The 14th WEPA Annual Meeting was organized on 22 and 23 February in Tokyo, Japan. In the morning session on 22nd, Japan’s technical measures for effective wastewater treatment were presented to expand participants’ technical knowledge and understanding. Technologies presented by two organizations, the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO) and the Foundation for Advancement of International Science (FAIS), have already been tested in Asian countries under MOEJ’s project “Model Project for Improvement of Water Environment in Asia” which is conducted to promote and support overseas development in the Asia-Pacific region of excellent water treatment technology held by Japanese water-related companies and organizations. The Japan Environmental Technology Association (JETA) presented Japan’s monitoring and other environmental measurement technologies. In the afternoon, following a summary by the WEPA Secretariat of its activities until the third phase, each partner country stated its updates on water environmental governance during this phase and their expectations on the upcoming phase. Based on those country presentations, on the following day, all the participants discussed the main objectives and specific plan of activities to be implemented in the fourth phase.

The Ministry of the Environment, Japan hosted the 14th WEPA Annual Meeting and WEPA International Workshop on 21 – 23 February in Tokyo, Japan. The series of meetings was held with participation by all thirteen WEPA partner countries and Japanese experts with started by the International Workshop held on the first day under the theme of “Roles of decentralized wastewater and septage management in addressing the challenges and accelerating the progress of Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG6) in Asia”.

WEPA has focused on domestic wastewater treatment and the decentralized wastewater treatment system (DEWATS) since 2012 as one of its approaches to improve water governance in Asia. On another front, since the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was set in 2015, many countries are starting to take various approaches to achieve the goals and WEPA partners are no exception. Addressing the issue of DEWATS appropriately can accelerate the progress of SDG6 – Clean water and sanitation – in Asia. The workshop was concluded with the rediscovery of the significance of comprehensive and integrated water management systems, as well as that DEWATS can be an important option to contribute to it and achieve SDG 6 in each partner country. In the afternoon, participants visited Iriezaki Wastewater Treatment Plant and Kawasaki Marien in Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture with the support of the City of Kawasaki and Japan Environmental Sanitation Center. Participants took a tour of the treatment plant and viewed Japan’s actual Johkasou treatment.

The Ministry of the Environment of Japan (MOEJ), the Ministry of Environment and Forestry of Indonesia (MOEF), and the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) of Japan as the WEPA Secretariat, have agreed to jointly support the implementation of WEPA Action Program* in Indonesia on “Application of Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) for Effluent Discharge Permit and Capacity Building for Local Officials to Implement the TMDLs”, as proposed by MOEF.

This two-day workshop was held as part of the Action Program in Indonesia with the purpose of: (i) Promoting a better understanding among relevant central and local government officials in Indonesia on regulations for improving the water quality of the Citarum River, (ii) Providing capacity building, targeting both relevant central and local officials in Indonesia, to facilitate the effective implementation of regulations related TMDLs, (iii) Providing opportunities to share Japanese experiences on public-private collaboration with Indonesian national and local governmental officials, which can contribute to addressing the challenges for improving the water quality of the Citarum River. The workshop consisted of Learning day and Training day. On Learning day, Indonesia presented its latest national strategy for water quality improvement of the Citarum River, followed by Japan’s presentations for current cooperation between Japan and Indonesia to improve water governance and Japan’s experiences of public-private collaboration. Participating Japanese companies exhibited their technology and products at the exhibition booths. On Training day, training sessions on Japan’s experience in water management, its TMDL systems, and the newly-applied Indonesian TMDL system were provided mainly to Indonesian local officials. The afternoon panel session featured expected challenges that local authorities will face on the TMDL system through application of the TMDL system and priority actions to take to overcome the challenges in obtaining a common understanding among participants. * WEPA Action Program aims to tackle specific problems to conserve the water environment in WEPA partner countries and has been conducted since 2015. Indonesia recently developed and applied its TMDL system in a new regulation on water pollution control and has been developing and conducting its Action Program on the TMDL system since January 2018.

