Desludging@Bhubaneswar through Community-Centred Processes - Akhila Sivadas

Desludging@Bhubaneswar through
Community-Centred Processes

                      ODISHA

                  Bhubaneswar

                        Akhila Sivadas

Context
Objective:                          Strong Policy support in the form of guidelines and
                                     Standard Operating Procedure
To achieve
                                    Commitment: Go beyond Open Defecation Free to
adequate and
Equitable Sanitation                 FSM
to all by 2030                      Being gender responsive by linking FSM with
                                     livelihood/skilling and rights of sanitary workers
                                    Created: Window of opportunity to intensify demand
                                     responsive processes and community engagement
                                   Challenge
                                    Address sanitation needs of millions of urban poor
                                     living in informal settlements
                                    Provide affordable and dignified service from safe
                                     containment to desludging
             Source : BMC.gov.in

Situational Assessment
Evidence
   3,01,611 population constitutes one-third of the city population (source: 2011
    census)
   Out of 1081 surveyed in 2018, 98% of respondents depended on ‘on-site
    septage’ management
   66 % respondents had connected toilets to septic tanks with partition and 34%
    to single pits
   Only 29% desludged their pits
   Lack of motivation as it was unaffordable and unregulated
   Much of the sludge was disposed-off in the open fields or drains

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Approach
                                                Empowerment

                Establish connect with
                service providers through                         Form Community
                SWF at ward level                                   Management
                                                                  Committee (CMC)

                                            Single Window
                                             led by women
                  Federated CMC as                                     Enlist & Manage
                   Single Window                                           demand
                 Forum (SWF) at the
                        ward

                                            Leave No One Behind

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Process : Community Empowerment
                             Define aspiration and demand for safely managed
                             sanitation
                              Enhance participation and involvement of the most
                              marginalized
                             Establishing collective decision making processes

                              Facilitate & Integrate all the processes and actions
                              taken by the urban local body
                               Recognized as FSM Champion

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Case Study
                                      Problem : Secure approval & toilet subsidy from ULB
                                      Process :
                                      • Facilitated formation of CMC
                                      • Galvanized 22 households to collectively secure the
                                        entitlement
                                      • Obtained work order to construct toilets; did this in
                                        record time
                                      • Realized Toilet without safe containment is futile
                                      • Worked with cesspool operators to connect users &
                                        providers
                                      • Managed demand and facilitated desludging
Mr. G.Mathivathanan, IAS, Principal
Secretary, Odisha felicitates         • Led from the front by desludging pit in 18 months
Sarojini Sahoo, 38, Single Window
Forum member, Kimbhiria,Ward 19       • Honoured as an FSM champion
                                      Outcome-A) Facilitated 76 out of 91 households in
                                      desludging by securing reduction in cost

Case Study
                                       Problem : Facilitate toilet construction for 36 households
                                       and ensure FSM
                                       Process :
                                       • Recognised the importance of community involvement
                                       • Trained on FSM; understood sanitation value chain
                                         Collaborated with government agencies to strengthen
                                         FSM
                                       • Imparted learnings to every household across the Ward
                                       • Built strong community ownership
                                       • Spearheaded the process of securing governmental
felicitated by Mr.Sangramjit Nayak,      orders for affordable desludging and mini cesspool
Mission Director, Odisha felicitates
Rakesh Kumar Makkar, 36,                 vehicle
Single Window Forum member,
Baliapata, Ward 18                     Outcome: Ensured 34 out of 59 households got
                                       mechanized desludging done

From What
to How

Barriers for Change
     Overall no knowledge of FSM
     Lack of conviction about FSM
     Lack of connect with the sanitation system
     Ad-hoc and unregulated service provisioning
     Weak demand
     High /unaffordable cost

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Barriers Tackled
Developed knowledge and conviction through:
   Assessment: Discovered flaws in safety of 1252 containments
   Training : CMC (31) and SWF (42) members oriented on safe containment and
    proper emptying of pit by experts from Odisha Water Supply and Sewerage
    Board
   Audit : Gained knowledge by auditing 199 pits and tanks.
   Internalised: Realized harm caused by faulty pit design and
    unaffordable/unsatisfactory desludging
   Seeing is believing: Visit to Basuaghai Septage Treatment Plant in Bhubaneswar
    brought to light the mechanized and ‘hygienic’ process of septage management

     7/28/2021                                                                       10

Learning to Application
   System created :
       Single Window platform : Provided service in 21 Wards and 665 households
   Issues addressed :
       Affordable desludging by bringing down cost
        Ensured efficiency for operator through route maps and timeline for pre-
        scheduling; Creating user awareness and support systems.
   Integrating Gender:
       Created Livelihood/skill development and other social security support for
        women, transgender, disabled, the elderly and other marginal groups

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Learning to Application
   Train: Build and sustain trained and dedicated leadership to facilitate safe
    practice
                Behaviour change shaped by becoming part of the solution
                Enabling realization of rights of all-provider, worker to user
   Eco System : From destigmatizing to dignifying sanitation work
   Achieved :
       Serviced 865 households in 22 Wards; ready for scaling up with 1000 litre
        capacity vehicles and cost further reduced

     7/28/2021                                                                      12

Marching Towards Inclusive Sanitation
Goal : Mandate to scale up desludging across the city -67 Wards-437 slums
Action plan :
 Institutionalize Community Engagement
 Inform, educate, schedule, execute and capture details of containments
  desludged
 Ensure coordination between household/community & service provider
 Monitor & track movement of cesspool vehicles to Wards and households
 Manage at city, Ward and slum level to track quality of service delivery
 Reduce & remove bias or preferred treatment through internal coordination
 Protocol of communication: CMC enlists demands; SWF records cesspool vehicle
  movement, and shares with CMC; together they monitor and ensure universal
  coverage

  7/28/2021                                                                  13

Tasks ahead
    Minimum of 20,000 toilets need desludging in 437 slums in phase one
    Enable scheduled desludging to ensure sanitary toilets; prevent slippage
     into open defecation
    Work in Progress : a) Integration of sanitation with micro enterprise and
     skilling and ensuring safety and dignity of sanitation work; b) gender
     responsive planning to delivery of sanitation service
    Decentralize by empowering Ward Committees
    Develop and sustain a unified-all stakeholder-response
    Last but not the least place Community at the Centre

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Acknowledgment
                We thank all members of the community,
            partners and team who were a part of this journey

             We also acknowledge the support of
Water for Women Fund, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
                   Australian Government

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