A NEW CHAPTER FOR TOURISM DEVELOPMENT &

ECO-SUSTAINABILITY
INNOVATIVE WASTE WATER TREATMENT APPLICATIONS
FOR ISLAND & COASTAL RESORTS

FEBRUARY 2015

(A Sabah - Malaysia based Company)

Don E. Baker Jr.

Marine Resources & Aquaculture Consultant

donbaker52@gmail.com
Trinidad Soom / KM 129 / Bohol, Philippines 6324

INTRODUCTION

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/)

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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 nontoilet 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 overdevelopment 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.

THE PROBLEMS AT PRESENT - AN EXAMPLE - SABAH / MALAYSIA

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.

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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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MOVING BED BIO-FILM REACTOR TECHNOLOGY

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.

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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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