Research Paper
Public health risk assessment tool: strategy to improve
public policy framework for onsite wastewater treatment
systems (OWTS)
Peter Emmanuel Cookey, Thammarat Koottatep, Peter van der Steen
and Piet N. L. Lens
ABSTRACT
Public health risk assessment of onsite wastewater treatment systems (OWTS) in the city of Port
Harcourt, Nigeria and its environs was carried out between the period of August 2012 and April 2013.
The objective of the study was to show how the public health risk assessment tool can be used to
improve public policies on OWTS. The study involved desk study reviews of the related literature on
OWTS, an audit survey of 245 OWTS in the residential area of the city, a public policy survey of OWTS in
Port Harcourt city, a public health risk assessment, field observations and investigations. The results
revealed that there were no specific policies, legislative and regulatory standards for sustainability of
OWTS practice and no risk assessment considerations in the current policy instruments. In general
terms, the public policy instruments of OWTS were found to be inadequate for improved and standard
system construction, installation, operations and maintenance, compliance, enforcement and
inspection. The outcome of the risk map showed widespread and dispersed risk in the use of OWTS.
Peter Emmanuel Cookey (corresponding author)
Thammarat Koottatep
Asian Institute of Technology,
Bangkok,
Thailand
E-mail: peter@earthwatchnigeria.org
Peter Emmanuel Cookey
Peter van der Steen
Piet N. L. Lens
UNESCO-IHE,
Institute for Water Education,
PO Box 3015,
2601 DA,
Delft,
The Netherlands
Peter Emmanuel Cookey
Rivers State College of Health Science and
Technology,
Port Harcourt,
Nigeria
Key words | legislation, onsite wastewater treatment system, public health, public policy, risk
assessment, standards
INTRODUCTION
Sanitation is an important indicator of development, and
poor coverage, such as in Nigeria, poses serious challenges
(Adelegan & Ojo ), especially in developing countries
like Nigeria where access to adequate sanitation facilities
is a serious challenge. The WHO/UNICEF (); WHO
() sanitation coverage for Nigeria records a total of
39% and 35% for urban and rural populations, respectively.
According to Shako (), figures such as these were
obtained from relaxed definitions and low standards,
adopted by national governments and the international com-
munity (UN-Habitat ), probably because anything
above, for instance those of Kvarnstrom et al. (), could
gravely affect the sanitation statistics of many developing
countries. Considering that most developing countries
design public policies and intervention programmes based
on such figures as those mentioned above, it is safe to
assume that there will be lax standards and requirements.
Public policies and standards for onsite wastewater treat-
ment systems (OWTS) are to ensure the adequate
management of domestic wastewater by introduction of
cost-effective and long-term options to meet public health
and water quality goals. Therefore, the difference between
failed and successful OWTS practice is in the adequacy
and level of implementation of the relevant and related sani-
tation policies and legal framework (USEPA ).
OWTS such as septic tank systems are the major sani-
tation infrastructure in Nigeria (Nigeria Demographic and
Health Survey (NDHS) ; NISER ), as is the case
74 Research Paper © IWA Publishing 2016 Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development | 06.1 | 2016
doi: 10.2166/washdev.2016.081
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