Chapter 7: ManagingWastewater Generatedby Healthcare Facilities

The Philippine Clean Water Act of 2004 requires the government to implement anti-degradation measures to preserve the
quality of water bodies and proper water quality management programs. It includes the following: monitoring, inspection
and survey of firms and establishments within the jurisdiction of its offices; effluent monitoring and sampling; and ambient
water quality monitoring of water bodies.
The passage of the Clean Water Act mandated the putting up of Wastewater Treatment Plants (WTP) and provision of
sanitation facilities in each locality. Human excreta are the principal vehicle for the transmission and spread of wide range
of communicable diseases. Excreta from healthcare patients may be expected to contain far higher concentration of
pathogens, and therefore are far more infectious than excreta from households. This underlines the prime importance of
providing access to adequate sanitation in every HCF. The HCF shall be connected to a municipal WTP or must have its
own WTP.
WHO defines wastewater as liquid waste discharged from, among others, HCF to individual disposal systems or to
municipal sewer pipes and which contains mainly human excreta and used water.
All HCFs shall have their own WTP or be connected to a municipal or common WTP or equivalent system for small
HCFs (with bed capacity of 25 or less).
7.1 Composition of Wastewater
Wastewater from HCFs contains organic particles (feces, hairs, food, vomit, paper fibres, etc.), soluble organic
material (urea, proteins, pharmaceuticals, etc.), inorganic particles (sand, grit and metal particles), soluble inorganic
material (ammonia, cyanide, hydrogen sulphide, thiosulphates) and other substances. The composition depends on the
source of origin.
7.2 Sources of Wastewater and Its Characteristics
Table 7.1 indicates the possible sources of wastewater within the HCF and the different characteristics of the
wastewater produced in each source.