Second - Specialized Training on District Level Planning for Fecal Sludge Management in Rural Areas

Date: December 20 - 24, 2021

Rural Water and Waste rolled out its second 5-days residential "Specialized Training on District Level Planning for Faecal Sludge Management in Rural Areas" from December 20 to 24, 2021 at Anil Agarwal Environmental Training Institute, Alwar. The training was a tailor-made programme for the Swachh Bharat Mission Grameen officials. Around 29 officials from the state of Assam, West Bengal, Odhisa, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan attended the training program. Pie chart below details the composition of participants who attended the program.

The participants really appreciated the training program. The training intended to advocate the importance of decentralized treatment of faecal sludge in rural scenarios. The program shall equip participants with preparing and implementing District Level Planning for Faecal Sludge management in rural areas.

The training started with understanding issues and basics of faecal sludge management importance of sanitation in rural context, followed by lessons on onsite sanitation systems. Sessions on technical aspects related to retrofitting of toilets, planning and designing of faecal sludge treatment technologies were taken up during the training. Participants were also involved in the design exercise sessions. A session on legal, financial and institutional frameworks and reuse of the faecal sludge and grey water was also organized.

The sessions also dealt with issues like what shall be the choice of treatment for fecal sludge- constructing a new FSTP or utilizing the existing urban capacities and under what scenarios the other must be chosen as an option.

The training had a mix of lectures and hands-on activities to prepare a district level plan. The training was undertaken by various internal and external experts.

The participants were given an exposure of live model projects on decentralized treatment of wastewater and rainwater harvesting in the AAETI campus. The participants also got an opportunity to visit the faecal sludge lab with experts. The training also had a group exercise component, where participants were made to visit villages for survey and community interaction and a virtual visit to Lalsot FSTP was conducted. The participants developed a tentative model layout of the decision-making basis which they shall choose in order to select rural FSTP or urban- rural convergence with the existing treatment facility as an option. The training ended with evaluating the participants learning which was compared with the same evaluation conducted before the training program began. More than 70% of the participants scored above average and excellent grade vs poor and average grade in the pre-assessment questionnaire.