Need to enforce effluent discharge regulations

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OPINION

By Dr Eng. Frank Kweronda

Water pollution is a severe worldwide problem that urgently requires concepts for monitoring and implementation plans to derive solutions. A significant number of emerging pollutants resulting from point and diffuse pollution are present in the aquatic environment.

One would realise that in some countries, some freshwater bodies have continuously been polluted by untreated effluent from the surrounding environment. This could be observed from the visible algae spread all over, the bad smell, and this also affects the aquatic environment and aquatic organisms like fish.

Secondly, it has been observed that utilities engaged in Operation and Maintenance of our water supply systems will face high pumping and treatment costs while extracting water from such polluted water bodies e.g. Lake Victoria, in order to make water potable for human consumption.

Effluent is defined generally as “wastewater treated or untreated that flows out of a treatment plant, sewer, or industrial outfall. Generally, it refers to wastes discharged into surface waters". Cleaning up the nation’s largest source of water pollution is a priority.

In Uganda, millions of litres of untreated and undertreated wastewater (sewage) are dumped into our waterways every year. This is an environmental, human health and economic issue. Wastewater effluents have been shown to contain a variety of anthropogenic compounds, many of which have endocrine-disrupting properties.

Effluent Guidelines are national regulatory standards for wastewater discharged to surface waters and sewage treatment plants.  

Metropolitan wastewater is one of the principal causes of water pollution in the world. Since stringent effluent limitations set by regulatory authorities can have a major impact on the local communities, a prudent regulatory decision on the needed levels of wastewater treatment is vital to areas where wastewater treatment may not be economically affordable.

This goal can only be achieved through the enforcement of the basic Principles, ground rules and management framework. The basic principles provide the broad reference framework or direction within which to develop specific ground rules for the discharge of land-based effluent to the environment, as well as the management thereof. The objectives of the regulatory requirements must be clearly defined and implementable.

The need for effluent discharge regulation can be seen as mainly to strengthen the management of all current and future point-source discharges to water. Effluent disposal standards have played a key role in controlling pollution discharges since the early 1970s in our developed countries. Strict regulations of wastewater disposal will lead us to a stage with only limited conventional water pollution problems.

On the other hand, in order to control toxic chemicals entering municipal wastewater treatment plants from industrial facilities, an effective and enforceable industrial pretreatment program must be implemented.

In addition, pollution prevention or cleaner production programs should be an integral part of these industries. Adequate sanitation is vital to a healthy society. To protect public health and the environment, human wastes must be properly collected, treated and disposed of.

The level of wastewater treatment needed depends on the method of disposal, which can be broadly classified into two categories, namely; surface water discharge and land application. Disposal to surface water-bodies, such as rivers, lakes, estuaries and oceans, is by far the most common approach in the world. A land application system refers to wastewater applied to land, and drains naturally to groundwater or surface waters.

Although effluent disposal standards may vary from country to country, some of not in existence may even be established by the jurisdiction of local regulatory agencies, the basic conventional pollutants are the same, which include suspended solids, organic matter, bacteria and nutrients. Their quantities in the water bodies indicate the degrees of pollution.

Unfortunately, sometimes it is not economically feasible to simultaneously address all pollutants of concern because the costs of removal for these pollutants increase as the treatment level increases (e.g., primary, secondary, tertiary treatment, etc.).

In our Country for example, this problem could be addressed through plant upgrading in phases with a compliance schedule. The first phase could be primary treatment, which removes some organic matter and suspended solids. The second phase could be secondary treatment, which removes most of the organic matter and suspended solids. The final phase could be advanced treatment, which removes nutrients and toxic chemicals.

Obstacles to effective wastewater management could include a lack of or poor legislation, inappropriate institutional structures, fragmentation of jurisdiction between agencies, Ministries, Departments, boards, authorities, utilities and other stakeholders.

On the other hand, lack of implementation can also be due to lack of staff capacity, lack of enforcement and lack of adequate long-term funding, among others.  Discharges must take into account the ability of the receiving environment to assimilate the wastewater.

Finally, it should always be noted that wetlands, on top of acting as homes for different living organisms, also act as a filter and store of water before it reaches lakes and rivers. Therefore, they should be protected and managed very well.

The writer is a Civil Engineer