Community Based Organizations interact with Ward -- Maria Lobo

On 13th August, 2014 a ward level meeting was organized in the ward of G-North, Mumbai  to set a platform for Community based organizations (CBOs) to start interacting with the ward to discuss and sort out technical issues related to community toilets in slums. G-North was one of the wards where the Alliance has constructed toilets under the Mumbai Sewerage Disposal Project and as part of the Project Management Services was contracted to survey 22 toilet blocks. Apart from surveying, an analysis of these toilets was also done with regards to how many toilets have municipal water, electricity, garbage disposal in the settlement, toilets needing repairs, toilets where CBO restructuring or reformation needs to be taken up etc.

The above dashboard gives a summary of the toilets surveyed in G-North. In the meeting the CBOs were introduced to the ward office and the technical team with whom they could work to resolve issues.

The process of assessing these toilets were—

· Pilot study and preparation of questionnaire—to test out the questionnaire and further modify it

· Conducting physical survey of the toilet and CBO— to know about the issues and status of the toilets ever since they have been constructed

· Data entry and evaluation— keep a computerized record of the data collected

· Observations and solutions—interventions to be done and solutions that can be realistic to all

Ever since these toilets have been constructed and handed over to the CBOs for maintenance, there has never been a back-to-back follow up as to how these toilets are doing, if or not the CBO still exists, are seats enough of if there is an overload on the toilet etc. Therefore this was a starting point to get all the actors involved in this—the CBO, ward, MSDP and NGO to come together and sort out issues as well talk about what good has happened or toilets that are functioning well.

Issues discussed and decisions taken in the meeting -

ISSUE	DECISION
Irregularity in paying pass money—CBOs complain of families not paying pass money on time and at times they even refuse to follow such systems	Display boards to be put up stating the no. of families using the toilet, monthly amount that they have to pay and that strict action will be taken against families that do no pay
Repairs—toilets that are more than 10 years old need repairs and show leakages, doors are broken, pans need to be replaced etc.	Ward taken the responsibility of fixing repairs as per circulars of repairs Ward also suggested assessing the performance of these toilets on a regular basis post –repair
Cleaning of septic tank / Sewerage choking—although there are 2-3 toilets having septic tank, they have never been cleaned by the ward. Even toilets connected to the sewer line face choking due to various reasons which need to be corrected	Letters need to be given by CBO and ward will clean the septic tank on a regular basis along with clearing choke ups.
Solid waste management—careless disposal of garbage around the toilets and within the settlement was observed	Ward officer suggested connecting Dattak Vasti Yojana to CBO for getting the garbage cleared

Setting Precedents in smaller towns of Maharashtra -- Maria Lobo

The Alliance has been working on sanitation since its involvement with the Mahila Milan and Federation. Though most of the work in sanitation be it providing community toilets or individual toilets; has been done in Mumbai, Pune, Vizag efforts are being made to increase and improve sanitation facilities in smaller towns and cities of Maharashtra.

In 2013, SPARC conducted a survey of 150 community toilets constructed since 2000 under Mumbai Sewerage Disposal Projects launched in 1995 by the World Bank and the Mumbai Corporation of Greater Mumbai. The survey form covered sections on  Settlement information, Physical assessment of the toilets, CBO information, Structural issues, Health and hygiene, the idea of this was to come out with interventions post survey some of which can be taken up jointly by the NGO and the city, few that can solely the responsibility of either the CBO or the concerned ward.

Also in 2013, a citywide settlement profile was conducted in cities of Maharashtra where the Federation is active. Laying stress on sanitation, the analysis of these were that though on one hand there is acute shortage of community sanitation facilities on the other hand the existing sanitation facilities are overlooked and are just left abandoned in absence of no one taking the charge of maintaining those facilities. Having utilities like community toilet blocks in slums and not maintaining the same is also one of the main reasons for increasing open defecation.

