High population growth, a lack of wastewater treatment plants and poor wastewater management are major challenges in wastewater management in Timor-Leste (East Timor). One of the approaches of the government of Timor-Leste is to separate wastewater into greywater and blackwater from domestic, commercial, residential, and industrial areas. Three methods were applied to obtain insight into the locations and discharge of grey- and blackwater to develop a cost-effective wastewater strategy: a field survey and data collection, interviews with over 130 participants from local authorities and communities, and the open-source mapping of locations of wastewater discharge. This research concluded that 47.7% of the grey wastewater is discharged into open sewers connected directly to the sea. Most communities discharge their wastewater directly due to the absence of wastewater management, policies and regulations, and lack of communities’ understanding of the possible health impacts of wastewater. The impact of poor wastewater management showed that most of the children in these communities have suffered from diarrhea (73.8%), and in the rainy season, there is a high possibility of infection with waterborne diseases. The literature review, field mapping, and interviews show that there is high demand for a cost-effective wastewater strategy for health improvement. Low-cost nature-based solutions such as constructed wetlands and bioswales can be implemented with local skills and materials to improve the wastewater situation and address other challenges such as biodiversity loss, heat stress, drought, and floodings. These installations are easier to rebuild than large-scale grey infrastructure given the multiple hazards that occur in Timor-Leste: landslides, earthquakes, strong wind, and pluvial and fluvial floodings, and they can serve as coastal protection.
LINK
Thermal disinfection is probably the oldest water treatment method ever used. Similarly to other disinfection processes, it targets the inactivation of pathogenic (micro)organisms present in water, wastewater and other media. In this work, a pilot-scale continuous-flow thermal disinfection system was investigated using highly contaminated hospital wastewater as influent without any pre-treatment step for turbidity removal. The results proved that the tested system can be used with influent turbidity as high as 100 NTU and still provide up to log 8 microbial inactivation. Further results have shown energy consumption comparable to other commercially available thermal disinfection systems and relatively low influence on the investigated physical–chemical parameters.
DOCUMENT
Plasmid-mediated dissemination of antibiotic resistance among fecal Enterobacteriaceae in natural ecosystems may contribute to the persistence of antibiotic resistance genes in anthropogenically impacted environments. Plasmid transfer frequencies measured under laboratory conditions might lead to overestimation of plasmid transfer potential in natural ecosystems. This study assessed differences in the conjugative transfer of an IncP-1 (pKJK5) plasmid to three natural Escherichia coli strains carrying extended-spectrum beta-lactamases, by filter mating. Matings were performed under optimal laboratory conditions (rich LB medium and 37°C) and environmentally relevant temperatures (25, 15 and 9°C) or nutrient regimes mimicking environmental conditions and limitations (synthetic wastewater and soil extract). Under optimal nutrient conditions and temperature, two recipients yielded high transfer frequencies (5 × 10–1) while the conjugation frequency of the third strain was 1000-fold lower. Decreasing mating temperatures to psychrophilic ranges led to lower transfer frequencies, albeit all three strains conjugated under all the tested temperatures. Low nutritive media caused significant decreases in transconjugants (−3 logs for synthetic wastewater; −6 logs for soil extract), where only one of the strains was able to produce detectable transconjugants. Collectively, this study highlights that despite less-than-optimal conditions, fecal organisms may transfer plasmids in the environment, but the transfer of pKJK5 between microorganisms is limited mainly by low nutrient conditions.
DOCUMENT
Global society is confronted with various challenges: climate change should be mitigated, and society should adapt to the impacts of climate change, resources will become scarcer and hence resources should be used more efficiently and recovered after use, the growing world population and its growing wealth create unprecedented emissions of pollutants, threatening public health, wildlife and biodiversity. This paper provides an overview of the challenges and risks for sewage systems, next to some opportunities and chances that these developments pose. Some of the challenges are emerging from climate change and resource scarcity, others come from the challenges emerging from stricter regulation of emissions. It also presents risks and threats from within the system, next to external influences which may affect the surroundings of the sewage systems. It finally reflects on barriers to respond to these challenges. http://dx.doi.org/10.13044/j.sdewes.d6.0231 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sabineeijlander/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/karel-mulder-163aa96/
MULTIFILE
It is of utmost importance to collect organic waste from households as a separate waste stream. If collected separately, it could be used optimally to produce compost and biogas, it would not pollute fractions of materials that can be recovered from residual waste streams and it would not deteriorate the quality of some materials in residual waste (e.g. paper). In rural areas with separate organic waste collection systems, large quantities of organic waste are recovered. However, in the larger cities, only a small fraction of organic waste is recovered. In general, citizens dot not have space to store organic waste without nuisances of smell and/or flies. As this has been the cause of low organic waste collection rates, collection schemes have been cut, which created a further negative impact. Hence, additional efforts are required. There are some options to improve the organic waste recovery within the current system. Collection schemes might be improved, waste containers might be adapted to better suit the needs, and additional underground organic waste containers might be installed in residential neighbourhoods. There are persistent stories that separate organic waste collection makes no sense as the collectors just mix all municipal solid waste after collection, and incinerate it. Such stories might be fuelled by the practice that batches of contaminated organic waste are indeed incinerated. Trust in the system is important. Food waste is often regarded as unrein. Users might hate to store food waste in their kitchen that could attract insects, or the household pets. Hence, there is a challenge for socio-psychological research. This might also be supported by technology, e.g. organic waste storage devices and measures to improve waste separation in apartment buildings, such as separate chutes for waste fractions. Several cities have experimented with systems that collect organic wastes by the sewage system. By using a grinder, kitchen waste can be flushed into the sewage system, which in general produces biogas by the fermentation of sewage sludge. This is only a good option if the sewage is separated from the city drainage system, otherwise it might create water pollution. Another option might be to use grinders, that store the organic waste in a tank. This tank could be emptied regularly by a collection truck. Clearly, the preferred option depends on local conditions and culture. Besides, the density of the area, the type of sewage system and its biogas production, and the facilities that are already in place for organic waste collection are important parameters. In the paper, we will discuss the costs and benefits of future organic waste options and by discussing The Hague as an example.
