This paper provides a brief review on wastewater treatment system and the application of life cycle assessment (LCA) for assessing its environmental performance. An extensive review regarding the geographical relevance of LCA for WWTPs, and the evaluation of sustainable wastewater treatment by LCA in both developed and developing countries are also discussed. The objective of the review is to identify knowledge gap, for the improvement of the LCA application and methodology to WWTPs. A total of 35 published articles related to wastewater treatment (WWT) and LCA from international scientific journals were studied thoroughly and summarised from 2006 to 2022. This review found that there is lack of studies concerning LCA of WWTPs that consider specific local criteria especially in the developing countries. Thus, it is important to: (1) assess the influence of seasonality (i.e., dry and wet seasons) on the environmental impact of WWT, (2) investigate environmental impacts from WWTPs in developing countries focusing on the site-specific inventory data, and (3) evaluate environmental sustainability of different processes for upgrading the wastewater treatment system. The environmental impact and cost assessment aspects are crucial for the sustainable development of WWTP. Therefore, environmental impacts must be thoroughly assessed to provide recommendation for future policy and for the water industry in determining environmental trade-offs toward sustainable development.

A life cycle assessment of anaerobic-treated palm oil mill effluent (POME) was conducted to assess the environmental performance on two integrated treatment processes: the typical hollow fiber membrane ultrafiltration module coupled with adsorption and electro-oxidation as pretreatment. The analysis was undertaken using the ReCiPe 2016 method and SimaPro v9 software was employed using a ‘cradle-to-gate’ approach. The results showed that hollow fiber membrane from the adsorption integrated membrane impacted significantly at 42% to 99% across all impact categories for both processes. Overall, the electro-oxidation integrated membrane was discovered to have a lesser environmental impact, particularly on the ozone formation (human health) (HOFP) at 0.38 kg NOx-eq in comparison to the adsorption integrated membrane at 0.66 kg NOx-eq. The total characterization factor of the endpoint category for human health is 8.61 × 10⁻⁴ DALY (adsorption integrated membrane) and 8.45 × 10⁻⁴ DALY (electro-oxidation integrated membrane). As membrane treatment is closely linked to energy consumption, the environmental impact with different sources of energy was evaluated for both processes with the impacts decreasing in the following order: Grid > Biogas > Grid/Solar. Future research should concentrate on determining the overall ‘cradle-to-grave’ environmental impact of treating POME, as well as other scenarios involving membrane treatment energy utilization using LCA. This study can help decision-makers in identifying an environmentally sustainable POME treatment and management, especially in Malaysia.

Wabak pandemik COVID-19 yang melanda seluruh dunia telah memberikan impak negatif kepada banyak sektor ekonomi termasuklah sektor pelancongan. Kajian ini dijalankan untuk meninjau ketahanan dan kapasiti adaptasi menyesuaikan diri komuniti setempat terhadap impak COVID-19 yang berkait dengan sektor pelancongan yang dijalankan di Pulau Langkawi, Kedah. Satu tinjauan soal selidik telah dijalankan kepada penduduk setempat yang terlibat secara langsung dalam sektor pelancongan di Pulau Langkawi. Tinjauan dijalankan di Pulau Langkawi kerana aktiviti utama ekonomi penduduk setempat di kawasan tersebut adalah bergantung kepada sektor pelancongan. Hasil kajian mendapati bahawa wabak COVID-19 telah memberi kesan yang ketara kepada ekonomi komuniti setempat disebabkan sekatan sempadan negara dan perintah kawalan pergerakan (PKP) yang menyebabkan aktiviti pelancongan tidak dapat dijalankan. Pembukaan Pulau Langkawi sebagai projek rintis gelembung pelancongan sangat membantu memulihkan pendapatan komuniti setempat yang terlibat dalam sektor pelancongan di pulau tersebut. Berdasarkan hasil kajian, sebanyak empat cadangan untuk pemerkasaan sektor pelancongan di Pulau Langkawi selepas COVID-19 telah diberikan iaitu meningkatkan kemahiran inovasi dan pendigitalan sektor pelancongan, memperkukuhkan tadbir urus dan respon terhadap impak pandemik, membina ketahanan dan kapasiti adaptasi untuk daya saing, dan koordinasi dan kerjasama antara pemegang taruh bagi melestarikan sektor pelancongan. Cadangan penambahbaikan ini tidak terhad kepada Pulau Langkawi sahaja dan boleh diaplikasikan di kawasan pelancongan lain. Hasil kajian ini adalah selari dengan Dasar Pelancongan Negara 2020-2030 iaitu memperkukuhkan komitmen terhadap pelancongan lestari dan meningkatkan kapasiti modal insan dalam semua sub-sektor pelancongan, khususnya di Pulau Langkawi.