In order to replicate and set precedents of initiatives being taken in Mumbai, in a meeting held in August 2014 with six cities of Maharashtra (Bhadgaon, Jalgaon, Ahmed Nagar, Pimpri, Nashik and Malegaon), the cities decided to do a similar survey of toilets constructed by the city municipality in slums. This survey will be undertaken in slums where the Federation and MM have an active presence. To start off with, two types of interventions will be done

1. one toilet in each city will be either reconstructed or repaired or newly constructed as a demonstration to the city

2. The analysis from the survey will be presented to all the municipalities to begin a discussion on who does what and how it can further extended at a citywide level.

  

Bio-Digester Technology for safe human waste disposal

India’s Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) have invented Bio - Digester Technology as a solution to prevailing unhygienic sanitation methods.  Bio Toilet Technology facilitates termination to residual human excretory waste.  Human waste is decomposed by special lab mutated bacteria into water and bio gas.  The Bio-digester toilet is total maintenance-free system, which does not require any sewage system. The inoculums bacteria used in these bio-digester toilets procreate and generate new bacteria in an anaerobic environment without the need for repeat dosing.  The bacterial consortium degrades night soil to produce colorless, odorless and inflammable gas containing 50 – 70% methane. 

How It Works: A group of lab mutated bacteria decomposes the excretory waste through microbial reaction. Bio-digesters have 3 anaerobic chambers that treat Human wastes effectively, and don’t require any cleaning or emptying the tank because of its unique systematic structural arrangements.  The treatment, the task of cleansing water is continuously carried forward from the start to the end point, till the water exits the bio-digester.  When the treated water finally comes out it is 98% clean and free from entire pathogens.

The breakthrough technology has potential in the urban slums since the safe disposable of human waste is a major challenge.  The bio-digester technology has been successfully implemented in public toilets across India.  SPARC hopes to introduce this technology to the Mahila Milan and to explore the possibility of implementing the system within the slum.

Reinventing toilets for the urban poor

Sanitation facilities among the urban poor become extremely challenging when considering the proper disposal of feces. Building toilets  is seen as a way to end open defecation and it holds true. However having a mechanism by which the human refuse is also disposed safely is equally important to maximize the benefits of sanitation. In dense cities, laying out sewerage lines is very expensive and septic tanks are not always cleaned. Therefore innovative design methods by which sewage can be treated on-site can become an important solution to problems of sewage disposal in community toilets.

Dr. Koottatep from the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand has received $5 million dollar grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to research innovative designs of toilet construction. Currently four technology institutes in India and abroad are researching on the invention and prototyping of Decentralized Waste Water Treatment Systems DEWAT that treats waste water at source and converts it into ready for reuse products.

SANITATION INTERVENTION IN SMALL TOWNS OF MAHARASHTRA, DECEMBER 2012

Based on slum profiles conducted by Mahila Milan and Federation, more than 50% of the total population remains unserved with toilets. Therefore a proposal was submitted to construct a new toilet in Saint Mary Church (Ahmednagar), Anna Bhau Sathe, Wadala (Nasik) and Numani Nagar (Malegaon) along with repairs of two existing toilet blocks in  Anna Bhau Sathe (Ahmednagar) and Amprapali (Nasik) and grant funds to make this happen were finalized.  Then the federations informed us about recent events in their city ….

In Ahmednagar: the original plan was to construct a new toilet at Saint Mary and repair the toilet in Anna Bhau Sathe.  Over the last couple of months, the Mahila Milan leaders at Ahmednagar had been in conversation with the local Municipal representative and  municipal authorities. These discussions have borne fruit and the Municipality has begun the construction of toilets at Saint Mary Church!

In Nasik: the original plan was to construct a new toilet at Anna Bhau Sathe, Wadala and repairing

Amrapali toilet. Because Anna Bhau Sathe slum is on a private land, a toilet cannot be constructed on it.

