A consolidated reply of experiences and examples shared by various members of the Solution Exchange Water Community
From Ranvijay Kumar, Nidan, Patna
Posted 21 October 2010
I work with a Patna-based NGO called Nidan on Urban Water and Sanitation issues. We operate in 10 slums in Patna . According to the Census of 2001, the population of Patna Urban Agglomeration Area (PUAA), spread over nearly 135.79 sq. km., amounts to approximately 16.97 lakh people, of which 63.5 per cent resides in slums. Nearly 46 per cent of land occupied by slums belongs to the government. The civic services provided to them are very poor; housing is congested, there is little or no drainage and a lack of public lavatories, forcing them to defecate in the open. They have little access to government health services and depend on private practitioners. More than half of these slums depend on the piped water supply of the Municipal Corporation and the rest use groundwater (tube wells, handpumps and dug wells).
Bihar has suffered a drought this year and the water tables have been falling. The Patna Jal Board and Municipal Corporations have been unable to supply slums with enough water. This and the existing lack of sanitation have placed the slum population at greater risk. Water shortages have forced people to use contaminated water, resulting in a high incidence of water-borne diseases.
We have started an “Integrated Water and Sanitation Programme in slums of Patna ” project supported by WaterAid. The objective is to alleviate the conditions in slums with regard to water, sanitation and hygiene facilities ( WASH ). We have created a model of Water and Sanitation management in slums run by local communities. We are taking up WATSAN issues with policy makers through different advocacy programmes. We are also institutionalizing the process through capacity building of slum water and sanitation committees. So far, we have provided 1,850 people with sustainable water supply and 696 people with sanitation facilities.
We now need an urban water sanitation policy to take this process to scale. For this, we have set up an Urban Civil Society Forum that is working towards drafting a comprehensive and effective Urban Water and Sanitation policy in Bihar .
We request your inputs for this policy as follows:
- What urban water and sanitation policies exist at the state level (apart from the national policy)?
- Are there any examples of how people from slums can be part of the planning, execution and monitoring process?
- What are the main points of action under these policies and challenges in implementing them?
Your inputs will help us make a suitable policy for Bihar .
Responses were received, with thanks, from
1. Sriparna Iyer, Support Programme for Urban Reforms in Bihar, Patna
2. Vishwanath S., Rainwater Club, Bangalore
3. Sanjay Shakya, Infrastructure Professionals Enterprise Private Ltd., New Delhi
4. Sunder Subramanian, ICRA Management Consulting Services Limited, Noida
5. Neelkanth Mishra, FANSA GTF South Asia Regional Office, Hyderabad
6. K N Vajpai, Climate Himalaya Initiative, Uttarakhand
7. Nitya Jacob, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), New Delhi
8. Jyoti Sharma, FORCE, New Delhi
9. Mamata Sanyal, Church’s Auxiliary for Social Service, Kolkata
10. Ajit Seshadri, The Vigyan Vijay Foundation, New Delhi
Further contributions are welcome!
Urban water and sanitation has been the domain of municipalities and urban development authorities. It is presumed that all city dwellers will get water and have adequate sanitation within their homes, or within easy reach, regardless of their socio-economic status. In practice, this is not so; a large percentage of urbanites have uncertain water supply and no sanitation. They illegally tap municipal water supplies or depend on informal water markets. They use the nearest open area for defecation. Colonies inhabited by the poor, and in some cases by the rich as well, often have no sewage lines.
Municipalities have taken the plea that they did not have the resources to provide services to everybody, and that people living in slums could not be serviced since they had illegally occupied land. Thus, there exists a huge a gap between demand for urban water and sanitation services among all socio-economic classes, and it supply. While slum dwellers do not have legal connections, the better-off who have such connections are not assured of service. Waste water treatment facilities across India are 27.3 per cent of the capacity (Central Pollution Control Board) required to treat all urban discharge, and are in need of urgent augmentation.
The Ministry of Urban Development enunciated the National Urban Sanitation Policy, 2008, to address some of the concerns related to resources and involve communities in planning. Several states are now rolling out their own urban water and sanitation policies.
Karnataka announced its policy in 2002 to ensure universal coverage of water and sanitation services that people are willing to pay for. It emphasizes sustainability of water resources as well as commercial and economic sustainability, along with a minimum service level. The policy lays down the state government’s responsibilities as a policy formulator, providing resources for creating capacity, regulation monitoring and evaluation, setting standards, introducing public private partnerships (PPP), ensuring economic viability, securing inter-agency coordination and drafting the necessary by-laws.
