文章基本信息

标题：Economics of wastewater treatment: cost-effectiveness, social gains and environmental standards
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作者：Attila Moraes Jardim Junior ; Attila Moraes Jardim Junior ; Denise Imbroisi 等
期刊名称：Environmental Economics
印刷版ISSN：1998-6041
电子版ISSN：1998-605X
出版年度：2012
卷号：3
期号：3
页码：17-32
语种：English
出版社：LLC "CPC "Business Perspectives"
摘要：The spread of public services and social infrastructure has been essential to reduce poverty and inequality in developing countries. However, in spite of improving water and sanitation availability, the great majority of people in developing countries have to cope with very low coverage of wastewater treatment plants. This has had serious consequences in terms of spreading diseases and reducing wellbeing, particularly of the poor. The main explanation for this low coverage is the required high investment costs of wastewater treatment plants. On their turn, high investment costs are closely dependent upon an engineer decision interms of technological option to achieve 100% cleanup goal. This paper argues that environmental standards should be based upon the optimum level of pollution subjected to safe health requirements and overall environmental gains. This means that investments on wastewater treatment plants must be based on cost-effectiveness (CE) considerations, allowing a gradually crescent environmental standard implementation process. The authors have modeled two situations in implementing wastewater treatment units (WWTPs) using CE calculations over a twenty years period: (1) the usual optimal engineering option aimed to attend the strict standard of pollution determined by regulations; and (2) an equimarginal option, taking into consideration optimal pollution level. The results show that the equimarginal option has accumulated environmental gains that are higher than the usual optimal engineering option. These findings are particularly relevant to developing countries with strong financial and economic restrictions to invest in projects that have very high initial investment requirements and long payback periods.
关键词：economics of wastewater; cost effectiveness; environmental standards