State Level Conference: Partnership to Scale Up Innovative Solutions for Urban Sanitation

Date 12-Sep-2018 to 12-Sep-2018

Location Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh

Format Sub National

A state level conference on ‘Partnership to Scale up Innovative Solutions for Urban Sanitation’ was held on Hotel Hyatt Regency, September 12, 2018 in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. The conference was organised by Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA) under the ambit of ‘Engaged Citizen, Responsive City’ project in collaboration with National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA); Regional Centre for Urban and Environmental Studies (RCUES), Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India; Water Aid India and Sahbhagi Sikshan Kendra (SSK), Lucknow. The conference was supported by European Union.  The conference was attended by Sh Manoj Kumar Singh (IAS), Principal Secretary, Sh G S Priyadarshi (IAS), Secretary and Sh P K Srivastava, Addl. Mission Director (AMRUT), Urban Development Department, Uttar Pradesh, Prof Nishith Rai, Director and Er. A K Gupta, Addl. Director, RCUES, Lucknow along with other speakers and dignitaries.

The aim of the conference was (a) to showcase scalable innovative solutions to address the challenges of inclusive urban sanitation services (b) to create a learning and knowledge platform through multi-stakeholder dialogues (b) to Inform and influence policies and institutions to enhance the impact of urban sanitation programmes in Uttar Pradesh.

The conference was an attempt to bring together policy makers, researchers, and practitioners across governments, ULBs, parastatals, CSOs, academia, media, CSR, and representatives from the communities to gain insights on how a partnership approach can scale up innovations and capacity development with respect to urban sanitation solutions.

The conference was organised into four technical sessions. The first session discussed the implementation challenges of achieving ODF + and ODF ++ and tried to identify innovative solutions. The second session highlighted the changing realities of sanitation workers and discussed the interventions required in the public policy to ensure work-life dignity of sanitation workers. The third session deliberated upon emerging practices related to building resilience of the cities by improving environmental sanitation with special reference to waste management. The fourth and final session explored the effectiveness of institutional mechanisms and efforts by ULBs and other stakeholders to foster citizen and civil society engagement.

The conference opened up critical discussions on the need for a comprehensive strategy for convergent work in urban spaces by convening multi-stakeholder participation. While Uttar Pradesh is one of the least urbanised states in the country, yet urbanisation is happening aggressively which is an opportunity for the state to plan it.
It was agreed that urban sanitation solutions need to be found locally through specific solutions with a focus on decentralised solutions rather than focussing on FSTP alone. While policies can give the states and the cities frameworks, standard operating procedures for the provisions in the policies need to be locally decided for effective action.

The workshop was successful in building a consensus amongst the policy makers and government officials on the urgent actions required to be taken to improve the working environment of sanitation workers. It was asserted that ULB officials must enforce the provisions such as EPF, minimum wages, regular health care and safety gears for sanitation workers as they are non-negotiable provisions in the labour law and must be effectively implemented. ULBs were also urged to show willingness and encourage sanitation workers to undertake skill trainings for which the funds are mobilised through the collaborative approach of NSDC, NSFKDC and NULM.  It was also suggested to the state that 1000 informal workers in Jhansi Municipal Corporation could be assessed for RPL and provided skill training through the convergence of SBM, NULM and NSDC can be taken forward for skilling sanitation workers so that they are able to draw the benefits of relevant schemes. Formalising the service providers was suggested to cater to the sludge management market.

It was affirmed that sanitation jobs are to be looked with dignity and sanitation workers must be respected which cannot be addressed by paying out more money or by assigning caste neutral names to the SC communities.   It was also proposed that sanitation workers must be made aware of their rights under the labour laws by using IEC funds under SBM through sensitisation programmes.

Emphasis was given on the need for strengthening the implementing agencies especially the ULBs and elected representatives, by building capacities of individuals, organisations, and creating and enabling environment through policy and guidelines.