In Tamil Nadu, the urban sanitation plan talks of an integrated approach to sanitation planning at a city-wide level. The objectives are total sanitation coverage, adequate water supply and sustainable solid waste management. It suggests the way forward based on solid and liquid waste management, sustaining operation and maintenance, participatory planning that include communities and NGOs throughout the project lifecycle, encouraging people to contribute to projects and a communications strategy.
Gramalaya, an NGO with over two decades’ experience in the sector working in Tamil Nadu, has worked with urban local bodies to improve water supply and sanitation in several slums. It begins with an intensive motivation campaign that covers hygiene and education. Gramalaya’s strategy is to persuade people to make individual toilets but if these are not feasible, provide community toilets. It provides different designs depending on the terrain. Similarly, it favours household water connections as these are optimal from the point of view of health and hygiene, and substantially reduce the burden of collecting water (borne mostly by women). Again, water supply schemes depend on the local geography. Community-based organizations implement its programmes.
Another model of urban sanitation comes from Bhubaneshwar, Orissa. An NGO called BISWA works with the municipality to provide water and sanitation to slum dwellers. It has achieved 100 per cent household water connections in its project areas, at nominal connection fees. BISWA also arranges for micro-credit to help the poor get money to pay for these services. It has an agreement with the Public Health Engineering Department to provide water of adequate quality and quantity. The major challenge BISWA faced was involving communities in the projects.
Several other states – Maharashtra, West Bengal , Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh – are working on urban water and sanitation policies modeled on the Central one. Bihar has launched the Bihar State Water and Sanitation mission, a registered society, as the nodal agency to implement Swajaldhara. It emphasizes convergence between departments and programmes, is responsible for annual planning, policy formulation and setting objectives and framing rules. There are other models for managing urban sanitation from states that have no policy as yet. For example, the Haryana Urban Development Authority charges a fee for sanitation and disposal of solid waste. In Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, the municipality has a PPP model for managing solid waste. The government of Delhi divided the state into six zones for garbage collection and allotted these to three companies.
The major challenge is to involve communities at the city level; while several organizations have been successful in a few slums in some cities, the problem is scaling this up city-wide. Another challenge is to make the urban water and sanitation policies gender-sensitive so that women’s needs are adequately addressed. A third is balancing financial viability of these services with equality considerations so the poor are not excluded on account of their inability to pay full user charges.
From Sunetra Lala, Research Associate
Haryana
Door-to-door Collection and Transportation of Waste Ensured by the Public Private Partnerships (PPP) Model
In many towns of Haryana, the Haryana Urban Development Authority charges a development fees for sanitation and solid waste disposal. Door-to-door collection and transportation is done in the PPP model. ULBs are not encouraged to levy door-to-door collection charges. Instead the concessionaire does all the management and is paid a tipping fee per tonne of waste delivered at the tipping plant which is all inclusive. This system has proved to be quite effective.
Himachal Pradesh
Public Private Partnerships (PPP) for Solid Waste Disposal Works Well
In Shimla a PPP model was developed for door-to-door collection of waste in 6 out of 24 Wards in the city. A Bill to this effect was passed by the Shimla Municipal Corporation and legislation by the Himachal Pradesh Assembly. The system worked quite effectively as a penalty provision was also included in the regulation and used for ensuring compliance.
New Delhi (from Nitya Jacob, Resource Person)
The National Capital Territory of Delhi generates large quantities of solid waste. In 2005, the state government signed agreements with private companies for collection, segregation, transportation and disposal of municipal solid waste. The waste collection efficiency has improved, there is better community participation and waste segregation and the conditions of rag-pickers has also improved. Read more.
Bharat Integrated Social Welfare Agency (BISWA) ensures safe water and sanitation for slums, Bhubaneshwar(from Neelkanth Mishra, FANSA GTF South Asia Regional Office, Hyderabad)
BISWA is implementing a project to ensure access to safe water and sanitation facilities to slums. 100 per cent households were given piped water supply and ready-to-use toilets. The Public Health Engineering Department entered an agreement with BISWA to guarantee the quality and quantity of water supplied. BISWA is responsible for community mobilization and provision of micro credits. Similar schemes are now being executed in other slums of the city. Read more.
