Sensitisation Workshop cum Regional Conclave on Handholding Support for Preparation of City Sanitation Plans and Effective Septage and Faecal Sludge Management

Date: July 18-19, 2016   

Venue: Magnolia Hall, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi

Massive backlog in the sewage generation and treatment as well as considerable urban settlements still depending on on-site sanitation is major cause of river pollution and public health concern in urban India. The situation in river Ganga basin town/cities is much worse and needs immediate attention from urban local bodies responsible for provision of water and sanitation facilities. The conventional approach of engineering intervention  or consultants driven preparation of city sanitation plans till date have failed to deliver desired results of clean river or cities.  

The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) organised a two day workshop on “Handholding Support for Preparation of City Sanitation Plans and Effective Septage and Faecal Sludge Management” from July 18-19, 2016 in New Delhi. The objective of the workshop was to sensitise and promote knowledge enhancement of decision makers – Mayor, Commissioner of target town/cities, State Mission Director – Swach Bharat Mission & State Programme Monitoring Group, Namami Gangef select Ganga basin( 12 cities) and select cities covered by CSE research project on mapping septage as well as sewage flows - Shit Flow Diagrams (SFD) (11 cities).that can aid  preparation of CSPs focusing effective septage management.=- 

Speaking at the inaugural session, Puskal Upadhyay,Additional Mission Director, National Mission for Clean Ganga highlighted that management of on-site/non-sewered area, faecal sludge and decentralized wastewater in Ganga basin cities is critical for pollution abatement in river Ganga. J.B. Ravinder, Joint Adviser Central Public Health and Environmental Engineering Organisation (CPHEEO) added that the need is for sustainable sanitation solutions as centralized sewerage system to all town/cities is distant dream. They ensured the ministry’s support to the target cities targeted by CSE for CSP preparation with special emphasis on effective faecal waste management and implementation of projects identified in plan.  

Sunita Narain, Director General, CSE delivered keynote in the session  and stressed on need for convergence of national and state programmes for sustainable sanitation and pollution abatement. 

Suresh Kumar Rohilla Programme Director, CSE  further highlighted the importance and relevance of CSPs in the overall agenda for sustainable sanitation.

The workshop was attended by over 50 senior officials from target states/cities.  The workshop discussed how urban India is on the brink of drowning in its own sewage, despite an existing National Urban Sanitation Policy (2008)  and national flagship programmes JnNURM, SBM, National Mission Clean Ganga - Namami Gange  . 

The workshop included a range of sessions: 

Mahreen Matto, Deputy Programme Manager, discussed about the need for CSP as a city-wide vision document for the sanitation sector. The importance of CSP by integrating the sector components along with the supporting pillars like capacity building was highlighted. The session emphasized  the need for multi-stakeholder involvement in CSP preparation to achieve NUSP goals and mobilize joint actions from government and non-government agencies. The presentation showed the elements of CSP in order to plan and implement specific interventions that are in line with the strategies defined in the CSP for immediate, short, medium and long term. In the end it talked about the key aspects of making CSP a living document.

Chandra Bhushan, Deputy Director General moderated session on the status of sanitation and CSP preparation in cities. He highlighted the need for charecterisation of faecal waste and shared about the country’s first referral laboratory being set up by CSE at Nimli, Alwar - to support planning, designing and implementation of effective faecal sludge management projects. Ms Chhavi Sharda, Senior Research Associate, deliberated on Onsite Sanitation Systems and Septage Management. She discussed how a decentralised wastewater treatment system (DWWTs) can serve as an extension to the existing septic tanks to provide treatment of the liquid waste for local reuse or for safe disposal into the environment.

Praveen Prakash, IAS, Joint Secretary & Mission Director (SBM) addressed the participants and emphasized ministry’s support to the target cities for CSP preparation and implementation of projects on effective faecal sludge management under SBM.  

Day 2 was field visit for the participants to decentralised wastewater and solid waste management project site at New Motibagh in New Delhi. This was followed with technical session focused on improved urban sanitation programming. Bhitush Luthra, Senior Research Associate, shared details of SFD / excreta flow diagram  tool that can be used to understand and communicate visualizing how excreta  flows through a city or town. The session also talked about how excreta is or is not contained as it moves from defecation to disposal or end use and the fate of all excreta that is generated. 

Ms. Swati Singh Sambyal, Programme officer also made presentation  on best management practices on solid waste in India with screening of a documentary video on three cities with innovative practices for  solid waste management. 

The concluding session on the way forward with the city and state officials and presented time bound activity plan for the proposed handholding support to target ULBs in preparing city owned implementable sanitation plan with special emphasis on effective septage and solid waste management. 

All in all, the first step (sensitisation) of the five stage handholding process of CSP preparation has set the tone/agenda for the next roll out of trainings for the select cities.

For more information kindly contact:

Dr Ramesh Nair
Programme Manager
Centre for Science and Environment
Phone no: 08800870288
Email: ramesh@cseindia.org


Dr Suresh Kumar Rohilla
Programme Director
Centre for Science and Environment
Email: srohilla@cseindia.org