The seventh workshop on decentralised domestic wastewater treatment in Asia took place in Hanoi on September 24.

The seventh workshop on decentralised domestic wastewater treatment
in Asia takes place in Hanoi on September 24 

The event was jointly held by the Vietnam Environment Administration (VEA) under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the Technical Infrastructure Agency under the Ministry of Construction, and Japan’s Ministry of the Environment

It focused on policy framework, regulations on urban wastewater management and technical standards to promote the work towards realising one of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) on reducing 50 percent of untreated wastewater in Asia by 2030.

Addressing the event, VEA Deputy Director General Nguyen Hung Thinh said environmental protection requires great efforts of governments and people, while cooperation, experience sharing and technology transfer between countries hold significant meaning in SDG realisation and economic development.

The workshop in Vietnam will help put forward ideas to adjust and supplement regulations on wastewater management in the draft Law on Environmental Protection, as well as facilitate the implementation of international agreements which Vietnam has signed, he added.

At the event, representative of the Ministry of Environment of Japan Yuji Hirose introduced the decentralised wastewater treatment system in Japan (Johkasou), and highlighted that Japan has worked with countries in the region like Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand to develop the system.

Takayuki Matsuda, Director of the Office for Promotion of Johkasou of the Japanese Ministry, said that through the Japan-ASEAN Integration Fund, the Japanese government has supported the launch of a conventional centralised wastewater management system throughout Southeast Asia.