Abstract
After almost three years after tsunami and earthquake in 2005 in Nias and Aceh, most rehabilitation efforts from international organizations are now addressing longer term economic development and livelihood improvements. As a part of UNDP project reference: RFP/UNDP/ERTP/013/2006 "Organisations/Firms to manage Tsunami Recovery Waste Management Program" (TRWMP), environmental experts from Murdoch University conducted a technical assessment for local NGOs to advise on waste management livelihood goals for the rehabilitation process. Pre-training visits in affected areas of Banda Aceh occurred in June 2007 to identify the potential project opportunities. The outcome of this mission was matched with local NGOs and community identification. These were 3 potential activities: biogas, coconut processing, and plastic recycling processing. The two-day training workshops for each of three mentioned activities were conducted in February 2008 for NGOs and community representatives. These workshops have provided information to beneficiaries and NGOs staff on specific technical details for sustainable waste management livelihood opportunities.
Wastewater application in horticulture using hydroponics technology should minimise the exposure and contamination risk to the workers. Since the edible parts of the plant, with the exception of root crops, may not be in direct contact with the wastewater, contamination to the edible parts may also be reduced. This chapter examined two hydroponics systems, nutrient film technique and water culture (without aeration), for their efficiency in causing pathogen die-off. Three treatments, secondary treated domestic wastewater, control medium (commercial hydroponics medium) and pathogen spiked control medium were tested in triplicate. S.typhimurium (ATCCI4028) and E.coli (WACC4) were used to spike one of the treatments (spiked control medium). The experiment was conducted over four months with the medium changed every fortnight. The results showed that there was a general decrease of pathogens over seven days (>40%) in the medium and complete die-off was observed after 14 days (99%), in both types of hydroponics systems. In both systems, there were no pathogens detected in the fruits. The hydroponics techniques for domestic effluent reuse, is a viable option for edible crop production as it reduces the risks of bacterial pathogen contamination.