IWA Hanoi San. Options paper

I. INTRODUCTION

Peri-urban and rural areas face an urgent sanitation crisis in Việt Nam. Affected by increasing urbanization and industrialization, they are located outside the limits of urban infrastructures and need flexible adapted solutions.

Lai Xá is a typical village of the Red River Delta region, located 20 km west of Hà Nội City centre. Most villagers from this community of 900 households are still upholding traditional farming values while others are searching jobs in the city. Before the project, flooding caused by rainfall and waste-water accumulation occurred very often. Also adding to the problem is the flat topography and the already existing uncollected garbage. The groundwater table is fairly high and the regional irrigation channel brings in high volumes of urban waste-water which is traditionally used for agriculture. The quality of this irrigation water has been decreasing in recent years with increasing urbanization and industrialization in the area. The village presents dense and mixed constructions, with living spaces, breeding livestock, food-processing operations and handicraft productions located in close proximity to each other. The waste-water problem is therefore not strictly related to the lack of toilets.

Simple, low-cost technologies are available for these kinds of urban sanitation problems; they are significant alternatives for communities without access to proper sanitation services. In spite of high investments in most urban areas of the world, the number of inhabitants without access to sanitation is unfortunately still increasing year by year. Urban governments, with the support of international aid, are mostly investing in downtown commercial districts and in “hardware” networks (i.e. main sewer collectors and treatment stations). These structures do not usually reach the poor neighbourhoods, the latter ending up with both inadequate drainage and solid-waste collection. Even where some services exist, they are often in poor condition because of bad planning, questionable design, improper operation and insufficient maintenance. Sanitation problems are therefore often resolved locally in an informal way, resulting in downstream discharges of waste that contaminate the next district of the city.

Sanitation and drainage services are practically absent outside large cities in Việt Nam. 68% of the urban populations have access to a hygienic latrine, compared to 11% of rural populations [9]. Urban drainage has improved in the last few decades but most existing drains date back to French colonization (pre-1954) and are much damaged. Most recent investments come from international aid and are focused on reducing flooding in urban areas. Compared to water supply, sanitation is clearly not a priority yet for the Việt Namese government: no national institutional framework has been adopted yet. Urban sanitation has been decentralized to provincial authorities without according proper budgets. Projects are still submitted to the central government where financing is granted on a per-case basis. Rural sanitation has been tackled by many international donors as part of the poverty reduction strategy. However, these rural projects focus mainly on the supply of individual private latrines; drainage and communal waste-water treatment are not considered yet in rural areas.

The NGO Youth with a Mission (YWAM) implemented the Lai Xá environmental project as a micro-scale pilot of community-managed environmental services in 2003. The IESE experts served as technical consultants. In 2005, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) began to provide support to Lai Xá through the project “Advanced environmental protection model in delta area communities and its assessment for scaling up”. IESE was the main implementing institution. This paper presents results and lessons drawn from Lai Xá projects supported by YWAM and MONRE.

II. PROJECT APPROACH, ACTIVITIES

1. IEC and planning

The international NGO YWAM has been working in Lai Xá and its commune since 1999. Their working approach is mostly demand-based and community-driven development. After smaller projects for the local health centre and daycare, YWAM decided to move onto a more comprehensive multi-phase environmental project in Lai Xá. Their objective was to demonstrate a community-based model of environmental management.

The YWAM NGO, the commune leaders and the village leaders agreed on a step-by-step approach to develop the infrastructure. The solid waste problem was made a first priority. The second step involved addressing the drainage network, and was followed by the creation of a waste-water treatment system. The committee’s position was that pollution had to be dealt with efficiently before the construction of a clean water supply system. For all project phases, YWAM would pay 50% of total implementation costs. They would also help the commune and village to reduce their costs and improve the sustainability of the project.

Table 1. Step-by-step approach to environmental infrastructure

The solid waste management phase of the project was held from 2001 to 2003. The second phase on drainage and waste-water management started in 2004 and is planned to end in 2008. Both phases used the same participatory approach. The first step was an educational and communication campaign on sanitation, hygiene, and the environment. On top of general public educational campaigns (message boards, public radio and various activities), a specific campaign was organized for a group of village leaders and selected activists. These activists were representatives from all social organizations and groups of residents; they were trusted individuals in the village.

The group of 40 activists, who received a deeper technical training on the sanitation system over 6 weekends by the technical consultant, would later teach their own group about the project and the sanitation service. Through the socio-cultural networks and mass organizations, the activists could reach more than 94% of the population through direct contact. The objective of this method was to create a core of trusted leaders in the village that would support the project after the NGO leaves.

