{"id":3880,"date":"2018-09-04T10:50:24","date_gmt":"2018-09-04T10:50:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/icleiseas.org\/?p=3880"},"modified":"2018-09-04T10:50:24","modified_gmt":"2018-09-04T10:50:24","slug":"how-japanese-technology-is-cleaning-myanmars-polluted-waterways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/2018\/09\/04\/how-japanese-technology-is-cleaning-myanmars-polluted-waterways\/","title":{"rendered":"How Japanese technology is cleaning Myanmar\u2019s polluted waterways"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article first appeared on Eco-Business.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

In the heart of Myanmar, a few miles south of Mandalay, lies the textiles town of Wundwin.<\/p>\n

For more than 60 years, the area has been the primary production hub of the longyi, a traditional Burmese garment that is routinely dyed a variety of colours, more often than not black. There are more than 600 factories that dye fabric in Wundwin, and for many decades wastewater from the factories has been discharged into the surrounding rivers.<\/p>\n

One of the main figures in realising a project to end this pattern of pollution is Sai Korn Lian. The young Burmese is a member of the global business promotion team for Horiba, a maker of\u00a0measurement and analysis instruments from Japan, a country all too familiar with the environmental consequences of industrialisation.\u00a0\u201cBefore we began this project, we were heading nowhere\u201d, Sai says with a strained smile.<\/p>\n

Being directly involved in the on-the-ground implementation of the project, he was part of a unique collaboration between Japan\u2019s Ministry of Environment and Myanmar\u2019s Environmental Conservation Department (ECD).<\/p>\n

The technology used to analyse the scale of the pollution in\u00a0Wundwin was provided by Horiba, while the treatment process was provided by industrial services company Hitachi Zosen.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople in Wundwin were used to seeing black\u00a0(polluted) water ever since they were kids, it is not unusual for them,\u201d Sai says.<\/p>\n

\"\"

A polluted water body in Wundwin. Image: Horiba<\/p><\/div>\n

To tackle Wundwin\u2019s chronic water pollution problem, the first step was to assess the situation. Horiba conducted a survey of dyeing factories to gauge the scale of discharged water, and the impact on rivers in the area. \u201cNo two wastewater discharge impacts are the same. That is why we believe in localised solutions,\u201d says Sai.<\/p>\n

However, there were more hurdles than simply assessing the damage and then fixing it. \u201cWe quickly realised that the key to tackling the problem was awareness,\u201d Sai states. \u201cThe key is showing the importance of environmental pollution, not only at the macro-level but locally in Wundwin.\u201d<\/p>\n

The dyeing process was so entrenched that workers handling the dye did not even wear gloves. So Horiba held seminars and workshops in Myanmar, and ran an internship programme in Japan to teach best practices in the dyeing process.<\/p>\n

\"\"

A textiles worker in Myanmar using Sulphur dye. Image: Horiba<\/p><\/div>\n

After the initial assessment work was completed, a new method for cleaning the wastewater was tested. Some 2,000 litres of water was purified per day using Hitachi Zosen\u2019s technology. This initial phase of the project lasted from September of 2015 to March 2017.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pilot plant was successful at cleaning the water, but it was not a success at addressing the real issue,\u201d says\u00a0Sai.<\/p>\n

Waste education<\/h4>\n

Simply purifying the water was not enough. The technology needed to be operable by local staff, and within a budget that was realistic for wide-scale implementation. \u201cThat\u2019s what I mean by localising solutions\u201d, Sai explains.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to re-focus the project to provide a more efficient, easier to operate, affordable technology if we wanted to see lasting change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Besides purifying wastewater, the second phase of the project, which ran from April 2017 to March 2018, saw renewed focus on education.<\/p>\n

Local workers were trained in wastewater treatment, using technology that was compact and affordable. \u201cIt was at the completion of the second phase where I felt we could finally say we were successful\u201d, Sai reflects.<\/p>\n

In the end, the project lasted almost three years, and its effects were felt not only at the local level in Wundwin. but nationally.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I said we were going nowhere at the beginning, I wasn\u2019t just talking about river pollution, I was talking about the attitude towards environmental preservation at a country-wide level\u201d, Sai says.<\/p>\n

A clean legacy<\/h4>\n

Over the course of the project, Myanmar\u2019s Environmental Conservation Department adopted its first\u00a0guidelines<\/a>\u00a0for noise, air and liquid emissions in December 2015. And this year, ECD launched an Environmental Management Plan for polluting industries, which required nine major industries\u2014including the textiles business\u2014to adopt wastewater and solid waste management systems. It was the first such regulation in the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cI truly believe the awareness we raised helped shift policy and played a role in ECD implementing such a law\u201d, Sai says.<\/p>\n

But the work isn\u2019t over yet. Though the project has officially concluded, workshops and internship programmes continue to ensure the textiles industry stays on a sustainable track\u2014and Myanmar\u2019s rivers are cleaned.<\/p>\n

These efforts are supported by Japan\u2019s Ministry of Environment as part of its \u201cPilot Projects for Water Environment Improvement in Asia\u201d programme, which has focused on Southeast Asia to share knowledge and learn from the mistakes that industrialising Japan made in the past, and share technology from Japan\u2019s business sector.<\/p>\n

For Horiba, opportunities such as these represent a chance to showcase the effectiveness of its solutions while helping to contribute to environmental preservation on a global scale.<\/p>\n

At the centre of it all is Sai Korn Lian, who relishes his position as a local who not only works in Japan, but for a company that specialises in measurement analysis.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first step in any project dealing with the environment is measurement,\u201d he says. This is a phrase he repeats often, and he is already focusing on the next project in Myanmar.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am constantly communicating with Myanmar, and we have started planning our next project with a focus on air pollution in the capital region,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am really in a special position: despite working on the business side in a foreign country, I am able to coordinate with governmental and local leaders back home, and contribute to improving their lives with our technology.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article first appeared on Eco-Business. In the heart of Myanmar, a few miles south of Mandalay, lies the textiles town of Wundwin. For more than 60 years, the area has been the primary production hub of the longyi, a traditional Burmese garment that is routinely dyed a variety of colours, more often than not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":3881,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-news","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3880"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3884,"href":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3880\/revisions\/3884"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icleiseas.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}