The Indonesia Urban Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (IUWASH) initiative has adopted three financial principles: “polluter pay” principle, regular payment combined with other utility bills, and capital cost by government or donor. Experience of IUWASH has shown that revenue can be generated from a well-operated septage system.

Access to improved sanitation and energy services remains a challenge. SNV Netherlands Development Organisation proposes the use of biogas to increase income, production, and employment opportunities; and improve access to, coverage, and quality of basic services.

The Private Sector Operations Department of Asian Development Bank continues to be active in Waste-to-Energy (WTE) sector in many Asian countries. While the Public-Private Partnership/Build–Operate–Transfer structure is possible for WTE, the challenge is to increase the number of commercial banks that are keen to finance this type of project.

As the Green Lung of Metro Manila, Quezon City in the Philippines has the most number of enacted environmental ordinances. Along with an environmentally compliant solid waste disposal system, it has attained efficiency in garbage collection and diverted a major percent of waste through reduction initiatives and environmental enforcement.

The Indonesia Waste Water Institute was established with the objective of providing structured capacity building support to wastewater service delivery operators. The Institute was created as a response to the underutilized integrated wastewater system in Indonesia.

As cities continue to grow at an unprecedented pace, access to water and sanitation becomes a priority. In Asia, sanitation is lagging behind water supply causing tremendous social and economic costs. Meeting the challenge requires a new approach that will increase access to reliable water and sanitation services.