In Malegaon: the original plan was to construct a new toilet in Numani Nagar, however the new elected local municipal representatives, have taken up the work of meeting the toilet needs in Numani Nagar and other settlements.

Clearly we see this as a feature of communities feeling empowered to have discussions once they have some funds in their pockets. It triggers a response from politicians and administration who then want to supply them with what they are entitled to so.

Since assured grant exist for these cities, federation members now suggest the following:

Nasik - Repairs of existing toilets in Amrapali slums

Ahmednagar - Repairs of existing toilets and constructing new toilets at Anna Bhau Sathe slum and Munjuba Chowk

Malegaon -Individual toilet loans in different settlements

Setting precedents where community collective pursuit of entitlements begins with the Mahila Milan taking initiatives is critical. When modest funds are made available, their visit to city administrations seeking permission often induces the city to provide the facility because most often they have the money but it is not their priority to utilize it. This also invokes a sense of pride ownership and begins to set an example to others about also mimicking this action, only now someone else has shown the way and can accompany them to get the next and the next facility.

TALKING ABOUT TOILETS WITH AVIK ROY, NOVEMBER 2012

In August 2012, Jack Sims of WTO (World Toilet Organization) together with Avik Roy and three others examined toilets designed, constructed and managed by communities in Mumbai with the assistance of the Alliance. The object of their visit was to explore the possibility of developing a financial sustainable strategy for the management and maintenance of toilets built in slums. 

After concluding a week long meeting with the MM and the NSDF leaders managing the sanitation projects, Avik met with the members of SPARC. Avik heads an organization called Base of the Pyramid (BOP) that works with numerous development organizations. He assisted Jeb Brugman and C.K. Prahalad with their work in actualizing the practice lin

ked to working with the bottom of the pyramid. The discussion between Avik and SPARC was to both to receive feedback from the team as well as to help the team understand the Alliance's conditions, concerns, and strategies to further improve the functions of the toilet blocks.

What SPARC said:

Main concerns:

Since partnerships are required to be sustained over an extended period of time, the first phase should evaluate the values, assumptions, and capacities of each organization to handle each other’s functioning. These projects are successful if soft money and grants blend with hard money in an attempt to develop a market savvy strategy needed to acknowledge this blend. Eventually, the obvious and evident aspects will pale in comparison to the issues, challenges, and problems which both the organizations will have to jointly face.

About working with communities:

Although SPARC is a vital partner, this process has to include the leaders of MM and NSDF who will be managing the sanitation program. Any suggestions will be accepted if, through trial and error, it demonstrates an increase in the community's’ collective empowerment.

About the concept of SPA:

The concept of reformulating toilet as a SPA seems disconnected with the Indian concept.  In turn, we need to look at an Indian name which people can relate to.

About working in different wards in Mumbai:

WTO should look at locations from a ward wise perspective.  SPARC can select a ward and develop demo projects which can be scaled up at the ward level.

About working in smaller towns:

The slums of Mumbai are consolidated, thus working in Mumbai is equivalent to working in a “retrofitting” context.  Consideration should be given to working in smaller towns where the slums are not so dense and also to working at city scale.

Working on sanitation:

Sanitation should be seen as an issue to provide universal sanitation; as providing safe and dignified provisions where other amenities and services make the facility a community hub that is attractive and pulls in participation.

What they said:

Avik and his team agreed upon concerns raised by SPARC and committed that this project will be a pilot project and will be treated patiently. He is also trying to bring the private actors in this process to make it financially viable. 

Further his team is also thinking of changing the concept name from community SPA to a name which appeals to slum communities.

WATER AND MANKHURD, OCTOBER 2012

Jockin takes Municipal Commissioner to examine the water challenges of Mankhurd

Jockin accompanied the Additional Municipal Commissioner, Rajeev Jalota, to households relocated to Mankhurd in order to visually study the challenges of water access to these families. The households which they visited usually get water once in two days. In addition, they examined the pumps of each of the buildings to determine how to increase pressure to get additional water, calculated the electricity needed for these pumps, and established the additional costs that the society would need to incur. 

