SFD Posters

Poster presented at FSM 4		Poster: Ganga basin cities, 2017
		Poster: SFDs for Pan India, 2016

 

Using Excreta Flow Diagrams (SFDs) As An Integral Part Of City Wide Sanitation Planning For Indian Cities

Dr S.K. Rohilla*, B. Luthra*, S.K. Padhi *, A. Yadav* 

*Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), 41 Tughlakabad Institutional Area, New Delhi,India 

Keywords: SFD; City Sanitation Plan; Citywide Sanitation

Conference Track: (3) Industry and Exhibition Track

Track Topic: Planning and communication tools for FSM/Monitoring and evaluation of FSM

Personal Preference: Oral presentation 

Context
Urban sanitation in India faces many challenges. Nearly 60 million people in urban areas lack access to improved sanitation arrangements, and more than two-thirds of wastewater is let out untreated into the environment, polluting land and water bodies (Wankhade, K., 2015).Urban cities in India lack adequate facilities for collection, treatment and safe disposal of urban domestic excreta or faecal sludge (FS). In the absence of any consolidated faecal sludge management practices, surface waterbodies and groundwater resources continue being degraded (CSE,2011). After reviewing existing approaches and experiences, it was found that the sanitation sector needs first to understand how best to plan and deliver city-wide sanitation services (WaterAid, 2016). 

Urban India will need to develop implementable city sanitation plans (CSPs) with special focus on FSM (as according to Census 2011,more than 50% households are dependent on onsite sanitation systems) to achieve city wide sanitation. To make an effective plan one shouldunderstand the existing context.The movement of FS and wastewater through the sanitation service chain can be  illustrated by the Excreta/Shit Flow Diagrams – SFDs, which give a strategic overview of the sanitation situation in a city to the stakeholders (Blackett and Evans, 2015). 

The SFD methodology (available at sfd.susana.org/) developed through the Shit Flow Diagram PromotionInitiative (SFD PI)has been applied in over 40 cities worldwide. As part of this initiative,CSE developed the SFDs for 11cities in India, from different parts of the country representing different agro-climatic regions. Most of these cities had CSPs made by consultants, but these weresparselyimplemented.Now CSE and GIZ,India,are involved in capacitating 34 Urban Local Bodies(ULBs) to make their own CSP (without the need for consultants). In this process, CSE has encouraged 6 (out of 34) ULBs to produce their own SFDs to improve their CSPs. In addition, CSE is also helping 10 Ganga basin cities to develop SFDs from early stages of CSP preparation for better understanding of existing situation and involvement of relevant stakeholders.

Methodology
The 8 (out of 11) cities (S1) which already had CSPs(Table 1.1), are encouraged to update the CSPs with SFDs. CSE is providing handholding support to ULBs of 6 champion cities (S2) and 10 Ganga basin cities (S3) to develop CSPs including SFDs. 

The first step to develop the CSP is to make a status report of which SFD should be an integral part. Methodology used for data collection for developing an SFD includes review of secondary data, structured observations and direct measurements, key informant interviews (KIIs) and focus group discussions with relevant stakeholders like service providers,RWAs(Resident Welfare Associations), masons, sanitary inspectors, local NGOs etc. The data collected is thentriangulated. The SFD calculation tool (available at sfd.susana.org/) is used to produce the SFDs. The generated SFDs then become a part of CSP and are analyzed by CSTF (City Sanitation Taskforce) to propose necessary interventions in the CSP.

Scenario	Number of cities	Stage at which SFDs were introduced
Scenario 1 (S1)	11 cities from different agro-climatic region (8 out of 11 cities already had a CSP).	SFDs developed after CSPs were already made
Scenario 2 (S2)	6 champion cities (2 cities each from Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Kerala) out of 34 CSP cities.	SFDs developed during CSP finalization
Scenario 3 (S3)	10 Ganga Basin cities (4 from Uttar Pradesh, 4 from Bihar and 2 from West Bengal).	SFDs developed before CSPprocess is initiated
Total	27 cities throughout India

Results& Discussion
Though there is high dependence of onsite sanitation systems, Figure 1.1, in the cities under study, most of the CSPs have neglected the FSM and go for conventional sewerage systems. Sinceno SFDs are available for S1 before CSPs were produced,the onsite systems were not acknowledged. 

It is evident from the SFDs of these cities that there is a serious problem in handling of septage/faecal sludgefrom containment to disposal. Thereis also a major issue with the effluent from onsite systems e.g. septic tanks. Generally, this effluent ends up into the storm water drain/open drain which then ends up into local environment or waterbody. Hence the CSP should address all these points. 

Addressing the need for appropriately conceived and implemented faecal sludge management (FSM) services from onsite sanitation systems is critical to improving sanitation systems is critical to improving sanitation services in urban areas (Blackett and Hawkins, 2016). 

Conclusions
SFDs are proving to be good evaluation and advocacy tool. The CSTF gets a better idea of critical points of failure in the provision of urban sanitation services in a given city or town. The task force is in a better position to decide and prioritise the interventions, after analysing the SFDs of the cities. 

References
Blackett, I. and Hawkins, P., 2016. Fecal Sludge Management Services Diagnostic and Decision-Support Tools: An Overview (Working Paper). Washington: The World Bank

Blackett, I. and Evans, B., 2015. Introducing the Fecal Waste Flow Diagram Approach [online]. Available from: http://www.susana.org/_resources/documents/default/3-2211-7-1442219928.pdf.

CSE. 2011. Policy paper on septage management in India.Available from:http://cseindia.org/content/research

Wankhade, K., 2015. Urban sanitation in India: key shifts in the national policy frame. Environment and Urbanization, 27(2), pp.555-572.

WaterAid. 2016. A tale of clean cities: Insights for planning urban sanitation from Ghana, India and the Philippines (synthesis report). London: WaterAid.