Bihar Sate Water Policy (from Sanjay Shakya, Infrastructure Professionals Enterprise Private Ltd., New Delhi)
Document; by; Public Health Engineering Department; Government of Bihar; Bihar; March 2010;
Available at http://bswsmpatna.org/#
Describes the states water and sanitation policy and how it will be directed towards reducing irrigation water demand and optimum utilization of the surface water resource
Gramalaya’s approach to water, sanitation and community development (from Nitya Jacob, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), New Delhi)
Paper; by Gramalaya; Tiruchirapalli;
Available at http://www.gramalaya.in/pdf/our_approch.pdf (PDF; Size: 46.2KB)
Describes Gramalayas approach with regard to water and sanitation in its project areas prepared for its present and future project interventions, project formulation, etc
Public Private Partnership for Solid Waste Management in Delhi : A Case Study (from Nitya Jacob, Resource Person)
Case Study; Ankur Garg, Varun Kumar and Vaibhav Verma; Environmental Engineering, Delhi College of Engineering , Delhi ; September 2007
Available at http://www.swlf.ait.ac.th/IntlConf/Data/ICSSWM%20web/FullPaper/Session%20IX/9_07%20_Ankur%20Garg.pdf(PDF; Size: 448KB)
Describes how a partnership between the government and three private companies has led to better waste management in Delhi
From Sunetra Lala, Research Associate
Meeting the Financing Challenge for Water Supply and Sanitation
Summary Report; Meera Mehta; The World Bank and Water and Sanitation Program-Africa; Nairobi, Kenya; November 2004;
Available at
http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2005/07/22/000011823_20050722181033/Rendered/PDF/330650PAPER0af1o0303480main0report1.pdf (PDF; Size: 484 KB)
Provides a framework for reviewing financing mechanisms for water supply and sanitation, including guidelines for user charges
Water and Urban Poor
Paper; by Lynn Bouselly, Shreekant Gupta and Debjani Ghosh; National Institute of Urban Affairs; New Delhi; December 2006;
Available at
http://www.niua.org/Publications/working_papers/water%20and%20urban%20poor_lynn.pdf (PDF; Size: 177.52 KB)
Examines why water services in India for the poor is found lacking, including user charges issues; and suggests measures that can be undertaken to improve the situation
Pro-poor Water and Wastewater Management in Small Towns - Water Supply Management in Colombo, Sri Lanka
Case Study; by K. A. Jayaratne, Lal Premanath and Rupa Manel; United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific; January 2007;
Available at
http://www.unescap.org/pdd/prs/ProjectActivities/Ongoing/Water/Colombo/Colombo_MR.pdf (PDF; Size: 182.87 KB)
Provides an example of drinking water distribution through a public, private and civil society partnership where water and sanitation is provided at low charges
User Charges-ULB Level Reform
Guidelines; Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM); Development; Government of India; New Delhi;
Available at
http://www.indiaurbanportal.in/JNNURM/mandatory_reforms/Local%20Level%20Reforms/usercharges.pdf (PDF; Size: 54.84 KB)
Describes the modalities and objectives of establishment of user charges by ULBs for urban services, including water supply under the reforms suggested by the JnNURM
Recommended Organizations and Programmes
Department for International Development (DFID), New Delhi(from Sriparna Iyer, Support Programme for Urban Reforms in Bihar, Patna)
British High Commission, B-28 Tara Crescent, Qutab Institutional Area, New Delhi 100016; Tel: 91-11-26529123; Fax: 91-11-26529296; enquiry@dfid.gov.uk; http://www.dfid.gov.uk/Where-we-work/Asia-South/India/?tab=0
Is supporting a 6-year programme called 'Support Programme for Urban Reforms' (SPUR) in Bihar which has developed an Urban Sanitation Strategy for Bihar
Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, New Delhi(from Neelkanth Mishra, FANSA GTF South Asia Regional Office, Hyderabad)
Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India, Nirman Bhawan, Maulana Azad Road, New Delhi 110011; Tel: Tel: 91-11-23061287; Fax: Fax: 91-11-3793672; www.jnnurm.nic.in
Programme for urban development, includes reforms in service delivery, including water and sanitation; and proposes cost recovery for urban services by Urban Local Bodies
Gramalaya, Tamil Nadu (from Nitya Jacob, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), New Delhi)
C-62 B, 10th cross, Further West extension, Near water tank, Thillainagar, Tiruchirapalli 620018, Tamil Nadu; Tel: 91-431-4021563; gramalaya@hotmail.com; http://www.gramalaya.in/