The Municipal Commissioner along with Jockin have established a two fold solution. All of the buildings in plot no. 98 (about 17 buildings) will form an association and they will be treated as one consumer with one bill. They will get adequate water and they will make a collective payment to the municipality. This solution saves the community to additional payments for electricity for booster pumps to draw in water and ensures reduced collection costs and regular payments to the municipality. 

IMPLICATIONS:

1. In general the city by default does not give proper water supply to poor neighborhood. This process begins to address the inequity linked issues. 

2. Costs: When supply is poor and meager, households and buildings put additional pumps and spend on electricity. This will reduce their costs. 

3. Since the city does not bill properly and also does not regularly manage to document collections, often a huge bill suddenly surfaces with additional penalties. Through the revised system, the Mahila Milan can collect daily dues from 1,200 households and make a single payment, keeping 2% for their running costs for collections etc. 

If this experiment is successful, then the federation will explore this model in two other areas thus consolidating the role of the Mahila Milan as well as ensuring water access and proper payments. 

THE DIRTY PICTURE OF SANITATION, JULY 2012

In July 2012, the ministry of Urban Development of the Government of India published an advisory to cities about the challenges of sanitation and a national commitment to universal sanitation provision in urban India. In 2009 the Cabinet passed a policy on universal urban sanitation called the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan, and released resources for a National Sanitation campaign. 400 cities were provided resources to undergo a city wide sanitation review and be- tween that survey and the census the picture of urban India is definitely DIRTY.

Clearly there are technical and financial challenges in dealing with provision of universal sanitation.

Firstly, the country does not have a universal commitment to treat sewerage and most cities lack sewerage management and hardly have sewers.

Secondly, if most areas of a city or town are deemed ‘slums’ and most of these are not recognized, the challenges are that they have no water and sanitation.

Thirdly, dense slums with houses less that 200 sq feet can hardly have toilets inside the house if there is no water and sewerage disposal. Yet ambivalence about community toilets makes this provision of sanitation impossible.

Fourthly, slums – which are every politicians vote banks – find that the possibility of a community toilet being built in their areas is one more location of a battle between parties to own and manage the toilet and often the community which should be managing this gets left behind.

And finally, no one who does not defecate in the open cares about the plight of those who do. The solution lies in a commitment to make sanitation universal, come what may.

GETTING ARREARS FOR PROJECTS COMPLETED, AUGUST 2012

Slum dwellers from various federations now apply for construction projects in their cities and  through SSNS undertake construction of sanitation, slum infrastructure and housing. Cities by and large on the one hand, are always lagging behind in making payments, and on the other hand, documentation necessary, inspection coordination with the municipal officials, and follow up to ensure that the payments is done has lagged on the part of the local federations as well.  Sundar Burra, Aseena Viccajee and SK Joshi along with a team of NSDF SPARC SSNS and Mahila Milan members have developed a group that reviews the dues,  and follow it up at several levels from senior officials to ward engineers to obtain the payments.  This activity also serves to reflect on how the ongoing project and its processes have to incorporate these actions in their ongoing work so that such long delays do not occur.

Reflections of the process indicate  that in the initial contracts, especially for sanitation and housing subsidies – both community and federations but more importantly cities were not prepared to face the changes needed to be taken in their procedures to manage relationship with communities  who took up construction.

Similarly community federations and their NGO support staff did not have the documentation, supervised measurement records and follow up for municipal inspection to follow their billing.

A team now works with the administrative and accounts division as well as with the project management unit in the city to produce detailed documentation needed to get the bills.

Initially this was very difficult for both the cities and the organization as many of the projects were several years old, the municipal staff both senior and junior has been transferred. But gradually as the combination of persistence, improved documentation and requests targeted at both senior administrative level and local officials  was systematized, the payments have begun to flow in.