Significance of citizen participation in implementing urban sanitation solution challenges was widely recognised by the participants in the conference. An inclusive strategy to enable the participation of urban poor as citizens in city planning was felt to be crucial. A strong need was felt for enforcing the 74th amendment and provisions for community engagement such as holding ward sabha and mohalla sabhas.  Gleaning the learnings from the successes of cities such as Indore, Pune, Tiruchirapally, Bhubaneswar and Nagpur it was re-affirmed that these cities have showcased active engagement of mayor, elected representatives, CSOs and ULBs where they have come together to make the city as models in urban sanitation management.

The day long conversation was concluded with an aspiration to build and practice the convergence through partnerships to achieve the goals of urban sanitation in the cities of Uttar Pradesh.

Summary of Proceedings

1. Services Provisioning for Sanitation:

• Localised solutions should be devised to address sanitation challenges at each urban centre
• Human aspect need to be integrated for success of urban development and sanitation initiatives
• Operation and maintenance aspects of infrastructure especially waste water need to be given emphasis at policy and program level. A day-to-day monitoring system is required for operations
• Since, conventional sewerage systems are costly, use of decentralised faecal sludge transportation and treatment are being explored. Decentralised systems for faecal sludge and septage have lower operation and maintenance costs, but extensive planning is required for decentralised FSSM systems including identification of land parcels for treatment plants
• Service providers for septic tank cleaning are not organised or integrated with the government system. Steps should be taken to regularise the septic tanks emptying business. Initiatives in this regard should include- technical and financial capacity building of service providers, O&M costs, payment mechanism, safety of the workers etc. The community and citizens should be made aware of such service providers. Service level agreements should be prepared for FSSM service providers. ULBs may have their own Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for desludging of septic tanks. However, the pre-requisite for a proper FSSM system is a treatment plant
• Issue of land requirement for FSS treatment plans can be eliminated by using existing parks and open spaces. ULBs should pre- arrange the land for FSTPs/ STPs
• A framework for integrating desludging service providers should be prepared. A model of small enterprises can be worked out especially for dense areas with narrow lanes. Desludging operators can get assistance through DAY- NULM. Operators with smaller desludging vehicles can train and engage manual scavengers for mechanised desludging
• System of decentralised solid waste management at zone, ward and mohalla level should be evolved
• There are opportunities to build resilience in sanitation and other major urban sectors initiatives. There is a need to build capacities for resilience in sanitation infrastructure

2. Citizen and Community Engagement:

• Community development needs to be given importance for effective sanitation services. Involvement of urban poor is critical for sanitation services
• The model of SICs in Jhansi and other initiatives under European Union supported ECRC program can be replicated in other small and medium towns of the state.
• Some of the innovative initiatives in sanitation that can be replicated in cities of Uttar Pradesh are: MCGM’s toilet pass and audit of toilets in Mumbai, toilet mapping, ‘Right to Pee’, understanding of land use planning by community etc.
• Use of IEC funds can be explored for community engagement for improved sanitation

3 Human Resource Related Aspects:

• There should be a protocol to insure safety of sanitation workers during cleaning of sewers and tanks. Technology should be used to undertake cleaning operations.
• The salary gap between all three types of sanitation workers should be bridged and implementation of full implementation of Minimum Wages Act, 1948 provisions should be ensured in this regard. An internal complaint redressal mechanism should be in place where complaints related to sanitation workers
• Paid sick leaves, casual leaves, maternity leave, basic medical insurance, Sunday off should be provisioned/ regularised for all sanitation workers. Protective gears and first aid kit should be made available for all sanitation workers
• Sanitation infrastructure is being created at a large scale, the corresponding skilled workforce to operate and maintain should also be created
• SBM is creating a lot of job opportunities. Microenterprises can be created under DAY-NULM. A tripartite model between ULB, lonee and bank may be adopted to provide subsidized loans to sanitation workers

4. Governance Issues:

• Decentralization in the context of urban local bodies and status of implementation of 74th CAA need to be revisited
• Most of the urban local bodies are not financially capable of handling operations of sewerage infrastructure
• Urban/ town planning is not in purview of urban local bodies in Uttar Pradesh
• Role of councillors is very critical in provisioning of sanitation system. There is a need to make people’s representatives aware in urban areas