In the relentless tide of urbanization sweeping across India, the challenges faced by low-income communities in accessing basic sanitation infrastructure and services have become increasingly pronounced. The National Faecal Sludge and Septage Management (NFSSM) Alliance works towards fostering the discourse on Faecal Sludge and Septage Management (FSSM) and Inclusive Sanitation. With the collective expertise of over 35 organizations, the NFSSM Alliance drives innovation in sanitation planning, infrastructure and services to ensure safe and inclusive sanitation outcomes for all.
In this insightful interview with TheCSRUniverse, Anindita Mukherjee, Urban Economist and Senior Policy & Urban Development Consultant, SCI AI at GWSC sheds light on the interplay between urbanization, housing, and sanitation and discusses the role of NFSSM Alliance in the broader landscape.
As metropolitan cities burgeon, low-income communities find themselves grappling with inadequate access to sanitation infrastructure, perpetuating a cycle of poverty with dire consequences for health and productivity. Mukherjee delves into the intricate challenges faced by these vulnerable communities, emphasizing the essential link between urban housing, sanitation, and overall quality of life.
The discussion spotlights the critical role of urban planning in ameliorating these challenges, with a focus on the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana and its limitations in addressing the needs of slum dwellers. Drawing inspiration from Odisha's innovative JAGA Mission, Mukherjee underscores the importance of tenure security and targeted policies for inclusive urban development.
Read the full interview for an in-depth understanding of the challenges and possible solutions of urban sanitation in India:
Q. In the context of rapid urbanization and rise of metropolitan cities, there has been a growth of low-income communities with informal employment in cities. What are the current challenges faced by urban poor communities in terms of access to sanitation infrastructure and services?
A. Cities have always been seen as centers of opportunity offering employment prospects, comparatively higher wages and better access to education and health facilities. Cities also contribute about 60% of the India’s GDP which re-affirms their economic potential for residents and migrants.
However, with the increased inflow of people, the system capacities of cities remain severely inadequate to provide for quality services, land and housing for everyone in the city – especially the economically vulnerable communities. This trend, over the years, have given rise to many underserved or unserved areas typically characterized by high density, dilapidated housing, and limited or no access to basic civic amenities such as sanitation infrastructure and services like toilets, water supply, drains, sewerage systems or non-sewered waste water management systems, among others.
Absence or lack of infrastructural access is further exacerbated by the precarity of land tenure where they live in perpetuating the vicious cycle of poverty for vulnerable communities, burdening them with higher cost of health care and loss of productive time.
Q. Urban housing has emerged as an immediate challenge to be solved for in this context of rapid urbanization. How can cities and governments work together for improving urban planning and housing to ensure the interconnected goals of sanitation and housing can be holistically approached?
A. One of the critical markers of decent quality of life is sanitation in living areas and decent housing conditions that provide safety and security for communities. The COVID-19 pandemic made the importance of housing very clear – many people were rendered homeless and resorted to renting or living in their workspaces – in the very cities where they lived for many years and contributed significantly to its progress.
Understanding the importance of securing housing for all - Government of India embarked on implementing Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana – at an unprecedent scale – benefitting more than 11 million households across India’s urban areas through providing subsidies for self-built houses, credit linked subsidies and construction of Affordable Housing in Partnership. However, owing to the precarious tenurial status of the slums, PMAY largely failed to address the upgradation of slum houses. Many urban poor in cities – owing to their nature of insecure employment fail to provide documented evidence of income. Further, this is coupled with erratic income patterns rendering them ineligible for institutional finance. Since many urban poor communities live in habitats which are not legally recognized, they experience tenure insecurity which further exacerbates their lack of documented identities - despite being critical pillars of city making such as sanitation workers, drivers, domestic workers, delivery agents among others. Tenure security is also crucial in enabling access to essential urban services such as sanitation.
A key enabler to holistically achieve the interconnected goals of sanitation and housing is to visibilise underserved urban poor settlements and acknowledge their contribution to the city systems within the urban planning frameworks. This will warrant that Governments (at all levels) and city planners account for urban poor settlements while planning for the cities instead of keeping them invisible on the city plans. This includes:
- Targeted policy making
- Making service delivery including sanitation services universal irrespective of tenure
- Reducing opportunity costs of the slum dwellers by servicing these areas adequately with basic infrastructure
- Enabling them to join productive employment opportunities
- Enabling them to access housing subsidies to afford a decent housing
Odisha has set a progressive example of slum upgrading and delisting by making the slum dwellers legitimate citizens in urban areas by integrating them into the city fabric and securitizing tenure, through the JAGA Mission.