An Ongoing Challenge:

A toilet was constructed in one of the cities where NSDF has been working for several years and for which the work order was given by the Municipality. After the toilet was built, an individual went to court and said that the toilet was built on his land and should be demolished. Even though the negligence is on the part of the corporation which would have checked out the land ownership, the dues for the construction of the toilet was not given to the alliance .

After much negotiations, now the resolution is being explored whereby the city will give the payment for the construction if provided with a guarantee that if the construction is demolished within a year  we would return the money!

THE TOILET THAT NEVER GOT BUILT, AUGUST 2012

A PIL was admitted into the Bombay High Court indicating that the open defecation in Bandra by the sea be resolved by demanding that the Municipal Corporation construct a public toilet to stop this defecation. Since the alliance has been constructing toilets for the municipality, the corporation commissioned the Alliance to construct the toilet, the location was specified as were the number of seats etc.

Once the plans were developed, the contractors were about to be assigned a signed MOU and given an advance when the Municipality ordered this work to be stopped since there was an appeal from citizens not to construct the toilet. As of today, this project stands cancelled.

Our experience over the decade with working on sanitation has shown us that toilets for the poor are contested in many ways; if the toilets are built outside the slums, the other sections of society object to it and if they are built inside the slum settlements, then they are highly contested in the following ways:

1. If the income from use of the toilets is sufficient, then individuals seek to “own the toilet” rather than allowing the community to manage it as a group.

2. The local political groups start contesting for either owning it or using whatever public spaces are available for their use.

The issue of managing the toilet, maintaining it and retaining its public character are lost in the battle.

TALKING ABOUT TOILETS, JULY 2012

Jockin Arputam of Slum/Shack Dwellers International (SDI) and Jack Sims of World Toilet Organization (WTO) spend a day together in Mumbai 25th July 2012.

Both Jack Sims from World Toilet Organization (WTO) based in Singapore and working in many countries to improve sanitation and NSDF’s Jockin Arputam are passionate about sanitation and toilets and speak of “shit.”   Both come from similar humble backgrounds and a childhood of poverty. Jack focuses on improving the image of toilets and those who manage them through a wide range of activities and campaigns, while Jockin works on the access of the urban poor to sanitation, both as a means to strengthen citizenship entitlements of the poor in cities and as a way to engage the city with slum dwellers.

Jack Sims was last in Mumbai at a Dasra event earlier this year in which he and Sheela Patel of SPARC spoke about sanitation, he about bringing the discussion about defecation out of the closet, and she about the huge deficits in cities that make universal access to sanitation very difficult. They again met in Addis at the World Economic Forum meeting in Africa, and over many coffees and breakfasts began to explore the potential for exploring a closer working relationship. Clearly seeing a synergy in the values both Slum/Shack Dwellers International (SDI) and WTO bring to this issue internationally and also in India, where WTO is beginning to work on rural sanitation, The need for Jockin and Jack to meet and deepen this engagement seemed the next logical step.

The day began when Jack and two of his colleagues came to Dharavi to meet Jockin and NSDF and Mahila Milan representatives working on sanitation. Both shared stories of their journey that made them passionate about shit, shared their strategies, and discussed how they have made choices about what they do as advocacy, practical applications of what they preach, and where they seek to go.

Then women who have constructed toilets in Dharavi and Mahila Milan representatives who help organize communities took the three visitors to the community toilets being constructed and in different stages from beginning to post-construction. It was raining heavily as this is the monsoon period, but it did not deter the visit, and after the visit the whole group met again to reflect on questions from the visit and what to do moving forward.

Jack had a whole lot of questions, took copious notes, and raised many points for discussions. Clearly urban sanitation challenges were new to Jack and he was fascinated by issues of maintenance, financial models, designs of the toilets and what can be improved, the value of technology, and many other aspects.

