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A NEW CHAPTER FOR TOURISM DEVELOPMENT &
ECO-SUSTAINABILITY
INNOVATIVE WASTE WATER TREATMENT APPLICATIONS
FOR ISLAND & COASTAL RESORTS
(A Sabah - Malaysia based Company)
Don E. Baker Jr.
Marine Resources & Aquaculture Consultant
[email protected] Trinidad Soom / KM 129 / Bohol, Philippines
6324
FEBRUARY 2015
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Across the Globe today the continued increase of human
settlements on coastal and
island regions, especially in tropical settings, the lack of
properly treated sewage emanating
from these communities has been suggested, through numerous
research venues, that
human waste is causing coral diseases that are currently
devastating coral reef ecosystems
(Nat. Geo. News / June 27, 2002). Land-based pollution as
untreated sewage from urban
areas, coastal development, island villages, and runoff from
chemicals used in agriculture
cause sedimentation and mass algal growth which further
threatens coral reefs. Currently
22% of the worlds coral reefs are under medium to high risk from
these land-based sources
of pollution.
Our Global coral reef ecosystems cover an area of over 280,000
km2 and support
thousands of species in what many describe as the rainforests of
the seas as well as
supporting tens of millions of humans that rely on the same for
their daily sustenance.
Coral reefs benefit the environment and people in numerous ways
by
Protecting shores from the impact of waves and from storms;
Providing benefits to humans in the form of food and
medicine;
Providing economic benefits to local communities from
tourism.
The chart above depicts the breakdown of component values that
contribute to the global annual
value of coral ecosystems (NOAA, Coral Reef Conservation
Program,
http://coralreef.noaa.gov/aboutcorals/values/)
INTRODUCTION
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Healthy coral ecosystems support local businesses and economies,
as well
as provide jobs through tourism and recreation. Every year,
millions of scuba
divers and snorkelers visit coral reefs to enjoy their abundant
sea life. Even more
tourists visit the beaches protected by these reefs. Local
economies receive billions
of dollars from these visitors to reef regions through diving
tours, recreational
fishing trips, hotels, restaurants, and other businesses based
near reef ecosystems.
One estimate places the total global value of coral-reef based
recreation and
tourism at $9.6 billion of the total global net benefit of coral
reefs.
(Cesar, H.J.S., Burke, L., and Pet-Soede, L. 2003. The Economics
of Worldwide
Coral Reef Degradation.)
Well over 20% of the worlds coral reef ecosystems have been
destroyed without
any hope of their recovery or rehabilitation. They are lost and
gone forever. Furthermore,
some 24% of the worlds coral reefs are pending total collapse
caused by continual human
presence and development. The reefs of the nearby Philippine
ARMM Province of Tawi
Tawi have been ravished with species specific over harvesting.
Large fishes and groupers
are rare to be seen throughout the province. Sea cucumbers are
mostly extinct in and
around the main islands.
The future is horrific. There is no hope of reefs surviving to
even mid-century in any form that we now recognize. If, and when,
they go, they will take with them about one-third of the worlds
marine biodiversity. Then there is a domino effect, as reefs fail
so will other ecosystems. This is the path of a mass extinction
event, when most life, especially tropical marine life, goes
extinct.
Charlie Veron, quoted by David Adam, How global warming sealed
the fate of the worlds coral reefs, The Guardian, September 2,
2009
For tourism to flourish at or near a coral reef ecosystem,
freshwater is the main basic need for human beings to survive,
whereas, food may be limited and even suspended for days at a time.
However, freshwater is needed on daily basis for us to survive.
With the advent of coastal and island tourism facilities,
freshwater is needed to sustain its growing industry in greater
quantities to support more and more visiting tourists.
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If it were for only drinking and limited cooking, the daily
basic need would be approximately 5 litres per person per day.
(Bromberek, Zbigniew, 2009) Unfortunately, the majority use of
freshwater is primarily used for showers, toilet flushing, and
general rinsing. This puts the daily freshwater use per person to
be no less than 150 L. The reuse of non-toilet waste water (grey
water) is often utilized for hotel and resort landscaping but
rarely for reasons of costs incurred for installing a system to
safely pre-treat the same waste water. The lack of addressing
adequate treatment regimens is tantamount to killing the very reefs
that are meant to sustain the dive tourism industry.
The water that comes out from the kitchen after cleaning the
utensils etc. contains the residuals of washing / soap powder, oil,
food particles etc. The water which comes from bathrooms also
contains soap detergents, dirt etc. As both of them does not
include urine and faecal matter (human excreta, night-soil) is so
termed as non-foul wastewater. The water that carries excreta along
with it, i.e. from the water sources is known as foul wastewater.