The activists and interested households had also a voice in the final planning of the projects. Informational headquarters were set up in the community hall, and covered each important phase of the project. Prior to finalizing projects, public discussion was encouraged with local leaders to agree on such issues as location of sewers, establishment of monthly fees, compulsory and optional actions, etc.

The waste management fees were introduced and were then gradually increased. Currently, 80% of households in Lai Xá have joined the separation-at-source program where the organic wastes are collected at the Composting Station. The non-organic waste is also collected and disposed in the local landfill. The fees are used to pay the operation and maintenance costs, as well as the salaries of the 6 employees in charge of the service.

The drainage and waste-water management system was much more expensive than the solid waste treatment infrastructures. The approach for financing the second and third phases has therefore been gradual, with households highly encouraged to participate and contribute to the construction. A local construction committee formed of 15 inhabitants was trained to follow the contractor’s work and to report on the quality of the work to the village assembly. The committee’s developed expertise was therefore useful, because its participants could, in return, support their neighbours in the construction of their own septic tank and the connection to the sewer. Using a committee-based approach fostered the appropriation of this new infrastructure in Lai Xá.

By the absence of a government institution managing the service, the village president found an innovative way to guarantee a long-term commitment from the households. He made each family sign an agreement that it would use the sewer appropriately and pay the monthly fee as soon as the waste-water treatment station would be in operation. Improper users faced local sanctions with fines on top of having their names blacklisted at village meetings.

2. Technical solutions

The chosen technology was going to be low-cost and made simple for easy local operation and maintenance. The solid waste management system in the first phase includes manual carts for collection, covered shed for composting and open landfill for inorganic waste. Recyclable materials are already picked up informally by households or vendors. Compost is mainly produced through manual mixing. The final compost is shredded, grinded and put into bags. The leachate is treated in a sand filter bed.

In the second phase, a combined sewerage and drainage system was chosen since it was cheaper and since most households were already using septic tanks. The latter help to reduce the amount of solid material in the sewer. Eight combined sewer-overflows (CSOs) were added to avoid flooding on heavy rainy days.

Households were taught to build their own drain, screen and grid, and connect it to the secondary lane drainage. All new water toilets were to be completed with septic tanks that were designed properly. Unsewered households were taught about improved onsite sanitation: Ventilated improved pit (VIP) latrines and composting dry toilets, which were already used traditionally in the village but were viewed as outdated and not as modern as water toilets [6].

Decentralized waste-water treatment was planned. Six community baffled septic tanks with anaerobic filters (BASTAF), followed by sub-surface horizontal-flow constructed wetlands have been designed for the village six clusters. Treated waste-water would then flow into the irrigation channels planted with aquatic macrophytes or to the fish pond. Two waste-water treatment stations are already in operation, serving 80 and 160 households respectively.

Figure 1. The first Baffled Septic Tank with Anaerobic Filter (BASTAF) for 80 households in Lai Xá.

Figure 2. The second Baffled Septic Tank with Anaerobic Filter (BASTAF) followed by the Horizontal Sub-surface Horizontal-flow Constructed Wetland for 160 households in Lai Xá.

III. ACHIEVED RESULTS

The improvement of infrastructure and its positive impacts on the local society has been confirmed by all interviewed villagers. Changes in hygiene behaviors and health improvements in the village in the last 5 years have been analyzed in 2006 by Beauséjour [2] through participatory assessments (Figs. 3 and 4). Changes in behavior were observed through discussions with woman groups while the reductions in disease frequency were measured with consensus-reaching interviews with local health professionals.

Figures 3 and 4. Health and behaviour improvements measured through participative assessments [2].

Without extra financial support, households were encouraged to improve their individual toilets, drainage and septic tanks. Households with access to showers and hygienic toilets (composting or water toilets) went from 25% to 60% in 5 years. Most residents are now aware of the high level of iron and ammonia in Lai Xá groundwater [3] and more than 80% of households now use rainwater for drinking and cooking. Most households also agreed to improve their waste-water drain with screen and grid chamber before connecting to the sewer network. Visible physical improvements in the village include: less solid waste on streets, ditches and vacant fields; reduced flooding on rainy days; less stagnant water lying around; and more compost available for agriculture and for resale.