In September 2015, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted in the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit. Target 6.3 of the SDGs stipulates that “by 2030, halving the proportion of untreated wastewater” should be accomplished.

o support the activities of countries in Southeast Asia to achieve the target, the Conference on Watershed Management for Controlling Municipal Wastewater in Southeast Asia was held in Nagoya, Japan on 28 July, 2016. In the conference, participants shared information about water environment and wastewater management in each country and discussed the future development of policies and infrastructure in the region. All the participants agreed on the necessity to promote wastewater treatment in the region to achieve the SDGs target. As a conclusion of the conference, the countries agreed on the importance of regular information sharing on topics related to wastewater management. Based on the result of the conference, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) and Ministry of the Environment (MOE) of Japan proposed the establishment of “Asia Wastewater Management Partnership (AWaP)” at the Third Asia-Pacific Water Summit (11 and 12 December 2017 in Yangon, Myanmar). AWaP will consist of officials from ministries developing wastewater management policies and infrastructure. This Partnership will organize regular meetings to share good practices and technologies, provide knowledge and know-how through web-based information platform, and tackle common issues in collaborative projects of partner countries. The goal of this Preparation Workshop was to have a common understanding of the challenges to achieve the SDGs and exchange views on the activities of the Partnership. The specific objectives of the Workshop are as follows: (1) To reconfirm the importance of achieving Sustainable Development Goals, especially target 6.3. (2) To understand the importance of mainstreaming wastewater management in Asia to achieve the SDGs target 6.3. (3) To discuss and identify the vision and mission of “Asia Wastewater Management Partnership (AWaP).” (4) To discuss and identify the action items of the Partnership.

The Workshop for Introduction of Multistage Hybrid Wetland Systems in Vietnam was organized by WEPA, National Agricultural and Food Research Organization (NARO), TUSK Co., Ltd. and K. K. Satisfactory at Hanoi Nikko Hotel in Hanoi, Vietnam on 30 November, 2017. Over 40 participants, including government officials from the Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Development (MARD) Vietnam, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) of Vietnam, Ministry of the Environment Japan, Japanese companies, academic institutions in Vietnam, and WEPA focal points from Indonesia, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam attended the workshop. This workshop was held to introduce multistage hybrid wetland systems, which have been successfully implemented in a number of cities/prefectures in Japan, as well as in 2 cities in Vietnam, including Hai Duong and Thai Nguyen. In addition, participants also had a chance to learn about the current situation of livestock wastewater management in WEPA partner countries such as Indonesia, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. On 1 Dec 2017, participants were invited to visit Bui Huy Hanh pig farm in Hai Duong, where the multistage hybrid constructed wetland systems have been successfully introduced and operated.

The 13rd WEPA Annual Meeting was co-organised by the Ministry of the Environment of Japan and the Ministry of Environment and Forestry of Indonesia at the Sari Pan Pacific Hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia on 27th September 2017. Over 40 participants, including governmental officials in the relevant ministries in 13 WEPA countries and resource persons from the private and academic sectors attended. The meeting was held not only to share the progress of activities in FY2017 and future plans among WEPA partner countries, but also to introduce a number of projects and efforts to apply Japanese technologies for water quality management in Asia.

The International Workshop on Industrial Wastewater Management was organized at the Sari Pan Pacific Hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia on 26th September 2017. The event was co-hosted by the Ministry of the Environment of Japan and the Ministry of Environment and Forestry of Indonesia. More than 70 participants, including government officials of relevant ministries in 13 WEPA countries and resource persons from the private and academic sector attended. The current situation of industrial wastewater management, as well as remaining challenges and countermeasures among WEPA member countries was discussed. Moreover, a site visit to the largest pulp and paper factory in Indonesia was arranged after the workshop in order for participants to gain a better understanding on industrial wastewater management in Indonesia.

The WEPA organized a workshop on pig wastewater management in Asia on 21 February 2017 in Chiang Mai, Thailand. It was an event co-hosted by the Ministry of the Environment, Japan and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Thailand. This workshop aimed to share knowledge on livestock wastewater management being conducted in participating countries and to discuss policy measures and problems, as well as water pollution caused by pig wastewater. It was also to follow-up last year’s WEPA Action Program which has been implemented in Viet Nam since 2015. At the end of the workshop, the participants agreed to continue to communicate with each other after the workshop.

The Ministry of the Environment, Japan and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Viet Nam co-hosted the 12th Annual meeting of WEPA on 30 November 2016 at the Melia Hotel, Hanoi, Viet Nam. Almost 40 governmental officials from all 13 WEPA partner countries and experts on water management attended. This meeting was held not only to discuss the progress of WEPA activities since the last annual meeting and the plan for the next year, but also to share country updates on water environmental management policies and similar activities of other networks.