Since he had a flight to catch, the meeting ended with a possible list of follow ups. Firstly, that Jack would initiate a write up about what he saw as potential to work together, which Jockin and Sheela would also work on.  Jack also got an agreement from Jockin to give ideas and suggestions to explore making the community sanitation process of construction design and delivery more efficient and both agreed that building community ownership of the facility and making it the center of the community was key to the challenge of sustained sanitation accesses.

TOILET BLOCKS AS WEAPONS FOR CORRUPTION , JULY 2012

A New York Times blog post published this Monday described a toilet block in Mumbai’s Cheeta Camp slum that perpetually passes through stages of building, demolition, and rebuilding to the rhythm of local elections.  Government candidates in poor urban areas often promise new toilet facilities to gain local support, and many candidates even begin construction on new toilet blocks before voting commences.  Once elected, though, candidates destroy the toilet blocks they began constructing.  The facilities disappear.  This cycle has endured in Cheeta Camp for over 15 years, long enough that residents of the slum no longer expect to see a new toilet block completed any time soon.

Yesterday members of SPARC visited one of SPARC’s most successful community toilet blocks near Crossroad Street in Dharavi.  This private toilet block serves over 1500 men, women, and children, who pay a 20 rupee monthly subscription fee for access to the facility.  Over its ten years of operation, the site has become one of the best maintained and most successful sanitation facilities that SPARC has built (it even has four functional English toilets available for handicap use!). During SPARC’s visit to the site yesterday, one community member spoke about a recent controversy: the local corporator is trying to take over the SPARC toilet block, even though it is owned and operated by a Community Based Organization (CBO).  The corporator is interested in this acquisition because the toilet block is so clean and lucrative that he thinks he can benefit from controlling it.

Building safe, clean, and affordable toilet blocks in slums can do much to improve sanitation conditions of the urban poor, yet toilet blocks are such vital and valuable centers of community life that they have become tantalizing targets for corrupt politicians. Knowing how imperative toilet blocks are to the well-being of their constituencies, some politicians will do anything they can to leverage toilet blocks for their own schemes even if it means taking away good sanitation facilities from the public.  This speaks to the power that clean toilet blocks have in communities, but it also dissuades community members from working to create safe sanitation facilities in their neighborhoods—why spend precious community resources on toilet block construction if the neighborhood will be dispossessed of these new toilet blocks later on?

Communities need a system of accountability, a way to register their facilities so that corrupt government officials cannot steal them away so easily.  Though no system of absolute accountability currently exists, relative accountability can be improved through community mapping: surveying neighborhoods and keeping accurate records of changes and developments in municipal corporation archives. After mapping is reported, existing laws can ensure that municipal corporations will respect the communal holdings on archive.  Another approach to accountability could be institutionalizing the toilet block construction and maintenance process, which involves a streamlined and uniform model of toilet block maintenance.  Communities can and should hold primary responsibility for their own toilet blocks, but to ensure that they stay within community control these facilities must come coupled with a commitment to sustained maintenance and mapping over-time.

A CALL FOR SUSTAINABLE SANITATION FACILITIES FOR THE URBAN POOR, JULY 2012

Over 50% of slums in urban India have no access to toilets.  Without the privacy and hygiene of proper toilet facilities, members of the urban poor risk their health and safety every time they relieve themselves. Those living on the pavements and in some slums need to resort to defecating out in the open, an undignified and uncomfortable activity which poses health dangers because of the waste left out in public space and safety concerns for women and children who expose themselves out in the open.  Women often wait until darkness to relieve themselves for privacy and safety reasons, another unhealthy and unpleasant consequence.  People who reside on the side of the railways often need to use the dangerous rail lines themselves as a toilet since no separate facility exists. This results in a steady stream of deaths each year as people are caught unaware while defecating and run over by speeding trains.

