CONCLUSIONS OF THE II INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE SMALLWAT’07
CONCLUSIONS SCIENTIFIC

Scientific Committee’s Conclusions

It is a priority for the countries to have a clear-cut, feasible legislative framework for establishing the requirements for wastewater treatment systems.

Currently, there is a wide choice of technologies available for the treatment of sewage generated by small communities, ranging from extensive technologies (such as lagooning and constructed wetlands) to intensive technologies (prolonged aeration, membrane bioreactors and sequential reactors). One or the other type of technology should be selected according to socio-economic, territorial, climatic factors, etc., in each specific situation, and the choice should be based upon sustainability criteria. The possibility of combining different technical solutions should be envisaged.

There is a great disparity of design criteria for wastewater treatment systems for small communities. The same goes for construction techniques and for implementation, operation and maintenance costs.

Therefore, it is necessary to homogenise the process of selecting alternative solutions for the treatment of sewage in small towns, and it is recommended that a life cycle analysis be included as a parameter of selection.

In general, major deficiencies are detected in the management of sanitation and wastewater treatment facilities in small communities. The solutions recommended to overcome such obstacles are to create supra-municipal management bodies and to apply cost recovery criteria, as provided for in the European Water Framework Directive.

Likewise, it is advisable to implement integrated management of the urban water cycle, while acknowledging the importance of citizen participation in such a process.

In view of the generalised scarcity of water resources, the trend should be, when feasible, to reuse the treated effluent.

The dissemination of the state of the art in wastewater treatment has become both a necessity and a priority in order to turn scientific progress into a tool for human development. To achieve this, it is proposed to:

1- Set up a benchmark system offering the most outstanding international experiences in this field.

2-Foster international collaboration to implement pilot actions and to extrapolate the experience gathered. 

A significant deficit has been observed a regards the training of skilled professionals in this sector. By filling this deficit, it will be possible to greatly improve the design, maintenance and operation of wastewater treatment installations.

It is essential to raise awareness among citizens about the importance of sanitation and water treatment for public health and the good ecological status of our natural water systems.

Finally, the Scientific Committee underlines the importance of events such as the SmallWat Conference in contributing to the achievement of the Millennium Goals and declares the need to repeat the Conference in the future. It welcomes the proposal to hold the next SmallWat Conference in the year 2011.