Actually these days the bathrooms and WCs are constructed in a
single unit known as the toilet, so wastewater from a toilet is
foul wastewater. The term foul here means the readily biodegradable
matter that quickly degrades and results in offensive odours and
gases such as methane. The common use of septic chambers is usually
the first chosen waste water treatment method, whereas, it is
simply a tank with varied inlet and out ports.
A septic tank is a combination of sedimentation and digestion
mechanism where the sewage is held for 24 or more hours (retention
time). During this period the suspended solids are biologically
liquefied and those that are not simply settle down to the bottom.
The direct outflow of the sewage is restricted by the provision of
baffle walls or inner chambers. As the tank is built or installed
underground and there is no oxygen (and sunlight) so the anaerobic
digestion of settled solids (sludge) and sewage takes place. The
bacteria decompose even the dissolved organic matter and thus
reduce the BOD. This results in the reduction in the volume of
sludge and release of gases like carbon dioxide, methane and
hydrogen sulphide. Appropriate arrangement for the ventilation of
the septic tank is often made but also often neglected.
The effluent of the septic tank, although clarified to a large
extent, will still contain
appreciable amount of dissolved and suspended putrescible
(actively decaying) organic solids and pathogens. Therefore the
effluent of septic tanks should be carefully disposed of. Often it
is not treated further and injected into an underground leach field
which creates further problems with regards to ground water
resources, freshwater wells, rivers, streams, and other water shed
features.
Septic tanks are difficult to properly maintain in tropical
environments and require
de-sludging on an annual basis. Effluent even from properly
maintained septic tanks is high in nutrient constituents, high in
pathogens-bacteria, and extremely harmful to coral reef ecology;
causing suspended algae blooms as well as aiding in benthic
macro-algae to compete with live coral coverage.
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Though commonly used in island villages and resorts in tropical
regions, septic tanks are primarily designed for in ground use
where the effluent is injected into the ground-soil via a leach
field. Septic effluent water should never be directly discharged to
the sea or water sheds.
Water is a very good carrier of many diseases producing
organisms (pathogens); be it fresh or salt water. If urine or
faecal matter (excreta) is mixed in a body of water and the person
contributing it has some disease like cholera, gastroentitis,
infectious hepatitis jaundice, typhoid, etc., it will infect the
same water medium. Anybody using, swimming, diving in that water
without treatment (disinfection) is liable to catch the same
disease.
Human faecal contamination of near shore and off-shore coral
reef environments has been clearly demonstrated in the Florida Keys
and elsewhere in the Caribbean and is associated with waterborne
disease in humans. In response, the state of Florida passed
legislation to improve water quality in the Florida Keys by
requiring the upgrade of all wastewater facilities, including
in-ground receptacles, to the best available technology or to
advanced wastewater treatment at an estimated cost of $939 million.
(Sutherland KP, Shaban S, Joyner JL, Porter JW, Lipp EK (2011)
Human Pathogen Shown to Cause Disease in the Threatened Eklhorn
Coral Acropora palmata.)
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(Chia, L.S. 2000. Overview of Impact of Sewage on the Marine
Environment of East Asia: Social and Economic
Opportunities. EAS/RCU Technical Report Series No. 15.)
Within Asia, some 90 per cent of sewage is untreated and is
discharged directly into freshwater bodies and the sea. There are
many problems encountered in the implementation of sewage
management including inadequate waste management legislation and
regulations, ineffective enforcement of regulations, insufficient
or inadequate waste management facilities and services, and lack of
skilled human resources and equipment in the public and private
sectors. (Chia, 2000)
The fundamental requirements of an effective sewage management
programme are a comprehensive set of legislation and well-endowed
environmental institutions empowered by law. In general, there is
no separate legal provision for dealing with sewage in most nations
worldwide. The control of sewage pollution should be covered under
the overall environmental law or legislation governing water
pollution of any given nation or country.
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(Chia, L.S. 2000. Overview of Impact of Sewage on the Marine
Environment of East Asia: Social and Economic
Opportunities. EAS/RCU Technical Report Series No. 15.)
The use of an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) requirement
as a means to address the control of sewage pollution in some
countries does exist; EIAs are mandated. In the cases of Cambodia
and Singapore, EIAs are required on an ad hoc basis. Details of the
application of EIAs in Malaysia where they have become an accepted
practice are presented notwithstanding shortcomings and
difficulties. The Philippines is similar.
