retour imprimer © Lettre du pS-Eau 71 de Dec 2012

The sanitation chain: A key sector that is too often overlooked

In developing countries, the lack of sanitation and hygiene, often related to poor quality water supply, significantly impacts on public health. Although the numerous advantages of proper sanitation are well-known, awareness of the importance of this issue has been developing very slowly. During implementation
of the CMS approach, local decision-makers did not initially consider sanitation a priority; it was only upon completion of the diagnostic that they realized the true scale of the challenge ahead.

Sanitation, as understood within the CMS program, relates specifically to the management of excreta and waste­water produced by households, in public or commercial places and by trade or industrial activities. In the areas targeted by the CMS program (large and small towns), even though more and more large towns are now starting to develop sewerage systems as they are faced with rapid urban growth, the most common form of sanitation remains the on-site latrine.

Although they have a sound understanding of their role with regard to sewerage systems, public authorities are slow to recognize their responsibilities for on-site sanitation. However, their role is to meet the needs of all local inhabitants; thus they need to regard the various sanitation systems located within their area as being complementary to each other in order to ensure the diverse range of contexts and needs are taken into account. Regardless of the options used, sanitation is much more than simply sewers and latrines. It is a chain of actions and actors that can be broken down into three segments, each with its own particular challenges that require adapted solutions:
• the access segment aims to increase the population's access to sanitation facilities;
• the evacuation segment corresponds to the collection and evacuation of wastewater and excreta from residential and commercial areas;
• the treatment segment covers the disposal, treatment and possible utilization of effluent (both the treated liquid waste for irrigation and the treated solid waste - and the nutrients this contains – as crop fertilizer).

At the start of the years 2000, the 20 research teams taking part in the Sustainable Waste Management and Urban Sanitation
Program, coordinated by pS-Eau, notably reached these same conclusions: social demand for sanitation exists, but is latent and needs to be stimulated; sanitation is a chain that must be addressed in an integrated manner; there is a dynamic economic market for sanitation goods and services involving local entrepreneurs; lastly, the sanitation service has to be developed using strategies designed at municipal level and with the involvement of all stakeholders.

Specific tools for sanitation
Drawing on these conclusions, MDP and pS-Eau took care to en­sure that sanitation was properly taken into account in each of the CMS program components.
In large towns, sanitation, initially not a priority for the municipal leaders of the towns concerned, was covered during the diagnostic and in as much detail as water supply. All of the diagnostics undertaken highlighted the seriousness of and the need to focus on the sanitation situation. Thus all of the strategies developed fully took this sector into account. Even the small towns component, where the focus was on water supply, was designed to ensure that sanitation was not overlooked.

In addition, three of the six guides developed (see page 15) deal specifically with sanitation.
• Guide No.4, How to select appropriate technical solutions for sanitation has been designed to assist local contracting authorities and their partners to identify those sanitation technologies best suited to the different contexts that exist within their town.
• Guide No.5, How to manage public toilets and showers sets out the different management models available for shared toilets and showers in schools, commercial public places, health centers and deprived neighborhoods.
• Guide No.6, How to finance sanitation in sub-Saharan Africa aims to provide those actors who are not (sanitation or finance) specialists with a better understanding of the means available for financing the sanitation chain.

Lastly, as part of the ‘training' component of the CMS program, 9 of the 19 job descriptions correspond to sanitation-related professions (mason, toilet block manager, head of a municipal technical service, Environmental Health Officer, coordinator, sewer system operator, small-bore sewer system management committee member, mechanical pit emptier, manual pit emptier). An analysis of the training offer and capacity-building requirements was carried out for these professions (see the following page). This work on professions notably formed the basis for the Sani Tsapta project on sanitation professions implemented by Rail and the Projection network, with support from SIAAP and the Seine-Normandie Water Basin Agency.

Awareness-raising and planning
The lessons learned from the sanitation component of the CMS program have primarily been incorporated into the back-up support provided by pS-Eau to its members: sanitation service development actors in the South and their decentralized cooperation and non-governmental partners. In 2012, sanitation workshops were held in both Paris and Lyon. A number of further workshops are planned for 2013, along with various training-related activities.

The document entitled “Intervenir pour l'assainissement dans les pays en développement: les questions essentielles pour des services du­rables“ is based on the lessons learned from the CMS program and provides an excellent summary.

The lessons learned with regard to sanitation as a result of the CMS program have been widely disseminated, notably at the World Water Forum in Marseille, where pS-Eau, who coordinated the sanitation ‘priority for action' in conjunction with the International Water Association (IWA), facilitated a discussion on sanitation planning.
Sessions on sanitation planning were also held at the Africities and AfricaSan forums and during the African Water Association Congress. pS-Eau continues to monitor the sanitation planning approaches implemented by various actors around the world through regular discussions and field visits undertaken as part of the IWA Urban Sanitation Initiative. pS-Eau is also supporting the IWA and Swiss research institute, EAWAG-SANDEC's development of the sanitation planning guidelines entitled “Sanitation 21”.

Lastly, the research and lesson-sharing program, launched by pS-Eau in 2012 and entitled “Where and how to implement small-bore sewers?”, is continuing to build on the lessons learned from the CMS program.


Jean-Marie Ily
pS-Eau
Email:
ily@pseau.org

Christophe Le Jallé
pS-Eau
Email: le-jalle@pseau.org

Denis Désille
pS-Eau
Email: desille@pseau.org

pS-Eau - Paris - France
 
 

©Lettre du pS-Eau 71 de Dec 2012

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