Optimising water and phosphorus management in the urban environmental sanitation system of Hanoi, Vietnam

Many areas in the world face clean water scarcity problems and phosphorus reserves are likely to be depleted in the near future. Still, a large amount of clean water is used to transport excreta through sewer systems. Most of the wastewater generated worldwide is discharged untreated into aquatic systems and leads to water pollution and loss of valuable nutrients. In Hanoi, Vietnam's capital city, high population and economic growth as well as industrialisation have led to a decrease in groundwater level and to serious river and lake pollution. A probabilistic model, simulating the impact of measures on groundwater abstraction and nutrient recovery, was used to determine the impact of policy changes in Hanoi. The results obtained reveal that harmonising environmental sanitation and agricultural systems with one another will considerably increase nutrient recovery for food production, lower expenditure for artificial fertilisers and reduce the nutrient load into the environment. The model can be applied in urban areas of developing countries to assist in the design of environmental sanitation concepts.