Has developed an approach paper on water and sanitation which includes findings, intervention strategies and innovative approaches carried out by them in this field
From Vishwanath S., Rainwater Club, Bangalore
Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board, Karnataka
Mailasandra, Bangalore, Karnataka; Tel: 91-80-22238888; webmaster@bwssb.org;
Has adopted a pro-poor approach in its water supply and sanitation projects in the urban slums of Bangalore
Japan Bank of International Cooperation, New Delhi
1st floor, The Metropolitan Hotel New Delhi, Bangla Sahib Road, New Delhi 110001; Tel: 91-11-43522900; Fax: 91-11-43522950 ir@jbic.go.jp; http://www.jbic.go.jp/en/about/office/new-delhi/index.html
Has a project in Bangalore to provide water and sanitation services to over 100,000 slum households in over 300 slums in Bangalore
Bihar State Water and Sanitation Mission, Bihar(from Sanjay Shakya, Infrastructure Professionals Enterprise Private Ltd., New Delhi)
Vishweswaraiya bhawan Complex, Bailey Road, Patna 800015, Bihar; Tel: 91-612-2545087; www.bswsmpatna.org
It is responsible for implementation of Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Programme in the State and has developed a State Drinking Water and Sanitation Policy
From Neelkanth Mishra, FANSA GTF South Asia Regional Office, Hyderabad
Ministry of Urban Development, New Delhi
Nirman Bhawan, Maulana Azad Road, New Delhi 110011; Tel: 91-11-23022199; Fax: 91-11-23061459 http://urbanindia.nic.in/moud/moud.htm
Is proposing a National Level Communication Campaign to increase awareness on sanitation related issues amongst households and service providers
Bharat Integrated Social Welfare Agency (BISWA), Orissa
Danipali, PO Budharaja. Sambalpur, Orissa; Tel: 91-663-2533597; Fax: 91-663-2533597; kcm@biswa.org; http://biswa.org/en/Activities-of-BISWA
is implementing a project in partnership with Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation to ensure access to safe water and sanitation facilities to slum dwellers at their houses
From Sunetra Lala, Research Associate
National Institute of Urban Affairs, New Delhi
Core 4B, India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road New Delhi 110003; Tel: 91-11-24643284; Fax: 91-11- 24617513;urbanindia@niua.org; http://niua.org
Works towards providing policy prescriptions, including those on water service delivery, for better urban governance and improving the quality of life of urban residents
Janaagraha, Bangalore
4th Floor, UNI Building , Thimmiah Road , Vasanth Nagar, Bangalore 560052; Tel: 91-80-41277102; Fax: 91-80-41277104; info@janaagraha.org; http://www.janaagraha.org
Institution for promoting citizenship and democracy, which carried out the PROOF Campaign for water budget analysis of urban local bodies
Public Records of Operations and Finance (PROOF) Campaign, Bangalore
Janaagraha, 4th Floor, UNI Building , Thimmiah Road , Vasanth Nagar, Bangalore 560052; Tel: 91-80-41277102; Fax: 91-80-41277104; info@janaagraha.org;
A public campaign facilitated by Janaagraha in Bangalore for analysing performance data, including the water budget of the Bangalore Municipal Corporation
Recommended Portals and Information Bases
India Water Portal, Arghyam, Karnataka (from Vishwanath S., Rainwater Club, Bangalore)
http://www.indiawaterportal.org/node/1038; Contact Deepak Menon; deepak@arghyam.org
Provides a link to the Karnataka Urban Drinking Water and Sanitation Policy (2002), set up to deal with the delivery of water and sanitation services in urban areas
Climate Change Initiatives News-Envisioning Sustainable Development in Himalayas, Climate Change Initiative, Uttarakhand (from K N Vajpai, Climate Himalaya Initiative, Uttarakhand)
http://chimalaya.org/category/water-and-climate-change/; Contact K N Vajpai; knvajpai@prakriti-india.org
Portal focuses on Himalayan Mountains, in four issues of climatic adaptation: 'Awareness Generation', 'Knowledge Networking', 'Capacity Building' and 'Environmental Governance'
Public Private Partnership in Delivery of Urban Services, from A.N.P Sinha, Planning Comm iss ion, New Delhi (Experience, Examples). Decentralization Community and Water Community, Solution Exchange India ,
Issued 8 June 2006. Available at http://www.solutionexchange-un.net.in/decn/cr/cr-se-decn-wes-08060601.pdf (PDF, Size: 194 KB)
Addresses various aspects of service delivery in urban areas, highlighting PPP models and the underlying features of these partnership arrangements.