Due to the small scale of this project, it was possible to calculate the economic benefits for the community using the WHO economist method [4]. In their article, Hutton and Haller used a detailed economic method to give an economic value to all potential benefits related to sanitation. Their calculations are based on WHO statistics for each country, which we could also use if a local (Lai Xá) value could not be determined precisely. Benefits in Lai Xá were calculated in terms of: reduction of diarrhea, reduction in flooding, and increased agricultural productivity. These variables were each calculated in details terms of a savings in time, cost and health. The calculations can be considered as being highly conservative: various water-related diseases apart from diarrhea can be reduced with sanitation and could not be considered. Furthermore, the assessment was made at a time when no treatment stations were yet operational.

For a total project cost of around 24 US$ per household per year (including all costs related to implementation, operation and maintenance), benefits of 100 US$ per household per year are created. This represents a benefit of 4,16 $ for each invested dollar. Details of this calculation can be found in the author dissertation [2].

IV. DISCUSSIONS AND CONCLUSIONS

One main research hypothesis raised from this case study analysis is that the leveraging of more local resources could help reduce the gap in financing for environmental sanitation. The financial needs are actually much higher than the current investments from combined international aid and a central Việt Namese government. Households and communities usually present a high level of willingness-to-pay if projects respond to local need. The second hypothesis is that current financial resources should be increasingly invested in activities that promote sustainability of sanitation structures, like promotion, education and simpler technologies.

In the Lai Xá case, the interest in maintaining cleanliness and in reusing waste-water were key factors in encouraging participation and in promoting a willingness-to-pay for waste-water treatment. Success of Lai Xá project has again confirmed the need for IEC activities. IEC should be conducted in advance, along with the other project activities, and maintained after its completion. However, the case-study also highlights the great lack of capacities needed to support the further decentralization of sanitation towards local authorities.

The actor relationship analysis in the Lai Xá project has shown that traditional socio-political structures like social mass organizations and user group representatives, under the People’s Committee (PC) coordination role, are major actors with very significant influence on project outputs and activities [7] (Fig. 5).

Compared to other documented rural projects, the factors that affect household contribution are much more complex in Lai Xá. The objective is not only to make them buy a latrine, but also to promote sustainable use and maintenance for common benefits. Household contributions represent a promising way to reduce the financing gap in sanitation; nevertheless, a significant portion of public resources have to be invested in comprehensive planning, capacity-building and coordination. Central and provincial governments still have to take leadership to support community initiatives.

Figure 5. Example of a local management scheme.

Even in small communities like Lai Xá, market- and demand-based approaches alone (i.e. promoting attractive technologies and promising benefits) cannot support sustainable access to sanitation. Urban public technologies like sewerage and common treatment plants need comprehensive management and long-term planning. The contributions from households are significant and should be made a priority in order to increase the financing of sanitation.

Waste management strategies can be adapted to local contexts by taking into consideration such things as natural conditions, financial affordability, social acceptance, and local business needs. Household-centered approaches, decentralized technologies, and low-cost waste-water treatment processes, have been found to be the most appropriate for the Vietnamese rural and peri-urban areas like Lai Xá.

REFERENCES

1. Beauséjour J., Nguyen V.A., 2007. Decentralized sanitation implementation in Việt Nam: A peri-urban case-study. J. W. Sci. Tech, 56/5 : 141-148.

2. Beauséjour J., 2008. Alternatives to centralized sanitation in developing countries: the case of peri-urban areas of Việt Nam. PhD. Thesis in Aménagement (Urban planning) at Université de Montréal, Canada (in French).

3. Büsser S., Pham Thuy Nga, Morel Antoine, Nguyen Viet Anh, 2007. Characteristics and quantities of domestic waste-water in urban and peri-urban households in Hà Nội. J. CEETIA News, 1.

4. Hutton G., Haller L., 2004. Evaluation of costs and benefits of water and sanitation improvements at the global level. WHO, Geneva.

5. Mara D., Drangert J. O., Nguyen V. A., Tonderski A., Gulyas H., Tonderski K., 2007. Selection of sustainable sanitation arrangements. J. W. Policy, 9 : 305-318.

6. Nguyễn V.A., 2007. Septic tank and improved septic tank. Construction Publ. House, Hà Nội (in Vietnamese).

7. Nguyễn V.A, Morel A., Trần H.N., 2008. Decentralized approach to waste-water management: A true potential for Việt Nam. J. Construction, 3 : 25-28 (in Vietnamese).

8. Rural Water Supply and Environmental Sanitation, 2008. Journal of the National Centre for Rural Water Supply and Sanitation (NCERWASS), 2 : 5-8 (in Vietnamese).

9. World Bank, 2004. Việt Nam Infrastructure Strategy. Water and Sanitation sector. Hà Nội.