Most cities in the East Asian region have master land-use plans
for residential, commercial and industrial and other uses. With few
exceptions, there is a general lack of physical planning and
adequate financial and technical resources to implement modern
large-scale sewerage and wastewater treatment plants. (Chia,
2000)
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Without doubt, the key causes of coral reef decline in the world
have been the over-development of the coastal areas and the
over-use & abuse of coral reef resources.
Migration to coastal areas for reasons of growing populations,
aquaculture enterprises, and tourist developments has created a
surge in land use expansion leading to clearance of important
coastal ecosystems such as mangroves and sea grass beds.
Unregulated inland and coastal construction, such as hotels,
malls, and oil palm plantations has increased sedimentation in the
coastal waters and is destroying reefs as light levels in the water
column are reduced and reefs are smothered. Though overfishing and
destructive fishing practices have also decimated coral reef fish
populations and their habitats, unregulated land clearance for
agriculture can cause massive coral reef die-offs through rain
caused sediment and chemical run-off from land to the reef.
Untreated sewage and chemical agriculture run-off (e.g.
pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers) have caused nutrient
loading into coral reef waters, leading to algal blooms and
eutrophication that continues to adversely affect global coral reef
ecosystems.
Sewage emanating from the off shore tourist developments can be
a model for change and subsequent efforts for rectification &
treatment if there is a will to address the problems and issues and
not put it at the back of the house; out of sight and out of
mind.
Pulau Mabul, located on the east coast of Sabah, Malaysia, is a
good example of unrestricted housing and tourism development that
has undergone from being a simple offshore island with a limited
Bajau seafaring community to its present 21st century state as a
refugee colony of illegal immigrants from the Philippines alongside
several resorts operations.
From a well wooded island in years past, Pulau Mabul has
undergone almost total deforestation of its coconut trees to allow
/ accommodate the massive influx of human inhabitants; water
villages, over water resorts, island villages, island resorts.
THE PROBLEMS AT PRESENT - AN EXAMPLE - SABAH / MALAYSIA
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For the past nearly three decades, Pulau Mabul has undergone a
massive environmental change brought on by a series of social
events that have include war in the Philippines to the evolutionary
development of Sempornas regional tourism industry.
The latest event was the removal of all private resort
operations from Pulau Sipadan and putting the same island under
strict visitor controls managed by Sabah Parks.
The Asian dive Mecca of Sipadan started to become
internationally known in the 1970s after Jacques Cousteaus visit
there. As a result of this event, dive business operators brought
out their own building materials and support equipment and planted
their own flags.
By the turn of the century, Sipadan was a maze of
self-supporting resorts; from high end class types to simple
backpacker arrangements. Solid waste & trash started to collect
behind some of these resorts. Sewage to some was but a cement block
lined pit situated behind the rooms with a semi rotten piece of
plywood covering it. Generator waste oil and lubricants were also
haphazardly dumped in the islands interior forest or jungle.
By 2005, the environmental situation at Sipadan became acutely
untenable after years of international complaints for tourist
facilities operating independently, inefficiently and often
competing for additional island space. The Malaysian Government
finally issued orders for all private resorts to remove their
facilities completely from the island.
Today, P. Sipadan, managed by Sabah Parks, can only be visited
via permits issued to no more than 120 tourists per day, be they
divers, snorkelers, or simple visitors. Though the islands
groundwater is still contaminated from years of waste oil,
associated human use chemicals, the vegetation is returning as well
as the bird populations that once thrived there 40 to 50 years
ago.
Will the P. Sipadan scenario noted above happen to P. Mabul?
What is P. Mabuls current state with regards to efficient planning
for infrastructures along with the installation of adequate solid
and liquid waste receiving and treatment systems? There are none
known to date (2015) other than one small MBBR waste water
treatment facility operating for one dive resort; Scuba Junkie.
Philippine refugees originally from the MNLF & AFP war in
the 70s & 80s brought in large population of undocumented and
documented families and people. Today, the influx of Filipinos
continues now for reasons of seeking better economic opportunities
in Sabah, Malaysia as well as family members wishing to stay with
the older refugees.
Almost overnight, water villages came into being, whereas,
building over the water was more feasible for reasons of native
land rights & titles for the island itself preventing refugees
from building on the island.
The basic necessities of food were obtained through fishing and
seafood harvesting off the islands reefs. Drinking water was
collected from roof water catchments as well as from dug island
wells to tap into the ground water lens system.
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Fish catches were eventually traded for non-seafood type food
and commodities brought in from the mainland; rice, soaps,
detergents, oils, fuel. Life became routine and sustainable with
families growing to become their own clans.
Unfortunately with a rise in human population there is an
equally rise in human waste; both solid and liquid.