Urban Local Body Charges for WATSAN Services, Ramakrishna Nallathiga, Centre for Good Governance, Hyderabad (Experiences; Advice) . Water and Decentralisation Communities, Solution Exchange India,
Issued 05/05/2009. Available at http://www.solutionexchange-un.net.in/environment/cr/cr-se-wes-decn-31030901.pdf(PDF,Size: 152KB)
Seeks inputs on the guiding principles and tools for ULBs to use while working out water user charges
Sriparna Iyer, Support Programme for Urban Reforms in Bihar, Patna
You may be aware that the Department for International Development (DFID), Government of United Kingdom is currently supporting a 6-year programme called 'Support Programme for Urban Reforms' (SPUR) in Bihar . SPUR is being implemented by the Urban Development and Housing Department. The programme started in April 2010.
SPUR has developed an Urban Sanitation Strategy for Bihar in line with the National Urban Sanitation Policy. This strategy will be discussed through stakeholder consultations prior to finalization. The Strategy has received 'in principle' approval from the Government of Bihar.
Vishwanath S., Rainwater Club, Bangalore
A very interesting set of questions have been raised by Ranvijay Kumar. Here are the answers to what I know:
Karnataka is the only state that I know which formulated an Urban Water and Sanitation Policy. This was done as early as 2002 and can be downloaded from the India Water Portal website here http://www.indiawaterportal.org/node/1038
As an observation let me also state that this policy seemed to have been formulated just to foster a PPP effort and to allow private sector participation in urban water supply schemes. It has resulted in some wards of Hubli-Dharwad, Gulbarga and Belgaum getting 24/7 water supply with private companies providing the design and implementation of the projects. The policy was also criticized for not being discussed in the legislature and for not being consultative enough.
A more interesting approach has been that of the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) which has adopted a pro-poor approach and calls it services to the urban poor. A link to this approach is here http://bwssb.org/urban_poor.html
The salient features of the approach include:
- individual connections as far as possible to all households even in slums
- group connections if individual connections are not possible
- proof of residence reduced to a minimum which includes any document such as khata, electricity bill, BPL ration card, election identity card, card issued by the Karnataka Slum Clearance Board. It demands only a proof of residence and not a legal right to land for giving the water and sanitation connection
Connections, both water and sewerage, are given at Rs 550/- for houses less than 150 sq. ft in plinth area at Rs 800/- for houses between 151 sq. ft and 600 sq ft in plinth area. 32 slums had been given such connections as far as I am aware till the last count.
There is now huge Japan Bank of International Cooperation JBIC project to extend the same services to over 100,000 slum households in over 300 slums. This programme is yet to roll out and has just started with the monies allocated.
On also knows that the Andhra Pradesh and Chattisgarh/Jharkhand governments have also started such pro-poor schemes but I do not have access to govt. policy documents on that score.
In all these schemes the people have had very little or no role in the planning, design and execution of the projects unfortunately.
The problems are the usual of the lack of interest and aggressive pursuit to get universal connections by the utilities.
Sanjay Shakya, Infrastructure Professionals Enterprise Private Ltd., New Delhi
PHED, Bihar through the Bihar State Water and Sanitation Mission (BSWSM) has developed a State Drinking Water and Sanitation Policy which can be accessed on http://bswsmpatna.org/.
Sunder Subramanian, ICRA Management Consulting Services Limited, Noida
Maharashtra has an urban water and sanitation policy too. I am not sure if they have formally launched the policy yet, but a full-fledged draft UWSS policy existed a few months ago.
