Decentralized Wastewater Management Policy.

This sectoral Policy is an integral part of the National Water Strategy 2016-2025 and it refers to WWTPs with a capacity of up to 5,000 Population Equivalent (PE). Its main objective is to formulate a decentralized wastewater management within an integrated water resources management approach, taking into account the concept of involvement at all levels: of the concerned authorities in its development, of communities in its planning and implementation and of the private sector in investing and operating for the maintenance of the wastewater infrastructure. The Government by formulating this Policy has been guided by the following principles: sustainable development; public health and environmental protection; water scarcity matters; improving living conditions, especially in suburban and rural areas; water quality control; improvement of wastewater services; public and private participation; and adaptation to climate change.
The advantages of the Decentralized Wastewater Management Systems are: 1.ensure the protection of groundwater from pollution with untreated wastewater (the Policy also provides for the identification of Groundwater Risk Sites, areas that have caused or might cause contamination to the groundwater resource nearby); 2.provide most cost-efficient adequate wastewater collection and treatment systems covering to the best extent possible all types of wastewater management demands; 3.provide alternative water resources for fresh water substitution; 4.expand connection to sewerage by implementing decentralized wastewater management where centralized sewerage cannot reach. The involvement of the private sector in new wastewater management and O&M services aims at strengthening performance-based, consumer-oriented, and cost-efficient operations. In order to identify most cost-efficient wastewater management solutions and to determine whether a centralized or a decentralized approach is economically more appropriate for a specific case, the Assessment of Local Lowest-Cost Wastewater Solutions (ALLOWS) decision-support tool shall be applied (the document places a detailed analysis of the objectives and the functioning of this tool).
The last item considered by the Policy is the importance of the technology selection for the decentralized wastewater management that should be conducted through different phases, considered that every project requires a careful selection of treatment technologies and modules suitable to the specific treatment situation. The document explains and summarizes the necessary steps and elements to be considered in the application of the project.