How to manage the increasing sludge amount in urban areas in Vietnam? Experts said that the institutional and technological solutions need to be synchronized.
The major challenges
Nowadays, in urban areas of Vietnam, wastewater is discharged into the public sewerage system, the sludge generated from sanitation structures (toilets, septic tanks…) is sucked, collected and transported without any treatment to open-air locations such as ditches, lakes, landfills (with domestic wastes).
Furthermore, the sludge collection and transportation methods in small and medium-sized urban areas are still simple and manual while these jobs are gradually mechanized in modern urban areas. The manual methods have low productivity, unsafe and harmful to human health.
Many sludge treatment technologies have been applied in many countries in Asia, Africa or developed countries. The sludge generated from septic tanks is combined and treated with the sludge from the drainage system… However, this technology requires not only high cost in construction and operation but also high level of management.
Thus, with the increasing rapid urbanization, the challenges in sludge management and treatment also increase due to its negative impacts on environment and human health.
Efforts to find solutions
Recently, Vietnam has issued many regulations, standards related to sludge classification and management, including: QCVN 07:2009/BTNMT – National technical standard on hazardous waste threshold, considering to sludge; QCVN 25:2009/BTNMT – National technical standard on leachate of solid waste landfill; QCVN 50:2013/BTNMT – National technical standard on hazardous threshold of sludge from wastewater treatment…
Particularly, the Decree 80/2014/ND-CP dated on 6th August 2014, issued by the Government on drainage and wastewater treatment, has stipulated specifically the sludge management from drainage system, sludge management from septic tanks; as well as reuse of sludge. This is one of the most important legal documents in this sector.
According to Mr. Nguyen Hong Tien, Director of Technical Infrastructure Agency (Ministry of Construction), the related agencies should review, update and issue the regulations relevant to waste management; review and supplement issues of sludge management into urban planning, regional planning; research and apply modern technologies in sludge treatment towards minimizing waste to landfills; consider both environment and economic aspects to sort out a suitable technology while protecting environment. Besides, it is necessary to develop a sludge database including information such as quantity, types (to be treated, can be reused or recycled; to improve the investigation and supervision as well as strengthen the international cooperation in this field.
Đăng ký: VietNam News