Khatrabai Londhe, a woman from Ghatkopar community in Mumbai, explained some of the safety problems that her community faced when they had no toilets available and had to result to open defecation:  “We use open land for defecating.  People passing by can see women squatting.  The day before yesterday an old women went out to defecate at seven in the evening and a man came from behind and grabbed her. . .  Men hide behind the bushes and watch women when they are squatting.  If they see a woman alone, they creep in and molest her.”

People should not need to engage in risky, humiliating, and potentially life-threatening behaviors in order to relieve themselves.  Because of this, the Indian government has demanded that government municipal corporations provide community toilets for public use, but unfortunately the government has not been able to grant toilet access to everyone in need.  Furthermore, the toilet blocks built by municipal corporations are often poorly designed, over-used, and unmaintained such that the facilities do not improve sanitation conditions very much.  Those who depend on municipal corporation toilets complain about the lack of cleanliness in the facility, the over-crowding of the space, and poor maintenance such that larvae often emerge from the toilet and crawl up their bare legs.

Access to a safe place to defecate is a basic human need.  Poor communities need alternatives to the methods of human waste disposal currently available to them, and they are capable of producing solutions to the problem if they can obtain the financial and organizational tools that will lead to collective mobilization and action.  Many solutions to the problem of defecation and sanitation exist, and with negotiation and collaboration within communities functional toilet blocks can be constructed and maintained.

SPARC's STRATEGY FOR COMMUNITY TOILET BLOCK CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE, JULY 2012

Due to the lack of availability of toilets in many communities and the dissatisfaction that communities feel towards toilets provided by municipal corporations, SPARC has launched its own community toilet block initiative in partnership with local communities.

SPARC believes that community toilet blocks are the best way to confront the issue of unsatisfactory sanitation conditions in slums.  SPARC advocates for community toilets rather than individual toilets because the size of most slum dwellings means that in-house toilets tend to dominate the interior space of the home, leaving less space for living and sleeping.  Furthermore, the smell of in-house toilets overwhelms homes and requires constant maintenance and attention.  Alternatively, community toilets allow for more space in individual homes and less overall time spent on cleaning and maintenance of the toilet facility.

Toilet block construction projects facilitated by SPARC differ from the toilet blocks built by government municipal corporations in many ways.  Whereas municipal corporations will build new toilet blocks without consulting communities, SPARC ‘s toilet blocks utilize community participation at every level—in design, construction, and maintenance.  SPARC toilet blocks are always connected to a main sewer line with access to adequate water and electricity even if that means building both overhead and underground tanks, whereas municipality toilet blocks do not always come with legal grid connections and extra capacity.  SPARC toilet blocks ensure privacy by including separate entrances and areas for men and women, and a separate squatting area for children.  SPARC toilet blocks also always come with a care-taker, appointed from the community who is responsible for the facility.  This is an improvement upon the municipal corporation model that does not consider maintenance of the toilet block to be a priority and does not account for maintenance practices in pricing or construction.  Last of all SPARC sells monthly subscriptions to the community toilet block where monthly family passes cost Rs. 20-25 irrespective of the number of family members or the number of toilet uses.  This system, coupled with an additional income of 1 rupee per use paid by passers-by, ensures that the toilet block remains financially accessible to all families while also funding its own operation.

SPARC sees community toilet blocks not only as a product that has the capacity to improve sanitation in slums, but also as a process in which toilet block design and construction can serve to rally community members to mobilize, organize, collaborate, and negotiate.

SPARC’s model of toilet block construction, subscription, and maintenance seems to deliver the desperately-needed clean and safe waste disposal facilities that families seek, which in turn improves health, productivity, safety and quality of life within urban communities.   SPARC has constructed 358 community toilet blocks to date and has also secured contracts to build another 613 toilet blocks moving forward. This means 371450 individuals in 74,290 families currently have access to safe and clean toilet facilities, and the number of people impacted by the projects continues to rise as new contracts are secured.  SPARC’s community-built toilets work because they are affordable and well –maintained and because families have a stake in their creation, use, and maintenance.