DOCUMENT
Falls are common after stroke. This article presents a literature review of the incidence and risk factors of falls and the consequences for professionals working with stroke patients. It is important to consider the specific problems after stroke. Depression and cognitive impairments were found to be risk factors for fall incidents after stroke. In the relevant literature many different risk factors and circumstances are described. When patients move from bed to chair, walk to the bathroom and the first few days after the patient is discharged to another setting, - all these circumstances showed high percentages of falling. A fall during hospital stay is a significant risk factor for future fall incidents. A reliable index to measure the fall risk is not (yet) available. But scores on the Barthel Index and the Timed-Up-and-Go test can be used as fall risk indicators. Fear of falling is an important complication after a fall and therefore it is recommended prior to discharge to inquire about the patients self efficacy in maintaining balance. Few intervention studies use the number of falls as an outcome measure. Exercising balance following a mass training protocol seems to diminish the risk of falling.
DOCUMENT
PowerPointpresentatie gebruikt tijdens een lezing door Peter van der Maas, lector 'Sustainable Water Systems' aan hogeschool Van Hall Larenstein, tijdens het symposium 'Natuurlijke Zuiveringstechnieken' op 13 november 2019 te Wageningen.
DOCUMENT
Metropolitan Cebu, the third largest agglomeration in the Philippines with a population of approximately 3 million, faces significant challenges in managing domestic wastewater and solid waste. This mismanagement has led to the pollution of its water bodies, including the Mahiga Creek and the Butuanon River, the latter of which was declared dead in 1992 and can no longer support flora and fauna. Between 2017 and 2025, seven international River Challenge Climate Cafes were conducted by Dutch universities of Applied Sciences and Filipino universities . During these events, teams of young professionals assessed the upstream, midstream, and downstream stretches of Metro Cebu's rivers and evaluated the vulnerability of 12 urban poor communities living along these rivers. The primary aim of these rapid appraisals was to raise awareness among community members, local governments, and students, as well as to build capacity. Throughout the process, there was a shift from merely gathering data on pollution levels to engaging the community, identifying risks, and finding feasible solutions to mitigate these risks. Various methods were employed to measure water quality, river width, river discharge, flood heights, ecology, plastic waste pollution, and residents' perceptions. The results were shared online via Climatescan.org with the global climate adaptation community. The findings demonstrate that river challenges are effective tools for creating context-rich learning environments for students, with more than 250 participants. The River Challenge Climate Cafe enable young professionals, primarily with technical backgrounds, to gain firsthand field experience, exposure to environmental degradation, severe pollution, and vulnerable communities, thereby enhancing their environmental awareness. Additionally, the river scan challenge proves to be a valuable tool for increasing awareness of river pollution and promoting rehabilitation effortsHow to cite: Heikoop, R., Boogaard, F., Abrenica, B., Fornis, R., Borgonia, K., Ledesma, D., Nasara, J., Boer, E., and Oudendammer, T.: Enhancing Environmental Awareness Through River Challenges: A Case Study of Metropolitan Cebu, Philippines , 12th International Conference on Urban Climate, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 7–11 Jul 2025, ICUC12-1052, https://doi.org/10.5194/icuc12-1052, 2025.
LINK
This research is commissioned by the professorship Novel Proteins: Insects and Fish, Healthy, Sustainable and Safe (INVIS) and conducted with the aim to investigate the constraints that hinder the uptake of insect-based feed in the Dutch finfish aquaculture branch and advise upon how to initiate a transition within the branch to adopt insect meal in fish feed widely. This is a underlying report of the webinar Insect culture in the Netherlands for feed and food on January 19, 2021.
DOCUMENT
Application of animal manure to soils results in the introduction of manure-derived bacteria and their antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) into soils. ResCap is a novel targeted-metagenomic approach that allows the detection of minority components of the resistome gene pool without the cost-prohibitive coverage depths and can provide a valuable tool to study the spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in the environment. We used high-throughput sequencing and qPCR for 16S rRNA gene fragments as well as ResCap to explore the dynamics of bacteria, and ARGs introduced to soils and adjacent water ditches, both at community and individual scale, over a period of three weeks. The soil bacteriome and resistome showed strong resilience to the input of manure, as manuring did not impact the overall structure of the bacteriome, and its effects on the resistome were transient. Initially, manure application resulted in a substantial increase of ARGs in soils and adjacent waters, while not affecting the overall bacterial community composition. Still, specific families increased after manure application, either through the input of manure (e.g., Dysgonomonadaceae) or through enrichment after manuring (e.g., Pseudomonadaceae). Depending on the type of ARG, manure application resulted mostly in an increase (e.g., aph(6)-Id), but occasionally also in a decrease (e.g., dfrB3) of the absolute abundance of ARG clusters (FPKM/kg or L). This study shows that the structures of the bacteriome and resistome are shaped by different factors, where the bacterial community composition could not explain the changes in ARG diversity or abundances. Also, it highlights the potential of applying targeted metagenomic techniques, such as ResCap, to study the fate of AMR in the environment.
DOCUMENT
