City Sanitation planning through a political economy lens

© 2019 Water Alternatives Association. While citywide sanitation planning is perceived to be an enabler of coordinated improvements in sanitation services for developing countries, intended outcomes have often been elusive. In order to illustrate how political economy, chosen planning approaches, and ideas about change and development have acted as determinants of outcomes, this paper draws on three case study countries that took qualitatively different approaches to sanitation planning - Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia. The analysis found that the assumptions informing the planning methods were often not valid, which then undermined the potential for successful implementation. Based on the analysis, the paper argues that urban sanitation planning and implementation in developing countries needs to be transformed to reduce the emphasis on comprehensiveness and instead emphasise flexibility, a learning orientation and strategically chosen incentives. This approach demands tighter cycles of planning and action, direct testing of assumptions, and an in-depth understanding of the local- and national-level political economy and the links between them. It requires innovation to be enabled, with funding mechanisms that focus on outcome rather than input. In this way it would be possible to shift away from the typical emphasis on prescriptive procedural planning steps and towards delivery of the much-needed improved sanitation outcomes

Are we doing the right thing? Critical questioning for city sanitation planning

Our aim is to provoke practitioners, policy makers and development agencies to reflect on their approaches to city sanitation planning and the assumptions that underlie them. The document is not intended as a critique, and it does not recommend a particular planning approach. Nor does it add to existing stocks of guidance materials on how to develop sanitation plans (e.g. Sanitation 21, WHO Sanitation Safety Planning Guide 2015, Community-Led Urban Environmental Sanitation Planning (CLUES), guidance for City Sanitation Strategies (SSK) in Indonesia and City Sanitation Plans (CSPs) in India etc). Rather, our premise is that raising awareness of underlying assumptions in sanitation planning may lead to better targeted approaches to sanitation planning, if and when those assumptions are shown not to match realities

Exploring legal and policy aspects of urban sanitation and hygiene

During 2012-2014, SNV did four country reviews of legal arrangements for urban sanitation and hygiene (Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Indonesia). Based on this experience, this document was developed to provide guidance on how to undertake a legal scan for urban sanitation. Over time, the ultimate objective of this work and related activities is that WASH professionals will be able to undertake a high-level assessment of legal arrangements for urban sanitation in order to both: 1. use the frameworks and tools offered by legal and policy arrangements to improve urban sanitation and hygiene outcomes; and 2. advocate for improvements in legal, policy and institutional arrangements to facilitate sustainable sanitation and hygiene outcomes for all

Indicators to complement global monitoring of safely managed on-site sanitation to understand health risks

Halfway through the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) period, there has been little research on the criteria for monitoring safely managed sanitation under SDG target 6.2. For reporting against SDGs, global indicators are necessarily limited and exclude many safety aspects from a public health perspective. Primary survey data from 31,784 households in seven countries in Asia and Africa were analysed, comparing estimates of safely managed on-site sanitation based on global indicators with five complementary indicators of safety: animal access to excreta, groundwater contamination, overdue emptying, entering containments to empty and inadequate protection during emptying. Application of additional criteria reduced the population with safely managed sanitation by 0.4–35% for specific indicators, with the largest impact due to the risk of groundwater contamination, animal access, and containments overdue for emptying. Combining these indicators across the service chain, excluding transport and treatment, found almost three-quarters of on-site systems currently assessed as safely managed with global indicators were considered unsafe based on complementary indicators. A more comprehensive assessment of safety of on-site sanitation can be achieved through these indicators, which could be integrated into national monitoring systems and used to inform sanitation investments that address local health-related risks

Faecal sludge reuse in birendranagar, nepal: A case study of the world health organisation’s multiple barrier approach

© IWA Publishing. This case study presents an innovative initiative to facilitate safe reuse of faecal sludge (FS) by introducing the World Health Organisation’s multi-barrier approach within a Farmer Field Schools framework for participatory experiential learning. A novel FS treatment process based on fermentation by ‘effective organisms’ (EM) was piloted to test the feasibility, safety and acceptability of the resulting fertilizer. Fermented FS in agricultural application was found to perform at least as well as other common fertilizers it was compared with, while its lower cost delivered higher profits per cultivated hectare. Participating farmers found it easy to prepare and use, and viewed it favourably overall. EM-based fermentation was, however, found to be insufficient as an FS treatment to render safe reuse, particularly with respect to helminth inactivation. The paper discusses strengthening the treatment barrier, and improving the application of the multi-barrier approach by the systematic consideration of non-treatment barriers using guidance from the WHO’s Sanitation Safety Planning Manual. Further research to enable effective monitoring and support systems for maintaining treatment and non-treatment barriers, and for understanding long term impacts of fermented FS application is recommended. In combination, adequately treated fermented FS may be a candidate for scale up necessary for meeting the Sustainable Development Goals