Financing Swachh Bharat: Finding the money for Clean India

 India's latest national sanitation programme, Swachh Bharat ('Clean India'), is Prime Minister Narendra Modi's striking initiative to re-energise the drive towards improved sanitation access and lower rates of open defecation. For an initiative of this scale to succeed, every level of government must be able to access the funds necessary to reach millions of households. This Finance Brief examines the current financial outlook for Swachh Bharat, and considers potential sanitation funding models. A key innovation is a 0.5% addition to the national Service Tax, ring-fenced for sanitation and expected to raise US $150 million per annum

Research into policy: a literature review

Water & Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP) is embarking on a new research programme dedicated to improving urban sanitation in Ghana, Kenya and Bangladesh. The driving aim of the programme is not only to produce rigorous research, but research that can drive sector change in each of the three focus countries. For this to be achieved, research must be timely, relevant and communicated in a manner that is useful to those who are in a position to drive change in urban sanitation policy on all levels. This paper presents a broad overview of the literature produced on research uptake and the actions recommended for researchers seeking to ensure that their work makes a sustained impact where it is most needed. This will inform WSUP’s sector influencing strategies and guide its development of a research uptake strategy

Strengthening the enabling environment for urban sanitation: public-private collaboration in Kisumu, Kenya

Collaboration between public and private actors is crucial for the successful delivery of safe, affordable and sustainable sanitation services in rapidly urbanising contexts. In Kisumu, Kenya, WSUP has been working with County government bodies and sanitation businesses to strengthen the enabling environment for urban faecal sludge management: the supporting regulatory, financial and institutional framework that encourages private sector participation and customer-focused service delivery. Bringing together the County Public Health Office, the city’s utility (Kisumu Water and Sewerage Company – KIWASCO), and a sanitation business (Gasia Poa Waste Management Services), this partnership model balances the strengths of each stakeholder in order to improve the market for on-site sanitation services and products in the city. This paper explains how this approach was developed, its appeal to stakeholders, how programme activities are contributing to the strengthening FSM sector, and the next steps for the sector in Kisumu – and Kenya

Smart meters: innovating to improve water supply in a post-COVID context

In cities across Africa, rapidly expanding low-income communities (LICs) pose unique technical and social challenges to utilities in expanding services – but they also present an opportunity to expand the customer base and generate revenues. COVID-19 is placing huge additional pressures on the financial viability of utilities, exacerbating the need for innovative service delivery models to this segment of the customer base. In the context of short and long-term challenges posed by COVID-19, water utilities must take every measure available to improve the efficiency of operations: service quality and attention to the customer will be even more important; greater control will be required over the distribution network; and billing and revenues will need to be maximized to support the bottom line.Smart Water Meters are a new technology with the potential to assist utilities in this process of transformation. The model offers greater control for the customer, through a flexible prepayment tailored to the spending habits of low-income households; and greater control for the utility, enabling real-time data on water demand across the supply area, and supporting a shift from reactive firefighting to preventative planning. Pilots of the technology to date have produced good results; however, more testing is needed, particularly in LICs. One project expected to inform the evidence base is a pilot of 500 smart meters recently underway in Watamu, in the Kenyan district of Malindi

Strategies to Connect Low-Income Communities with the Proposed Sewerage Network of the Dhaka Sanitation Improvement Project, Bangladesh: A Qualitative Assessment of the Perspectives of Stakeholders

In Bangladesh, approximately 31% of urban residents are living without safely managed sanitation, the majority of whom are slum residents. To improve the situation, Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (DWASA) is implementing the Dhaka Sanitation Improvement Project (DSIP), mostly funded by the World Bank. This study assessed the challenges and opportunities of bringing low-income communities (LICs) under a sewerage connection within the proposed sewerage network plan by 2025. We conducted nine key-informant interviews from DWASA and City Corporation, and 23 focus-group discussions with landlords, tenants, and Community Based Organisations (CBOs) from 16 LICs near the proposed catchment area. To achieve connections, LICs would require improved toilet infrastructures and have to be connected to main roads. Construction of large communal septic tanks is also required where individual toilet connections are difficult. To encourage connection in LICs, income-based or area-based subsidies were recommended. For financing maintenance, respondents suggested monthly fee collection for management of the infrastructure by dividing bills equally among sharing households, or by users per household. Participants also suggested the government’s cooperation with development-partners/NGOs to ensure sewerage connection construction, operation, and maintenance and prerequisite policy changes such as assuring land tenure