Washing clothes as well as dumping waste water be it cooking
oils, food, or human excrement & urine into the water around
and beneath the water villages has greatly affected the shallow
water reef flats around the entire island with classic
eutrophication conditions of dense algae and unnatural macro-algae
growth.
Even though a few of the small water village dive resorts have
installed septic tanks beneath their chalets, the same septic
chambers discharge directly into the shallow water beneath and
around the same chalets.
Perhaps through a lack of alternative sewage treatment
applications available to
resort and hotel operators, Sabahs tourism industry has
consistently utilized septic
technology as the main primary treatment. As noted in the
preceding Introduction, the
effluent discharge from septic tanks is still considered sewage;
packed with high level
constituents of nitrogen, phosphates, and pathogens.
Septic tanks by themselves are ineffective at removing nitrogen
compounds that
have potential to cause algal blooms in receiving waters; this
can be remedied by using a
nitrogen-reducing technology, or by simply ensuring that the
leach field is properly sited to
prevent direct entry of effluent into bodies of water.
Sandy island environments, as well as limestone land base,
cannot be used for any
type of leach field as such geology has little or no retention
time for ground treatment. The
water simply collects as a lens puddle that is readily
noticeable as putrid water flowing out
from the sand or beachside limestone at low tide.
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Septic tanks commonly utilized beneath chalets / rooms Water
Village type Resorts
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TYPICAL WASTE WATER CHARACTERISTICS
A fixed biomass system which has recently aroused interest in
the field of wastewater treatment globally is the MBBR technology
(Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor). Its principle working feature is the
growth of a fixed (bacterial) biofilm on plastic elements or
carriers which move freely in the aerated biological reactor
chambers.
Originally of Norwegian technology, the Moving Bed Biofilm
Reactor or MBBR
process is based on the aerobic biofilm principle and utilizes
the advantages of activated sludge and other biofilm systems
without being restrained by their disadvantages.
MBBR is a hybrid of activated sludge and biofilter processes.
Unlike most fixed film
bioreactors, MBBR utilize the whole chamber volume for the
biomass by generating continual movement within the aeration
chamber by means of the carefully designed aeration system.
However, contrary to an activated sludge reactor, MBBR does not
need return
activated sludge (RAS); the recycling of activated sludge can be
difficult to control and is the main reason so many sewage plants
in the world are now inoperative and abandoned.
MBBR achieves its treatment strategy by having a biomass grow on
high surface area
plastic carriers that move freely in the water volume of the
reactors and kept within the reactor volume by a sieve arrangement
at the reactor outlet to prevent their loss. At the bottom of the
tank, a number of small bubble producing aeration systems assures
mixing and floating of the plastic carriers with their attached
biomass.
MOVING BED BIO-FILM REACTOR TECHNOLOGY
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The basis of the process is the biofilm carrier elements that
are made from polyethylene and usually with a 20 year plus life
expectancy. The elements provide a large protected surface area for
the (bacterial) biofilm and optimal conditions for the bacteria
culture to grow and thrive.
The biofilm that is created around each carrier element protects
the bacterial
cultures from operating excursions to yield a very robust system
for those industrial facilities loaded with process fluctuations.
The biofilm also provides a more stable home for the bacteria to
grow, so there is less space required compared to other biological
systems and far less controls.
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In the MBBR biofilm technology, the biofilm grows rapidly within
well protected engineered plastic carriers, which are carefully
designed with high internal surface area.
These biofilm carriers are suspended and thoroughly mixed
throughout the waste
water phase by a multitude of small air bubbles. With this
technology it is possible to handle extremely high loading
conditions
without any problems of clogging, and treat industrial and
municipal wastewater on a relatively small footprint.
The plastic carriers have a diameter around 1-2 cm with a
similar length and a
density very close to that one of water. Only 40-70 % of the
tank volume is filled by carriers. Unlike other fixed biomass
systems (trickling filters and submerged biofilters), MBBR
systems show no clogging problems and a lower head loss.
Compared to activated sludge systems, MBBR systems have no bulking
problems
which result from inadequate control of the recycled sludge.
MBBR systems can operate with more reactors in series with a more
selected biomass for each treatment step. Moreover no sludge
recycling is needed and management is easier (Rusten et al.
1997).
MBBR is generally set in two stages: the first stage basically
aims at organic
substance removal, whilst the second one is specialized in
nitrification.
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Essentially nutrient levels and DO levels are the only control
points for the system. MBBRs can be designed for new facilities to
remove BOD/COD from wastewater
streams or for nitrogen removal. Existing activated sludge
plants can be upgraded to achieve nitrogen and phosphorus removal
or higher BOD/COD capacity (up to 500% increases have been
obtained).
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