Dealing with wastewater management

By Vatapuia Maiava and Ilia L Likou 13 September 2016, 12:00AM

The issue of wastewater management was prominent on the agenda at Hotel Elisa yesterday.

It was part of a presentation by the General Manager of For Earth South Pacific (F.E.S.P.) Limited, Harley Sofield. The presentation was hosted by the Samoa Chamber of Commerce.

Located in Fiji, F.E.S.P. promotes Wastewater Treatment’s best practice in the region providing sustainable solutions for treatment of sewage, trade waste discharge and odour.

“Basically our main aim is to help people reduce their environmental impact by treating their waste water better than what they’re doing or help them entirely,” Mr. Sofield told the Samoa Observer.

“I have come over from Fiji and I represent F.E.S.P. and we specialise in waste water treatment.

“We are able to apply that in a wide range of sectors where we deal with tourism, industries, agriculture, public utilities and so on.

“We build new waste water treatment facilities and upgrade existing systems making them work better. Sometimes we are able to provide a small point of difference that ends up improving the performance of systems.”

According to Mr. Sofield, he has yet to analyse Samoa’s current wastewater treatment systems but is sure that there is room for improvement.

“I just got to Samoa and I haven’t had a look at your systems yet,” he said.

“But in large, wherever I go in the Pacific, there always seems to be room for improvement. Usually it requires action from all corners of the community.

“So you have your water authority who are have a waste water treatment plant connected to the central business district.

“Beyond that the resorts might have their private treatment plants. Everyone may be doing their part but it takes effort on both sides to help the situation.

“The water authority needs the business sector to take a little bit of ownership of their waste water management. They can improve on managing the situation on their own rather than rely on the water authority to deal with it.

“The system the water authority is currently using can also be improved on a little bit more as well.

But not to worry, the systems Mr. Sofield specializes in won’t cut too deep into Samoa’s budget.

“The whole focus is that we don’t have a high tech, huge expensive solution,” he said.

“We aim for simplicity because in the Islands, simplicity works better and it lasts longer. It’s also easy for people to deal with it and troubleshoot if they need to.”

Mr. Sofield’s one message to Samoa is always keep the environment in mind.

“Samoa please try and keep the environment in mind and try learn about how your activities affect the environment,” he said.

“Also try and learn about your activities and improve on it; you will eventually end up decreasing your environmental impact.”

By Vatapuia Maiava and Ilia L Likou 13 September 2016, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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