Neelkanth Mishra, FANSA GTF South Asia Regional Office, Hyderabad
The national level urban sanitation policy came into effect from 2008. In our country drinking water and sanitation is not guided through one policy framework. At the national level, we have separate policies for drinking water and sanitation. As per the new urban sanitation policy 2008 guidelines, it is expected from all state governments will develop their state specific urban sanitation policy within 2 years. This policy framework suggests states to implement PPP in the urban sanitation sector, develop financial sustainability approach, user fee for all sanitation related services and develop the capacity of local bodies to raise their own resources. Most of the implementation support will come through UIDSSMT and JNNURM. The Ministry of Urban Development is also proposing a National Level Communication Campaign to increase awareness on sanitation related issues amongst households and service providers. Other measures include service-level benchmarks in four core areas (water supply, sanitation, solid waste management and storm water drainage). The national policy document urges states to focus mainly on outcomes and not just on creating infrastructure. A number of states, including Maharashtra and West Bengal are in the final stages of having an approved state sanitation strategy, while Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh have begun the process of developing a strategy. The Ministry of Urban Development has instituted an initiative under the NUSP known as Nirmal Shahar Puraskar, which will rate cities according to various sanitation-related parameters and present awards for excellence in performance.
The major challenge would be in bringing communities to prepare their plan, manage and maintain infrastructural support system and raise local resources. Although, some of the municipalities tried to bring municipal bonds (Ahmedabad, Trichy etc.) but the success rate is very low, unlike in the USA .
Some of the NGOs are piloting to bring communities in planning, implementation and sustaining the systems. I will provide some insights from BISWA (an NGO based in Bhubneshwar) that works with slum dwellers to provide them with safe drinking water and sanitation facilities.
BISWA, an NGO based in Bhubneshwar (Orissa) is implementing the multi-stake holder project in partnership with Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation and the State Housing and Urban Development Department, to ensure access to safe water and sanitation facilities to slum dwellers at their houses. Under the project, 100 per cent households were given pipe water supply and city sanitation. The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC), with the help of local NGOs is implementing a sanitation and piped water supply scheme in the identified slum pockets. By this pilot project, BMC intends to develop a Citywide Slum Upgrading Strategy (CSS) with an implementation and financial investment plan.
BISWA is also pursuing its vision to transform Bhubaneswar into an ‘open defecation free’ (ODF) city through a City Sanitation Strategy (CSS). The key outcomes of the pilot project will provide the ‘basis for the citywide slum upgrading and poverty reduction strategy’ to meet the goals set out in the Bhubaneswar City Development Plan under JNNURM.
Biswa believes in ‘Financial Inclusion Improves Sanitation and Health’ for community members (for urban slum dwellers as well as rural masses). It is noteworthy to say that based on pilots learning, recently, the Government of Orissa has reduced the connections fees for the urban poor from Rs. 4,620 to Rs 800, for both water supply and sewerage connections. Now, looking at the success of this model, BMC, is executing similar schemes in three other slums of the city. In the BISWA model apart from supplying water to households in the slums, the residents have also been provided with ready-to-use toilets. The work of the BMC was also mentioned at a meeting organized by the National Institute of Urban Affairs. The water and sanitation project was undertaken on the basis of a survey by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) which has identified 377 slums in Bhubaneswar . Of these, only 99 slums are “authorized” by the government. Biswa picked up four slums from the list of the government approved slums after assessing the financial status of the slum-dwellers. The organisation provided seed money to slum-dwellers for constructing the toilets and also for undertaking the repair works. The pipeline for drinking water was laid with financial assistance from some other resources (foundation grant). Under this programme, the Public Health Engineering Department has entered an agreement with BISWA to guarantee quality and quantity of water supplied to the slums as well as for pipe maintenance. BISWA, for its part, has been working with most of these slums as part of its microfinance programme and is responsible for community mobilization, education and provision of credit for last mile connections. BISWA also provides credit to households for the construction of toilets that will be connected to the sewer network.
The discussion you raised requires a lot of consultations and piloting to develop a framework for action at the community level.
K N Vajpai, Climate Himalaya Initiative, Uttarakhand
One of the most interesting paradoxes of city planning in India is that, in spite of being one of the most heritage rich countries of the world, India ’s major historic cities are most neglected. It is evident that the larger cities have grown rapidly in terms of their population sizes, but not proportionately in terms of quality of urban services and facilities. In term of services, no Indian city provides water 24/7, only half the population has access to safe drinking water, and less than a third has access to sanitation.
The public services fall short largely because they have little or no accountability to the ultimate client, and outdated management systems are unable to provide the information needed for decision-making.
While discussing the urban water and sanitation issues, we should be aware that, the JNNURM has two very important sub missions; the ‘Urban infrastructure and Governance’, and ‘Basic services to the Urban poor’. The main thrust of former sub mission is on infrastructure projects relating to water supply, sanitation, sewerage, solid waste management, road network and urban transport, etc. The focus of sub mission ‘Basic Services to the Urban Poor’ is; integrated development of slums through projects for providing shelter, basic services and other related civic amenities with a view to providing utilities to the urban poor.