Q. In your experience as an Urban Economist, what innovative solutions or best practices have you come across for improving access to water and sanitation in urban areas, particularly for marginalized communities? Are there any states which have emerged as champions in this regard?
A. Odisha has emerged as a frontrunner with regards to ensuring last-mile access to water and sanitation, amongst other essential urban services, for vulnerable communities. The state has recognized the crucial role of tenure security in enabling access to such urban services, and has implemented pioneering interventions for the same.
In 2017, Odisha enacted Land Rights to Slum Dwellers Act 2017 for its cities enabling them to grant Land Rights Certificates (LRC) and Land Entitlement Certificates (LEC) to all its slum dwellers. Subsequently Odisha Introduced two complementing schemes in the wake of COVID-19: the Urban Wage Employment Initiative(UWEI) and a statewide scheme for Slum Upgradation and Delisting under their flagship programme Jaga Mission.
Through the UWEI, slum dwellers, many of whom were migrants returning from various states in severe economic distress, were gainfully engaged in upgrading the infrastructure of their own slums. 9 critical categories of civic infrastructure were identified:
1. Piped Water Supply
2. Individual Household Latrines (IHHL)
3. Storm Water Drainage
4. Paved Roads
5. Street lights
6. In House Electricity
7. Children Play Area/ Zone
8. Open Space Development
9. ‘Parichay’ Community Centres
These civic services and amenities improved the erstwhile unserved areas to bring them at par with the city infrastructure. Much of the housing upgrades were done through convergence of PMAY subsidies wherever households could receive the LRCs.
To unlock tenure security and enable access to basic infrastructure services for all – Odisha did not stop at this. It went on to undertake land negotiations for slums on private land, Raja Land, Forest land among others which cannot be accorded to the slum dwellers on the sole discretion of the State governments. It has successfully leveraged theTHE SCHEDULED TRIBES AND OTHER TRADITIONAL FOREST DWELLERS (RECOGNITION OF FOREST RIGHTS) ACT, 2006 (FRA 2006)to enable provision of services to slums on forest land. The state developed detailed strategies for each of the land parcels across the land tenure continuum and ensured that relocation would be undertaken only in unavoidable circumstances. Wherever relocation was undertaken, the state ensured the inclusion of the residents by requiring the consent of each slum dweller for the same and select from the two possible land parcels identified for their relocation.
Odisha’s model of slum upgradation, strategies for tenure unlocking, creating gainful employment for its urban poor population enabled them to become not just the beneficiary of the upgrades but a partner in development – holding valuable learnings for many states in India and countries in the South Asia region.
Q. What role does the NFSSM Alliance play in working with urban poor communities in addressing urban sanitation issues and enabling city-wide inclusive sanitation in India?
A. Urban Sanitation and Inclusion agendas have remained key in Odisha’s development journey for the last decade. Through its many urban programmes, Odisha has emerged as a flag bearer for charting a development agenda with the poor and the vulnerable at the center. The state’s urban development has been supported by complementary initiatives which holistically address the needs of its urban residents.
Odisha has not only ensured the provision of toilets to every household in its urban areas, but has also made sure that no faecal waste is dumped into the environment untreated. It became the first state in India to have at least one Faecal Sludge Treatment Plant (FSTP) in all its cities – leap-frogging to its goals for safely managed sanitation. The state has also launched the Garima scheme to ensure that sanitation workers, who are pivotal in providing sanitation services are safe guarded, recognizing them as change agents by providing them a dignified work environment protected from health hazards through state of the art safety gear like PPE kits.
Odisha’s Citywide Inclusive Sanitation (CWIS) approach demonstrates that service and systems outcomes are possible to reach at the State scale only when these are backed by robust and sustained political will.
The NFSSM Alliance has remained an early partner to the Government of Odisha in its journey through the last decade by specifically supporting the government in recognizing the importance of FSM through early research on indiscriminate dumping of faecal waste into river bodies causing degradation to river health, and piloting FSTPs in two small cities of the Odisha which enabled the state to take these up across Odisha. Further, to ensure better coordination and holistic outcome-driven action on ground, the NFSSM Alliance has played the critical role of bringing together key partners working in the state to work collaboratively towards safe and inclusive sanitation outcomes by forming a dedicated Odisha State Chapter. The State Chapter has been providing support to the state’s flagship ongoing initiatives like Garima, Jaga, FSM and institutional building by harnessing the power of people through partnerships in development.
Through such collaborative action across cities and states in India, the NFSSM Allianceaims to achieve its vision of an India where all 7900+ cities and towns safely manage their waste with inclusion, equity and sustainability.
Q. The NFSSM Alliance addresses faecal sludge management (FSM) among other things. Could you elaborate on the significance of FSM in urban areas and its impact on sanitation services?
