The Value of Decentralisation in Wastewater Management: Gauteng Province Case Study, South Africa

Authors

  • Cornelius Chris Reynders C Reynders Consulting, Private Bag X43, Wilropark, 1731 South Africa
  • Harmony Musiyarira Polytechnic of Namibia, P Bag 13388, Windhoek, Namibia
  • Prvoslav Marjanovic Educons University, Sremska Kamenica, Serbia and Institute for the Development of Water Resources “Jaroslav Cerni”, Belgrade, Serbia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.26458/jedep.v1i2.14

Keywords:

Water resource protection, Sustainable wastewater management, Centralized wastewater management, Decentralized wastewater management, Production (output distance) function, environmental benefits valuing

Abstract

In a semi-arid water scarce country like South Africa, the efficient use of limited water resources and measures to extend the service value of these resources is a prerequisite for achieving sustainable development. The conventional supply-sided management approach to water supply causes increased wastewater generation with accompanied increased pollution loads requiring higher levels of mitigation environmental pollution. Where disposal of wastewater treatment effluent takes place in rivers and natural water bodies, the lack of adequate natural compensating capacity of such water bodies typically result in severe ecological damage of the aquatic environment. With a shift of emphasis to a sustainable demand side management approach (as opposed to a supply side one), the avoidance of water wastage and high wastewater generation represents both resource conservation and environmental protection friendly approaches and contribute to overall sustainability. The integrated nature of water supply and wastewater management systems require an approach that considers these systems holistically. A new paradigm for water management is therefore needed to ensure that the issues of waste disposal and pollution are dealt with in a sustainable manner taking into account the emerging objectives of modern society for resource conservation and environmental protection.A balance therefore has to be found between the uses of additional fresh water resources as a means of satisfying en ever increasing water demand on the one hand and alternative unconventional resource exploration and employment, without the risk of depletion of natural available fresh water resource flow, irreversible harm to the environment and social and economic constraints.This paper explores wastewater and grey water reuse as unconventional resources in a qualitative manner within this balancing equation. It further proposes a methodology for deriving monetary indicator values for wastewater reuse by internalising negative environmental impacts. This is achieved through application of Lagrangian optimisation of the treatment plant production function (output distance function) for deriving marginal prices of contaminant removal and resulting avoided pollution.

References

Al-Jayyousi, O.R. 2003, "Greywater reuse: towards sustainable water management", Desalination, vol. 156, no. 1-3, pp. 181-192.

Birol, E., Karousakis, K. & Koundouri, P. 2006, "Using economic valuation techniques to inform water resources management: A survey and critical appraisal of available techniques and an application", Science of The Total Environment, vol. 365, no. 1-3, pp. 105-122.

Burton, S., Cohen, B., Harrison, S., Pather-Elias, S., Stafford, W., van Hille, R. & von Blottnitz, H. 2009, Energy from Wastewater - a Feasibility study, WRC, South Africa.

Christova-Boal, D., Eden, R.E. & McFarlane, S. 1996, "An investigation into greywater reuse for urban residential properties", Desalination, vol. 106, no. 1-3, pp. 391-397.

Dixon, A., Butler, D. & Fewkes, A. 1999, "Water Saving Potential of Domestic Water Reuse Systems using Greywater and Rainwater in combination", Water Science and Technology, vol. 39, no. 5, pp. 25-32.

Dolnicar, S. & Shafer, A.I. 2009, "Desalinated versus recycled water: Public Perceptions and Profiles of the Accepters", Journal of Environmental Management, vol. 90, pp. 888-900.

Eriksson, E., Auffarth, K., Henze, M. & Ledin, A. 2002, "Characteristics of grey wastewater", Urban Water, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 85-104.

Färe, R., Grosskopf, S., Lovell, C.A.K. & Yaisawarng, S. 1993, "Derivation of Shadow Prices for Undesirable Outputs: A Distance Function Approach", The review of economics and statistics, vol. 75, no. 2, pp. 374-380.

Farrell, M.J. 1957, "The Measurement of Productive Efficiency", Journal of the Royal Statistical Society.Series A (General), vol. 120, no. 3, pp. 253-290.

Gijzen, H.J. 1998, "Sustainable Wastewater Management via Re-use: Turning Waste into Wealth", Proc. AGUA98 - Water and Sustainability July 1998 Cali Columbia, ed. M.e.a. Garcia, Cinara Institute Universidad Del Valle, Cali Columbia, pp. 211.

Gijzen, H.J. 2001, "Anaerobes, aerobes and phototrophs A winning team for wastewater management", Water Science and Technology, vol. 44, no. 8, pp. 123-132.

Haarhoff, J. & van der Merwe, B. 1996, "Twenty-five years of Wastewater Reclamation in Windhoek Namibia", Water Science and Technology, vol. 33, no. 10, pp. 25-35.

Lazarova, V., Hills, S. & Birks, R. 2003, "Using recycled water for non-potable, urban uses: a review with particular reference to toilet flushing", Water Science & Technology: Water Supply, vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 69-77.

Lettinga, G., Lens, P. & Zeeman, G. 2001, "Part 1: The DESAR concept for environmental protection. Section 1 Environmental Protection Technologies for Sustainable Development" in Decentralized Sanitation and Reuse - Concepts , Systems and Implementation, eds. P. Lens, G. Zeeman & G. Lettinga, IWA Publishing, , pp. 1-10.

Li, F., Wichmann, K. & Otterpohl, R. 2009, "Evaluation of appropriate technologies for grey water treatments and reuses", Water Science & Technology, vol. 59, no. 2, pp. 249-260.

O’Donnell, C.J. & Coelli, T.J. 2005, "A Bayesian approach to imposing curvature on distance functions", Journal of Econometrics, vol. 126, no. 2, pp. 493-523.

Reynders C.C. (2011). A Methodology for Economic Assessment of Wastewater Intrinsic Value Recovery using an Indirect Production Function Approach. PhD thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Reynders, C.C., Musiyarira, H. & Marjanovic, P. 2010, "Development of a Decision Support System for Sustainable Wastewater Management in smaller South African municipalities", 11th WaterNET/WARFSA/GWP-SA Symposium 2010, 27-28 October 2010.

Rocky Mountain Institute 2004, Valuing Decentralized Wastewater Technologies. A Catalog of Benefits, Costs, and Economic Analysis Techniques, Rocky Mountain Institute, Snowmass CO 81654 USA.

Shephard, R.W. 1970, Theory of cost and production functions, (Princeton studies in mathematical economics), Princeton University Press.

United Nations 2009, Department of Economic and Social Affairs; Population Division

World Urbanization Prospects, the 2009 Revision. Available: http://esa.un.org/unpd/wup/index.htm [2011, 1/3/2011].

United Nations 2010, The Millenium Development Goals Report 2010. Available: http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/reports.shtml [2011, 1/3/2011].

UNEP/GEC 2004, Water and Wastewater Reuse - An Environmentally sound approach for Sustainable Urban Water Management, United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), The Hague, The Netherlands.

WHO/UNEP 2006, Guidelines for the safe use of wastewater, excreta and greywater

Volume 4, Excreta and greywater use in agriculture, WHO, Geneva, Switzerland.

Downloads

Published

2012-07-21

How to Cite

Reynders, C. C., Musiyarira, H., & Marjanovic, P. (2012). The Value of Decentralisation in Wastewater Management: Gauteng Province Case Study, South Africa. Journal of Economic Development, Environment and People, 1(2), 65–84. https://doi.org/10.26458/jedep.v1i2.14

Issue

Section

Articles