CSE-WHO Training Programme on Sanitation Safety Planning

Date: September 03-06, 2019

List of Participants

Venue: Anil Agarwal Environment Training Institute (AAETI), Nimli, Rajasthan

The School of Water and Waste, AEETI, Centre for Science & Environment (CSE) in collaboration withWorld Health Organisation (WHO) organised a 04 day training programme on Sanitation Safety Planning (SSP) from September 03-06, 2019 at AAETI, Nimli, Rajasthan.

The training programme intended to develop an in-depth understanding of key concepts and principles of SSP in order to maximise health benefits and minimise health risk of the sanitation system in an area. Itaimedat developing coordinated efforts of the many stakeholders along the sanitation chain – including departments of health, utilities, private sector, environment and agriculture authorities – to maximise the health benefits of sanitation and stimulate policy dialogue and createchange-agents in cities and ULBs. Additionally, it highlighted theintegration of the health sector while reusing wastewater and excreta, and helped to bring a human health perspective to traditional non-health sectors like sanitation engineering and agriculture sector.

There were 22 participants from diverse backgrounds and regionsincluding municipal and Nagar Palika Parishad officials,NGO representatives, academic faculties, and central / state government officials from Tanzania and India. Training faculty included the eminent resource persons comprising of WHO Sanitation Team Leader - Kate Medlicott, WHO Consultant - Darryl Jackson, WHO Independent Consultant – AK Sengupta, Biome – Avinash Krishnamurthy, CFAR – Sutirtha Ghoshal and members from CSE’s Water Programme. 

Day 1 started with room mapping exercise and an interactive quiz by Ruhil Iyer, followed by an introductory session on Sanitation Safety: Interlinking Public Health, Hygieneand Environment complimented with a documentary on SSP by Dr. Mahreen Matto, CSE. Participants were then led for a field visit to Alwar city, aimingto understand the overall sanitation scenario in the city. The field visit included on-ground components of different sanitation value chain components – on-site emptying, conveyance and disposal, current treatment measures at Alwar’s Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) and example of wastewater re-use through a visit to the Decentralised Waste Water Treatment System (DWWTs) at the Nehru Garden. This also gave participants the opportunity to interact with private desludging operators, STP workers, and operators of the DWWTs. A range of issues such as manual scavenging, illegal faecal sludge disposal, lack of PPE, etc. were discussed.This field visit set the tone for the rest of the training, as participants used the field visit experiences in upcoming group exercises.

The second day was started with a reflection session torecapitulate the participants knowledge of previous day learnings followed by discussion on comparing their own city’s sanitation scenario to the Alwar sanitation scenario. Later sessions included a presentation by Kate Medlicott describing about approach for SSP preparation;followed by presentations by Dr Mahreen Matto, Dr Sumita Singhal, Avinash Krishnamurthy and Ms Ekta Gupta, describing about the process of preparation of SSP. All thesessionsof the training were supported by siting reference of SSP prepared for Devanahallicity(Karnataka) where the first SSP was implemented in India, by Avinash Krishnamurty. These sessions were also accompanied by brainstorming exercises interspersed with energisers. The day ended with an interesting session on the case study and implementation of SSP risk assessment for the East Kolkata Wetlands byProf. A.K. Sengupta.

After getting through some core elements of the planning process,on the third day of training, the participants learnt aboutidentifying hazards & hazardous events, their exposure route & exposure groups and finally assessed theexisting control measures and prioritized the risk associated.

Is manual scavenging fully eliminated or still a part of sanitation? Sutirtha Ghoshal from CFAR facilitated an interactive session about manual scavenging act and its awareness among the society to fully discourage this illegal practise of manual cleaning and suggested the solutions for integration and rehabilitation of informal workers. In addition to this, he stressed the importance of community engagement in sanitation planning through his presentation and documentary highlighting the successful intervention of one ward sanitation improvement in Kolkata by CFAR.

The last day of training was facilitated by early morning AAETI green campus tour by Jyoti Parsad which includes Soil Biotechnology (SBT), improved septic tank and DWWTs. Followed by the session on developing an incremental improvement planfor SSP vis a vis Devanahalli example by Avinash Krishnamurthy. This resulted in discussions revolving around implementing the SSP in phase wise manner while giving priority to major risk areas. Later the day skype session held with Darryl Jackson regarding the implementation of SSP across different cities. 

The training highlighted the importance of managing and investing in improvement of sanitation systems based on adequate understanding of the actual health risks associated with sanitation value chain including disposal and reuse.

The training ended with feedback session on how the learnings can be taken forward and other suggestions.