural Technologies of Wastewater Treatment” provides a comprehensive overview about the construction, operation and treatment performance of various types natural of treatment systems. Also, it provides information about waste management and the use of treated
wastewater for irrigation. The publication is easy to follow and the theory is supported with well selected photographs and drawings. 

This review of wastewater management in Danube region under EU water policies shows that, despite several challenges, the UWWTD has indeed delivered results for the people and environment in Danube region. The share of wastewater treated according to the UWWTD requirements is showing a major improvement since 2004, demonstrating impact of massive investment efforts undertaken, and resulting in significant emission reduction in the recent past. This has resulted in a noticeable water quality improvement over the last 20 years for both organic pollutants and nutrients. At the same time, the review points out to several challenges. Implementation capacity is often neglected and insufficiently prepared. The necessary tariff increases, a consequence of investment in new infrastructure and related O&M cost increases, trigger affordability issues for the bottom 40 percent of population. A lack of the necessary sectoral institutional reforms, has resulted in lower than planned absorption of available funds and delays in UWWTD compliance. These challenges also represent opportunities in the implementation of the current Directive within and beyond the Member States, and its potential review. The current implementation of the Directive could be made more efficient using sound economic appraisal to prioritize investments according to their cost-effectiveness while maintaining public health and environmental benefits and achievement of WFD objectives. 

The report aims to illustrate the wastewater challenge
and reuse opportunity in eight cities across the globe, presenting
a reuse roadmap and identifying priorities and benefits
to meeting SDG target 6.3. The cities profiled in this
report are not the ‘usual suspects’ of pioneering cities who
have been on this trajectory for some time, but rather cities
small and large from developing countries where the existing
and future challenges are felt more acutely and the need for
change is pressing.

This 7th Report on the implementation of the EU Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive describes the progress made up to the end of 2009/2010. The Report also includes trends in compliance and presents the new approach for "compliance promotion" and its steps towards public information and reporting. In addition to this Report, an Annex with Tables and a more detailed technical "Report" is available from the European Commission's website (http://ec.europa.eu/environment/water/water-urbanwaste/implementation/implementationreports_en.htm). 

This report summarizes teh results of a recent European Court of Auditors audit of EU funding of urban waste water treatment in the Danube Watershed. Waste water and sewage sludge can affect the quality of waters and soils. In response to this, the EU has adopted directives and co-financed the building of collecting systems and waste water treatment plants. The Court checked the implementation of the urban waste water treatment directive in four Member States of the Danube river basin. It also examined a sample of 28 treatment plants, to see how they treated waste water, handled sewage sludge and assured financial sustainability. The Court makes recommendations on reporting, on ways to improve effectiveness, efficiency and the sustainability of treatment plants, on the relevance of concentration limits, on the use of sewage sludge and on monitoring pollutants in sludge.

The aim of this Manual is to promote informed decision-making by operators, managers and regulators in their daily routine, as well as to encourage them to engage actively in the national debates that will take place in many countries where the HRWS is being translated into national and local policy, legislation, and regulation.

Some 3 in 10 people worldwide, or 2.1 billion, lack access to safe, readily available water at home, and 6 in 10, or 4.5 billion, lack safely managed sanitation, according to a new report by WHO and UNICEF.

The Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) report, Progress on drinking water, sanitation and hygiene: 2017 update and Sustainable Development Goal baselines, presents the first global assessment of “safely managed” drinking water and sanitation services. The overriding conclusion is that too many people still lack access, particularly in rural areas.

“Safe water, sanitation and hygiene at home should not be a privilege of only those who are rich or live in urban centres,” says Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “These are some of the most basic requirements for human health, and all countries have a responsibility to ensure that everyone can access them.”

Under the activity analytical and advisory work of the World Bank / IAWD Danube Water Program, the Umweltbundesamt (Environment Agency Austria) was entrusted in March 2017 with the execution of this study. It aims to assess the results of UWWTD implementation in the Danube Region, taking into account environmental, economic, sustainability and affordability aspects, in order to derive key conclusions and recommendations. Target countries were the following eight EU Member Countries of the Danube: Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. The specific objective of this study was to assess the key challenges and actions that countries in the Danube basin can use for wastewater management.

Under the activity analytical and advisory work of the World Bank / IAWD Danube Water Program, the Umweltbundesamt (Environment Agency Austria) was entrusted in March 2017 with the execution of this study. It aims to assess the results of UWWTD implementation in the Danube Region, taking into account environmental, economic, sustainability and affordability aspects, in order to derive key conclusions and recommendations. Target countries were the following eight EU Member Countries of the Danube: Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. The specific objective of this study was to assess the key challenges and actions that countries in the Danube basin can use for wastewater management. This document includes the annexes to the main report, which is uploaded separately.