The JNNURM focuses on efficiency in urban infrastructure and service delivery mechanisms, community participation, and accountability of Urban Local Bodies, State and Parastatal agencies towards citizens. Further, the City Development Planning (CDP) formulation process is guided by a comprehensive process of planning entrusted to the ‘Urban Local Bodies’ and ‘Parastatal Agencies’ in cohesive manner, with the active participation of people at large.
Further, the municipal solid waste (MSW) and sewage generation in India has significantly increased over the years from 6 million tons in 1947 to over 69 million tons in 2006 (NAPCC, 2008) and is becoming a major environmental threat. Over the next 40 years, India will experience one of the most dramatic settlement transitions in history, as its urban population grows from about 300 million to more than 700 million (Hughes, B, et al 2006).
Devising an appropriate sanitation polity is crucial aspect in this context, and here the national policy could be taken as guideline for further refining and defining in local context. Though, the 12th Schedule list of the 74th Constitutional amendment includes eighteen functions for the Urban Local Bodies, including; water, household and environmental sanitation. Further, the safe management of human excreta, safe confinement treatment, disposal and associated hygiene-related practices are the important component of any Sanitation Policy.
Following are two important considerations during policy formulation in urban context:
- There should be provisions to make the community and its representatives aware and build their capacities upon various sanitation related policies and guidelines those include JNNURM guidelines, Urban Sanitation Policy, Sustainable Habitat and water Mission under NAPCC, National River Conservation Plan, National Lake Conservation Plan, Municipal Solid Waste (Handling and Management) rules, National Urban Housing & Habitat Policy, Accelerated urban water supply programme, among others.
- There should be component of making the people and community representatives understand about the process of inclusive City Development Planning and how they must be involved during such planning process and see the scope of further inclusiveness.
Without considering the inclusive planning process, there are chances that the ongoing efforts are not sustainable. This may further pose serious climatic vulnerability among poor population living in the slums of urban areas in terms of increasing intensity of droughts, which as stated, Bihar is facing, leading to shortage of drinking water and increased in food and other commodity prices and health hazards.
We also invite water community members for regular updates related to water and climate change at our News blog http://chimalaya.org/category/water-and-climate-change/ .
Nitya Jacob, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), New Delhi
Tamil Nadu has recently finalized its Urban Sanitation Policy that will facilitate the implementation of the National Urban Sanitation Plan (NUSP) in the state. While drawing up the Policy, the Directorate of Municipal Administration in Chennai consulted with officials of Municipal Corporations, elected Chairman, NGOs and experts from the Departments of the Metropolitan Development Authority and Tamil Nadu Water and Drainage board how to dovetail the same in tune with the geographical and other special features of the State.
Tamil Nadu has a long densely populated coastline and 44% of people live in urban areas, making this the most urbanised part of the country with the exception of New Delhi . The draft State Policy indicates an integrated approach to planning in terms of funding and development of urban areas as against project-based, location-based funding. The State Policy is aimed at city-wide planning and adoption of appropriate technologies with options depending on physical features of the town. It emphasizes solid and liquid waste management, sustainable operation and maintenance, participatory planning by including civil society and an important role for NGOs and CBOs in the entire process of planning, execution, monitoring and evaluation. The highlights of the policy are total sanitation coverage, adequate water supply and sustainable and environmental-friendly solid waste management practices.
An important pre-condition is the willingness of municipality to raise funds for projects to make the services financially viable in the long run. Under the Policy, a State Sanitation Task Force will be set up to help municipalities to draw up city sanitation plans and provide support and suggestions for their implementation in a participatory manner. A special focus is hygienic and affordable sanitation facilities for the urban poor and women.
The Policy recognizes the importance of changing mindsets of stakeholders to make the programme a success. For this, it outlines a vibrant communication strategy to generate awareness on sanitation both at the household and service provider levels including the government. It has a criteria for grading of towns based on their performance in implementing the Policy and for winning the newly-instituted Nirmal Shahar Puraskar.