A. Our cities are overwhelmingly dependent on on-site sanitation systems (OSS) such as Septic Tanks, twin pits and single pits. Together, these are referred to as non-sewered solutions. Given the rapid pace of urbanization, the gains in sewer networks have been unable to keep pace and are currently servicing only 40% of the urban population. Of the remaining urban population which lacks access to sewer networks, 3 out of 5 urban residents build OSSs like septic tanks at their households to contain and provide primary treatment to the faecal waste emerging from toilets. These systems require periodic emptying and the collected waste remains highly laden with pathogens which are hazardous for human and environmental health.
In the absence of any treatment facilities, most of the waste from these systems is emptied from homes remained untreated, only to find its way back in our rivers, water bodies and empty ground patches which results in contaminated water and soil. Faecal Sludge Management (FSM) provides a robust solution to this issue. It mandates the development of a self-contained sanitation value chain, beginning with containment at an OSS, which is emptied into a specialized vehicle for transportation to a treatment facility where the waste is safely treated and either responsibly disposed of or reused.
Without FSM, the unsafe practice of dumping untreated waste in the open remains one of the greatest threats to human health, aquatic life, soil and river health. Climate change and disasters exacerbate such risks exposing large number of households to sustained public health hazards. FSM, a low tech and low cost solution, when complimented with sanitation worker safety measures has the potential to have far reaching positive impacts to enhance the quality of public life and improve the health of rivers, water bodies and soil.
Q. In terms of the Alliance’s priorities and experience, what is the role inclusion and urban poor communities can play as active decision-makers in the sector? How does an inclusive workforce impact sanitation outcomes?
A. When large scale FSM infrastructure such as Faecal Sludge Treatment Plants (FSTPs) were being created, the critical enabler to sustain such infrastructure was private sector-driven operations and management (O & M). Odisha, however, adopted low-tech, nature based solutions which could be easily managed independently by the people for whom the infrastructure was built – largely underserved communities. Through a notification, the Government of Odisha decided to engage Mission Shakti Self-help Groups (SHGs) to manage the infrastructure making them critical partners in the development process.
This had significant positive impacts:
- SHGs obtained gainful employment opportunity with upskilling - Educated women/transgender members being trained as lab technicians, data entry operators while other members of the SHGs managed the Faecal Sludge Treatment Plant (FSTP) operations – which otherwise are a largely men-dominated employment sector.
- Voice and Agency to community members– By recognizing community-based platforms as partners in development – Transgender and women members are gaining voice and agency within their communities as well as are empowered to negotiate and cooperate with the Urban Local bodies to ensure continued service delivery for the city.
- Creating a cadre of Community-based Agents of Change – Through these community-based platforms of inclusion and empowerment, larger communities, through SDAs and SHGs, could be sensitized about safe sanitation practices like the need for regular desludging of OSS, safe practices for emptying etc. thereby nudging communities towards positive behaviour change.
Q. How important is collaboration among civil society organizations, government stakeholders, funders, sector practitioners, expects and other diverse stakeholders in achieving sustainable urban sanitation solutions, and could you provide some examples of successful collaborations?
A. The National Faecal Sludge and Septage Management (NFSSM) Alliance, a collaborative of 35+ diverse leading organizations working in urban sanitation and allied sectors, spanning NGOs, CSOs, Academic Institutions, Think Tanks and more, was formed in 2016 after recognizing the need for collaborative action. It recognized the need for a unified voice to inform national/state policies, and driving the discourse on Faecal Sludge and Septage Management (FSSM) nationally. Since then, the priorities of the NFSSM Alliance have evolved to take a more holistic approach towards urban sanitation in India, to encompass – Mainstreaming and comprehensive scaling of Citywide Inclusive Sanitation (CWIS) in all national/State/local priorities, using acombination of methods to achieve circularity through used-water management, and facilitating systems innovation towards building efficiency in Inclusive Urban Sanitation.
As part of these priorities, the NFSSM Alliance has engaged with 10+ national government ministries and agencies to inform policies, including collaborating with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) to co-create India’s first National Faecal Sludge and Septage Management Policy in 2017. The Alliance has also engaged with other key government agencies to inform policies and contribute knowledge to the sector, including the NITI Aayog, the 15th Finance Commission. Haryana State Finance Commission and several state governments.
The Alliance plays a critical role by bringing together key partners working in states together to work collaboratively towards safe and inclusive sanitation outcomes. One such example is the formation of the dedicated Odisha Chapter which brings together the key Alliance members working in the state for better coordination and holistic outcome-driven action on ground.
The work of the Alliance is geared towards achieving its vision of an India where all 7900+ cities and towns safely manage their waste with inclusion, equity and sustainability.
