Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control for the Municipal Water Cycle in a River Basin Context-Validation of the Three-Step Strategic Approach

228 Pages·2019·14.083 MB·\228

by  Alberto Galvis-Castaño (Author)

INTEGRATED POLLUTION PREVENTION
AND CONTROL FOR THE MUNICIPAL
WATER CYCLE IN A RIVER BASIN CONTEXT

VALIDATION OF THE THREE-STEP
STRATEGIC APPROACH

ALBERTO GALVIS CASTAÑO
Thesis committee

Promotor
Prof. Dr H.J. Gijzen
Professor of Environmental Biotechnology
IHE Delft Institute for Water Education
Regional Director and Representative
UNESCO Regional Office for Southern Africa
Harare, Zimbabwe

Co-promotor
Dr N. P. van der Steen
Associate Professor of Environmental Technology
IHE Delft Institute for Water Education

Other members
Prof. Dr C. Kroeze, Wageningen University & Research
Prof. Dr C.J. van Leeuwen, Utrecht University
Prof. Dr M. von Sperling, Federal University of Mina Gerais, Brazil
Prof. Dr P. van der Zaag, IHE Delft, TU Delft
Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control for the Municipal
Water Cycle in a River Basin Context

Validation of the Three-Step Strategic Approach

Thesis
submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of
the Academic Board of Wageningen University and
the Academic Board of the IHE Delft Institute for Water Education
for the degree of doctor
to be defended in public
on Tuesday, 3 September 3, 2019 at 3:00 p.m.
in Delft, the Netherlands

by

Alberto Galvis Castaño
Born in Sevilla-Valle del Cauca, Colombia
CRC Press/Balkema is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an
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© 2019, Alberto Galvis Castaño

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ISBN: 978-0-367-37527-0 (Taylor & Francis Group)
ISBN: 978-94-6343-951-0 (Wageningen University & Research)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.18174/475836
v

To my wife Nohelia and
to my sons Juan Manuel and Juan José
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Acknowledgements

The idea of developing this research started with the beginning of the new millennium, when I
was fortunate to work together with my promotor, Professor Huub Gijzen. This occurred within
the framework of the cooperation between IHE and Universidad del Valle, with support of the
Netherlands Government. During this cooperation, we had the opportunity to learn about some
experiences in Colombia and Latin America in urban water management related to water quality
recovery of rivers for their different uses. Many of these experiences were associated with
significant investments and, paradoxically, with low impact, as the quality of water resources
kept deteriorating. In this context, Professor Gijzen encouraged me to get involved in a doctoral
program that would allow me to explore the problem in more depth and to try to contribute to
finding solutions.

I wish to thank my promotor Professor Huub Gijzen from UNESCO and my co-promotor Dr.
Peter van der Steen, from IHE-Delft, for their guidance, coaching, support and patience through
the development of doctoral research. I am grateful to them for their rigor in reviewing all the
chapters in this document. This process has been very important in my academic training, my
role as a lecturer at the Universidad del Valle and as Director of the Research Group on
Integrated Water Resource Management.

I am also grateful for the valuable support of colleagues at the Cinara Institute of the Faculty of
Engineering of the Universidad del Valle, especially its Director Luis Darío Sánchez. I also
thank the support of my five students from Universidad del Valle: Diana Alexandra Zambrano,
María Fernanda Jaramillo, Isabel Cristina Hurtado, Faber Montaña and Juan Gabriel Urrego.

This research would not have been possible without the support of different institutions among
others in providing access to information. These include: Corporación Autónoma Regional del
Valle del Cauca (CVC); Empresas Municipales de Cali (Emcali) and Regional Cleaner
Production Center (CRPML). I also want acknowledge my colleagues and friends: Manfred
Schütze, Amparo Duque, Gloria Almario, Ana Dorly Jaramillo, Luis German Delgado, Javier
Ernesto Holguín and Carlos Arturo Martínez. With these colleagues I had the opportunity to
analyse and discuss several of the key topics of this research, both personally and through
projects in which we had the opportunity to work together. I would like to extend my gratitude
to my friend and colleague Rubén Dario Pinzon, expert designer, builder and operator of
wastewater treatment plants both in Colombia and in other Latin American countries who
helped me in the process of analysing the aspects of my PhD research related to wastewater
treatment plant.

