Project: City-to-City Cooperation for Decentralised Sewerage Treatment using Eco-Tanks

In support of the 2008 International Year of Sanitation, CITYNET and UNITAR – with support from the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation – collaborated to conduct a C2C cooperation project aimed at reducing water pollution from domestic sources and raising awareness on sanitation issues using the technology and advantages of Eco-tanks. Moreover, the project helps promote partnership between local governments and community towards better sanitation improvement.

An Eco Tank is an innovative small-scale sewerage treatment system composed of a disposal tank that receives and purifies wastewater before discharging it into the environment. The compact, ready-made septic tank works independently and without power supply using anaerobic bacteria to bio-chemically transform wastewater into a safe, non-contaminated effluent. It is capable of treating all kinds of wastewater from buildings, including toilets, sinks and kitchen as well as treating sewage of up to 750 persons a day. It can also be used to treat organic waste and turn it into compost.

An Eco-tank is a modification of the “jokaso” (purification tank) used in Yokohama City, Japan. CITYNET facilitated the transfer of the “jokaso” technology from Yokohama to Bangkok, Thailand a few years ago. Subsequently, an expert from Bangkok modified the system to adapt to local needs. With the success of Eco Tank, CITYNET initiated City-to-City (C2C) cooperation between Bangkok City and Hue City, Vietnam in 2007 to apply the technology.

Specifically, the project aims to:

Reduce water pollution from domestic sources in the selected cities
Raise public awareness on sanitation issues and about the advantages of Eco-tanks, and to train people on the proper usage of Eco-tanks
Increase community participation in solving environmental problems

During the Call for Participation, eight cities have expressed their interest to apply as beneficiary city of the project. Based on their submitted application, all cities have expressed their commitment to provide the required the necessary data for the project, delegate human resources to learn about the usage of Eco Tanks, allocate resources to organise awareness raising and information sessions, prepare necessary documentations, and participate in events to report the results of the project. Thus, the focus of selecting the beneficiary cities was on the needs of the cities to access such service. Negombo was chosen because of the absence of sewerage system in the city. On the other hand, Palembang was chosen because out of the total city area (400.61 sq. km), only 1% was covered by sewerage network. San Fernando was chosen as a third beneficiary city as it expressed the need and met the necessary requirements.

Publications

An English Leaflet introducing eco-tanks has been produced by CITYNET to promote decentralised sewerage treatment and city-to-city cooperation for distribution to local governments and partners to introduce the concept on eco-sanitation. Since the core objective of the project is to reduce water pollution from domestic sources in the beneficiary cities, the leaflets would be translated into local languages by the cities so that residents would have a better understand and knowledge of the advantages of using the system. The leaflet also aims to raise awareness on sanitation issues and the advantages of eco- tanks to involve community participation in solving environmental problems.