{"id":460135,"date":"2010-03-22T18:42:32","date_gmt":"2010-03-22T22:42:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.circleofblue.org\/waternews\/?p=13707"},"modified":"2010-03-22T18:42:32","modified_gmt":"2010-03-22T22:42:32","slug":"world-water-day-panelists-urge-new-mindset-for-wastewater-treatment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/460135","title":{"rendered":"World Water Day Panelists Urge New Mindset for Wastewater Treatment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Newly-released UNEP report details challenges, benefits of expanding wastewater treatment coverage.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Sick<\/a><\/p>\n
Photo \u00a9 UNEP\/GRID-Arendal<\/div>\n
MARCH 2010: Access to improved sanitation remains a pressing issue in many regions. Green columns indicate improvement, brown indicates open defecation facilities.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

By Brett Walton
\nCircle of Blue<\/strong><\/p>\n

NAIROBI, KENYA –<\/strong> Water and sanitation experts, policy makers and government officials who gathered here at World Water Day urged national governments to emphasize wastewater management and ecosystem restoration. Foreign aid money alone, they said, cannot improve the world\u2019s water quality problems.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I had $10 billion to spend on improving water quality, I would put it toward capacity building,” said Maurice Bernard, head of the Water and Sanitation Department of the French Development Agency, “because even though development assistance can achieve much, it is far from being the solution to the problem.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cProblems often are solved by national governments,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

A theme repeated throughout the annual event \u2014 organized to raise awareness about water issues \u2014 was that improved water quality begins with rehabilitation of natural filters like wetlands and coastal mangrove forests.<\/p>\n

\u201cInvesting in nature\u2019s capacity to provide fertile soils, clean water and clean air is something the economic system has to integrate,\u201d said Achim Steiner, executive director of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).<\/p>\n

A UNEP report released today also highlighted wastewater management investment as one of the best financial decisions a government can make.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are few, if any, areas where investments in integrated planning can sustainably provide greater returns across multiple sectors than the development of water infrastructure and the promotion of improved wastewater management,\u201d according to the report, Sick Water? The Central Role of Wastewater Management in Sustainable Development<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Countries need to act quickly and plan for future needs, because the wastewater challenge is only going to grow larger, said Christian Nellemann, one of the report\u2019s co-authors.<\/p>\n

“What historically we have done is to stay focused on water quality, on monitoring and research, but relating it to people\u2019s lives and policies is something that we have not done very well before.”<\/p>\n
\u2014 Zafar Adeel, director of UN-Water<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cOver 90 percent of wastewater from developing cities goes untreated directly into the oceans,\u201d Nellemann said. \u201cAt the same time we see a rising urbanization worldwide. In less than 40 years we are going to see half of the world\u2019s population today, an additional three billion people, moving into cities. We have not considered restroom facilities for three billion people entering cities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Presenters at the many panel discussions during the day called for a new way of thinking about how to address water quality problems.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat historically we have done is to stay focused on water quality, on monitoring and research, but relating it to people\u2019s lives and policies is something that we have not done very well before,\u201d Zafar Adeel, director of UN-Water, told Circle of Blue.<\/p>\n

Others called for solutions on a smaller scale with innovative financing techniques that are more adaptable to local conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need a twenty-first century model,\u201d said Prince Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands. \u201cBusiness as usual for wastewater treatment is no longer a solution. Massive trunk and branch systems that are prone to breakdowns are not the answer. We need a wholesale paradigm shift and we need it now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The good news is that the technology needed to make these changes already exists, said Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis doesn\u2019t require the invention of magical new technologies,\u201d Gleick said. \u201cWe know how to solve water quality problems, we just have to do more of what we know how to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Circle of Blue coverage from World Water Day in Nairobi: Constructed Wetlands in a Kenyan Prison<\/a> and The Economics of Water Quality<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Newly-released UNEP report details challenges, benefits of expanding wastewater treatment coverage. Photo \u00a9 UNEP\/GRID-Arendal MARCH 2010: Access to improved sanitation remains a pressing issue in many regions. Green columns indicate improvement, brown indicates open defecation facilities. By Brett Walton Circle of Blue NAIROBI, KENYA – Water and sanitation experts, policy makers and government officials who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5528,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-460135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5528"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460135\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}