Summary

Coastal and marine environmental conditions in Southeast Asia are increasingly degrading. In the past 15 years, mass tourism on islands and beach areas have impacted water quality and biodiversity under water. The situation has become worrying for local and national authorities promoting tourism and fisheries. As a last resort to protect the environment, authorities have had to shutdown some tourist areas, such as Boracay Island in the Philippines and at Koh Phi Phi in Thailand.

​

Shutting down a tourist area and opening it back as before is not a sustainable strategy to protect the environment. Tourists may flock to guesthouses and bungalows near or on the beach, yet most of these accommodations do not have appropriate sanitation, and this pollutes the swimming water and degrades the biodiverse marine environment they come to enjoy. Proper sanitation in these areas is a key element to help protect human health, the environment and the quality of the tourist experience.

​

The adapted HandyPod wastewater treatment system is a sustainable sanitation solution for beach resorts to stop discharging human waste in the water. WW! also intends to promote the HandyPod for households on small islands having limited groundwater in shallow aquifers. Such fragile freshwater lenses are easily contaminated by common pit latrine and unmaintained septic containment.