I would also like to thank Jan Teun Visccher, who has had a close relationship with the Cinara
Institute since its inception. With Jan Teun, I had the opportunity to work on the SWITCH
project, on the Learning Alliances topic, having Cali as a demonstration city. I am very grateful
to Jan Teun for his support and hospitality during my visits to Delft, in the development of my
PhD.
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A special thanks to my brother and colleague Gerardo Galvis, founder of Cinara Institute.
During the 1980s and 1990s he led a process of change in the Universidad del Valle, related to
postgraduate academic programs and the research and development projects in the Sanitary and
Environmental Engineering field. This change contributed to the consolidation of research
groups and the training at the doctoral level of its members.

Last but not least a very special thanks to my lovely family: my wife Nohelia, my sons Juan
Manuel and Juan Jose, for their love, motivation and unconditional support during my research.
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Summary

The trend towards more urbanized societies and the growing number of people has significant
implications for freshwater use and wastewater management. Factors such as climate change
are making the problems related to water even more critical. At the same time, water resources
are also being substantially affected by human activities such as dam building, deforestation,
erosion, mining activities, land use changes and pollutant load discharges. In many cases,
especially in developing countries, the protection of water resources from quality deterioration
by point and non-point source pollution has been based on ‘end-of-pipe’ solutions. That strategy
only considers, in terms of infrastructure, wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Often this is
accompanied by adjustments to the regulations, including the application of economic
instruments, such as taxes for wastewater discharge. However, this strategy has not completely
fulfilled the objective of recovering the quality of the water resource for its different uses.
Continuing the urban water practice in a ‘business-as-usual’ manner is unsustainable,
considering its implications for public health, environment and, thus, the economy. Water
should be administrated as a limited resource with multiple uses, and any solutions should be
formulated with appropriate distribution and protection criteria, considering the basin as a
planning unit. To face this situation and the challenges of the Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs), a systematic vision is necessary to guarantee the effectiveness of investments in water
and sanitation. The 2030 Agenda recognizes the centrality of water resources for sustainable
development and the vital role that improved drinking water, sanitation and hygiene play in
progress in other areas, including health, education and poverty reduction.

The research described in this thesis intends to contribute to the solution of the previously
outlined problem. In this research a technology-selection approach to control pollution by
domestic wastewater was investigated. The technology selection involved multi-criteria
analysis (MCA), the application of mathematical modelling of water quality in rivers, and cost-
benefit analysis (CBA). The basin was used as a unit of analysis and the technical,
environmental, social, cultural, economic, policy and regulatory aspects were considered
integrally. This research was oriented towards the validation of a strategy of technology
selection based on the Three-Step Strategic Approach concept (3-SSA). In this context,
‘technology selection’ will not be understood as merely the treatment technology, but it includes
such aspects as minimisation and prevention, both in the urban water cycle (housing and urban
drainage system) and interventions at the basin level, WWTPs, reuse of effluents, and the
natural and/or stimulated self-purification capacity of the water bodies.

In this doctoral research each step of the 3-SSA was studied independently. The results and
conclusions of the study of each step were an input to perform the comprehensive analysis of
the sequential implementation (chronological order) of the three steps. The 3-SSA
(Unconventional strategy) was validated by applying it to the Upper Cauca river basin (La
Balsa-Anacaro Stretch: 389 km) in Colombia. This study included the comparison with a
Conventional Strategy, which considered a ‘business-as-usual scenario’ of high water use, ‘end-
of-pipe’ wastewater treatment and conventional water supply providing drinking water quality