A non-government organization, Gramalaya’s working on water, sanitation and community development, has prepared an approach document was prepared for the better understanding of governing body members, staff working under different projects of Gramalaya and the donors. It is based on two decades of work in the water sector and feedback from experts, consultants, donors and other stakeholders. The inputs from the community based organizations are major contributing factors for this document. The document includes the lessons learned, evaluation findings came out and intervention strategies followed, innovative approaches and creative ideas from community participation, with inputs from communities through the participatory site visits (community monitoring system). You can download the document from http://www.gramalaya.in/pdf/our_approch.pdf.
Experience from different parts of India shows that, there is a gap between perception and action regarding water and sanitation among people living in cities. What I mean is people will demand and get sanitation facilities, but in the absence of proper maintenance, they are misused. Urban water systems do not reach poor localities so the people there either tap into the municipal supply illegally or an informal water market exists to meet their needs. People in these areas do not demand better facilities. Even if they live in authorized colonies, the municipalities do not supply water or provide sanitation. Thus, one of the major action points under any water and/or sanitation scheme is to meet the needs of poorer and unplanned sections of the city. In Delhi for example, the urbanized villages are not poor but have no sewage or water connections. Sewage flows through drains into the Yamuna river while there are hundreds of illegal water connections or borewells. Delhi looses half the water its treatment plants produce in transit and pipeline leaks cannot account for such a large percentage; illegal water tapping is the major cause.
Jyoti Sharma, FORCE, New Delhi
In the context of Water and Sanitation Planning for the urban poor, one important factor has been consistently ignored by planners. All Indian cities have to cope up with a huge and constant inflow of migrant rural poor population who, for many years, just look for basic sustenance in the city. Their first halt is on public land, where they squat untill they feel settled enough to plan for permanent settlements.
We need to plan for temporary 'plug and play' models of water and sanitation services in squatter settlements or build special transit shelters to cater to the needs of this poor migrant population. Shallow sewerage systems, water points fed through tankers, mobile garbage bins and mobile toilets linked to the shallow sewers/main sewer lines outside - which can be assembled and dismantled fast without making any permanent infrastructure, need to be planned for in these areas.
Mamata Sanyal, Church’s Auxiliary for Social Service, Kolkata
Thank you very much for your idea. It is really very much needed and context oriented. I do well appreciate for your practical but innovative thought/planning, though such type of portable toilets, garbage removers are not new but it is not used in plenty. It will be very good if the planers look in to this matter and incorporate in their planning which will be very eco-friendly, hygienic and useful for the rural migrants in to cities in search of their livelihood.
Ajit Seshadri, The Vigyan Vijay Foundation, New Delhi
This indeed is an interesting discussion and frank and do-able initiatives are emerging in the subject of watsan in the urban context.
Having been more on the implementation of practices, we would like to modify the question to so that we can bring awareness on practices to benefits members. And of course when practices are sustained and proven as time treated initiatives, policies are required to be initiated in order to get the right practices that be followed.
So we give our inputs to bring to light what urban water and sanitation practices exist at the decentralised level and what are the main points of action and challenges in implementing these practices.
We have always been using urban or rural practices for conversion of "wastes to resource". And have evolved a set of practices under theme,
"DAFUS- Decentralised Approach for Urban Services", given below:
- Rain water is always wasted, this should be taken up for rainwater harvesting, by practices of store and use or store and recharge ground- aquifers or in water-bodies such as ponds & lakes.
- Waste-water flowing wastefully in urban-drains or Nallahs ought to be taken for processing and recycled. This water can be used for lower- end uses and irrigating urban greens, etc.
- Bio- wastes to be turned into compost/ manure and used locally in parks/ gardens etc.
- More green lands in urban neighborhood is to be evolved which gives added comfort to urbanites, and has added benefits of reducing pollution, by the use of plants and trees. It provides local bio-remediation for adverse climate impacts.
- Urban green belts, when recycled water and manure from bio-wastes are available locally, these practices can be sustained easily.
- Kitchen wastes of bio-origin are fed in bio-gas plants and turned into cooking gas and manure, also developed countries have shown the say by evolving cooking gas from engineered solid waste landfills,
- Ecosan principles can be extended to create waterless urinals (WLUs), and the urino-manure evolved can be used as manure etc.
- ELPs- Eco LIteracy Programs in communities to be propagated for good care of environment and provide good living and comfort, etc.
All good DAFUS practices are to be taken note of, audited and with inferences gained from the respective communities can be improved upon.
Now comes the policies, which can be evolved to facilitate these practices to be implemented by design, planning etc.
Many thanks to all who contributed to this query!
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