10%

Connecting the dots between wastewater and the ocean

GEF/UNEP/IADB Crew+

By IW:LEARN

June 8^th, 2023

The wastewater from our cities ends up miles away in the ocean. This connection, mostly intangible, happens gradually, when untreated wastewater ends up in the rivers and groundwater, then travel to the coastal areas, and lastly, arrives at the ocean. For instance, wastewater, along with sediment and nutrients, are responsible for approximately 80% of marine pollution.

Society is becoming more aware of the repercussions of untreated wastewater on health and the environment; however, internalizing the mental link between land, sea, and ocean does not happen instantaneously.

The physical distance between the land source and its repercussions in the ocean curtails our capacity to experience it more vividly. As a result, we need to make it more visible in our daily lives and louder in public agendas, so the best decisions take place in policy and practice.

Photo: Stephan van de Schootbrugge/Unsplash

How do we do so?

The GEF CReW+ project is working towards “implementing water and wastewater solutions for a clean and healthy Caribbean Sea”, this mission requires an integrated view of how to tackle this issue from the theoretical to the practical schemes, hence, from normative frameworks and policy to practice.

With this mindset, the project is working on “institutional, policy, legislative, and regulatory reforms for Integrated Water and Wastewater Management (IWWM)”.

It accompanies governments in drafting efforts like the new Water Policy and Integrated Water Resources Management Action Plan in Costa Rica or the Standard for Wastewater Reuse in Trinidad and Tobago.

These regulations will serve as an umbrella to trickle down changes from the normative sectors to the ground.

Connecting the dots between wastewater and the ocean

Such efforts cannot stand alone, they require solutions on the ground and advocacy to be holistic. Component III of the project is working towards “Provision of innovative small-scale, local, rural, peri-urban, and community-based solutions for Integrated Water and Wastewater Management (IWWM)” developing pilots to aid communities with historical problems in sanitation, such as: lack of functional wastewater treatment plants in areas like Sabana Yegua in Dominican Republic, lack of local water and sanitation systems in the Mayan indigenous communities in Mexico, lack of latrines in the Moskitia indigenous community in Honduras.

Lastly, interventions become sustainable in time through deeper changes in mindset and decision-making, which happens after an awareness process has taken place and individuals have adopted new paradigms of action within their organizations and institutions.

For this, component IV concentrates on “Knowledge Management and Advocacy on the Importance of IWWM to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals”, tackling obstacles like resistance and fear of reusing water through awareness building and behavioral change through capacity building and knowledge exchange as a stepping stone.

In 2022, more than 450 individuals from 18 countries, including students, journalists, government officials, and others, received capacity building in topics related to water, wastewater, integrated wastewater management, financing solutions for wastewater treatment, reporting about wastewater, and advocacy.

This effort was accompanied by the production of knowledge products such as a Compendium on Sanitation Systems and Technologies in the Wider Caribbean Region as well as dissemination in social media, the press, and other channels.

The project keeps advancing toward its mission and through its efforts, it is connecting the dots between the land and the ocean, passing through the sea. Harnessing the difficult conversations and forgotten issues, like those we usually flush away and forget about, would make clearer the links between wastewater and the ocean and would open the path for bigger transformations to take place.

------------------------

About the GEF CReW+ Project

The GEF CReW+ project “An integrated approach to water and wastewater management in the Wider Caribbean Region using innovative solutions and sustainable financing mechanisms” provides innovative and nature-based solutions to mitigate the effects of partially treated or untreated wastewater on the environment and public health.

The GEF CReW+ Project values water as a precious resource and applies the concept of Integrated Water and Wastewater Resources Management (IWWM) based on the four Rs of the circular economy approach: reduce, reuse, recycle, and recover. The project treats wastewater not as waste, but as a valuable resource with reuse potential in agriculture, industry and other commercial sectors. Treating wastewater safely supports regional efforts for sustainable development by reducing pollution, safeguarding marine biodiversity and protecting human health. GEF CReW+ thus contributes directly to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals 3, 6, 11, 13, 14 and 15.