The 2004 Clean Water Act requires local government units (LGUs) and water districts (WDs) to provide their jurisdictions with new wastewater infrastructure, most commonly in the form of septage management programs. To date, a number of LGUs and WDs have adopted ordinances requiring septage management, developed feasibility studies for infrastructure development, sought funds for infrastructure investment, and conducted promotion campaigns to build willingness to pay for wastewater tariffs.

In Asia, Indah Water Konsortium (IWK), Malaysia’s national wastewater services provider, offers the most comprehensive and sophisticated septage management program and was an ideal mentor for the Philippine cities. In a multiple-recipient WOP model, IWK would focus its training on Baliwag and Cabanatuan City Water Districts since they have expressed readiness to build a facility and implement a septage management program. These two institutions would receive more intensive assistance in the form of draft reviews, ongoing remote consultations, and on-site assessments while other participating cities at similar stages of developing their septage programs would attend selected WOP activities when opportune and gain feedback on their progress.

To further strengthen septage management systems and processes within the local context, Maynilad Water Services Inc (MWSI) would coordinate with IWK to provide targeted capacity building support, host activities at its facilities as necessary, and share its more contextualized experiences with its peers.