After a SPARC toilet block was constructed in her community, Sukubai Dengle from Kamgar Putala slum in Pune raved about the many improvements brought about by the new toilet block: “The two-storey toilet block has been built by SPARC and Mahila Milan. There is water in the toilets and no queues. There is no tension. And the toilets are so clean. I have a toilet in my house, but actually I like the new public toilets so much that I prefer to use them. Ever since the new toilets have been built, there is less sickness. The old toilets used to be so dirty that larvae used to come out of the chambers. The filth caused sickness. And children used to defecate in the open drains. Now there is such a good arrangement for children to squat that they go to the toilet happily. The new toilets have made a big difference in my settlement. I feel I live in a good area.”

Community toilet blocks are much more than structures or products; they are catalysts that enable community mobilization, coordination, empowerment, and improvement.  Proper sanitation in communities and safe and clean facilities for disposing of human waste have an impact that reaches beyond basic safety and health, instilling in poor communities a sense of ownership, commitment, and pride that will inspire further organization and growth.

RESPONDING TO URBAN SANITATION CHALLENGES AND MEETING GROWING DEMAND, JULY 2012

Throughout India over 3,000 dalits (untouchables) remove shit from public toilets every day, stinky excrement sloshing in barrels balanced atop their heads.  They come at night and remove the sloppy excrement from holes in the earth.  They load it into barrels and carry it far away to prevent public toilets from overflowing.

The necessity of dalits to manually remove and process human waste stems from India’s broken sanitation system, a system that frequently allows 8,000 people to share the same 40 toilets and that leaves over 50% of the poor with no options other than to defecate in open spaces. The uncontrollable quantity of human waste that all Indian cities deal with results from three major infrastructure problems: many cities lack sewage systems, those that have sewage systems do not extend their services to slums, and the ratio of people per toilet seat is so high that excrement does not have time to decompose before public toilets overflow with waste.

Unlike land, water, or electricity, which many poor people have found ways to obtain illegally, sanitation cannot be stolen from a nearby source.  There are no shortcuts. In order to be sustainable, sanitation requires collaborated and co-produced solutions with people, technology, and city governance structures all contributing their resources and ingenuity to the issue.

Despite immense need, the Indian people demonstrate deep abhorrence to addressing issues of defecation, its processing and treatment.  As a result the poor lack motivation to address problems of sanitation even though the health consequences that result from unsanitary conditions abound.  Why waste money constructing more toilet blocks if you face the possibility of eviction?  Why pay to defecate in filthy and stinky toilet facilities when you could just as easily go on the streets?

In sanitation surveys done by SPARC’s community groups, surveyors have found that slum-dwellers feel that they lack incentive to build up the infrastructure needed to bring sustained sanitation to their communities.  Thus, we believe that technical options need to expand exponentially to address these local challenges.  Technical solutions must be costed and also managed at the city level to help specific communities and households decide on the best sanitation method (individual household toilets, community toilets, water treatment, etc.) to meet their particular needs.  When sanitation comes coupled with the government’s promise that it will endure in communities regardless of slum rehabilitation schemes, the poor will likely be more receptive to exploring long-term solutions.

Additionally women must be involved in new sanitation initiatives in order to make sanitation projects sustainable, since women understand their community’s style and needs and also they can educate by example and teach the next generation about proper sanitation practices and behaviors.  In the past women have been left out of discussions of sanitation improvements in slums, but they will be the key implementers of behavior changes that come with better sanitation and they deserve to participate in sanitation projects as they arise.

If implemented properly, sanitation can become a sustained basis for community engagement with city and neighborhood authorities.  Proper sanitation facilities will lead to slums safe from disease and infestation, and they will also grow to inspire better tariffs, garbage collection, health education, and safety in partnership with government authorities moving forward.