City Sanitation Plans according to the NUSP

The City Sanitation Plan is a comprehensive document which describes the short, medium and long term measures for the issues related to governance, technical, financial, capacity enhancement, awareness raising and pro-poor interventions to achieve the goal of NUSP to create community driven, totally sanitised, healthy and liveable cities and towns.

The City Sanitation Plan’s purpose is to support Urban Local Bodies (ULB) and NGOs, CBOs, citizens and private sector agencies to take concrete steps to achieve 100% sanitation in their respective cities. Although each city should prepare a framework adapted to its needs and local situation, the following figure depicts the process that should be followed when planning, implementing and evaluating a City Sanitation Plan.

The City Sanitation Plans (CSP) are prepared by the Urban Local Body (ULB) in collaboration with a group of experts, and presented to the City Sanitation Task Force for approval. While the exact contents of the CSP may vary depending on the local situation, the following aspects must be covered:

Status Report and Plan for Different Sectors

The City Sanitation Plan should contain an assessment of the current situation and a immediate, short, medium and long term plan for improvement of the following services and aspects (see also chapters exploring and understand your system):

• Access to Sanitation Facilities (toilets): Plan for ensuring 100% sanitation access to different socio-economic groups.
• Wastewater and Solid Waste: Plan for safe collection, conveyance and treatment of sanitary wastes, considering the use of low energy intensive decentralised wastewater treatment technologies (see also sanitation systems, invalid link and chapters wastewater collection, wastewater treatment, reuse and recharge).
• Water Supply and Storm Water: Plan for the provision of potable water and to improve resilience of the city, considering diminishing water resources and the impact of climate change (see also chapters water purification, water distribution and stormwater management).
• Institutional Aspects: Plan for developing institutions in charge of sanitation, and their roles and responsibilities (see also building an institutional framework in water supply). This section should include manpower issues such as adequate remuneration, hazardous nature of work, employment on transparent terms and conditions, use of modern and safe technology and provision of adequate safety equipment (see also invalid link in wastewater treatment).
• Financial Aspects: Plan for capital investments and operation and maintenance costs.  A section has to be included which spells out the costs and tariffs for service provision, which needs to be emphasised as a means of ensuring accountability as well as financial sustainability (see also (see also water pricing general and financing).

Implementation Plan

The City Sanitation Plan should contain an implementation plan and delivery mechanism for each of the components listed above. The ULB’s in-house resources will be deployed for these tasks, however due to personnel shortage or lack of expertise and competency, the following service providers will need to be contracted or commissioned: urban planning agencies, technology providers, private consultants and NGOs. Two broad kinds of services will be required: (1) hardware related capacities that have to do with implementing physical works (see also hardware tools in wastewater treatment) and (2) software related capacities e.g. social mobilisation, institutional development, training, etc. (see also creating an enabling environment and awareness raising in wastewater treatment).

Monitoring and Evaluation

The City Sanitation Task Force (CSTF) and the ULB need to include a section about monitoring and evaluation of the implementation as an integral part of the City Sanitation Plan (CSP) (see also participatory monitoring and evaluation). Section 4 of the Chapter on National Award Scheme for Sanitation for India Cities lists Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) indicators in terms of output, process and outcome related parameters that should be followed. For the evaluation and monitoring of 100% sanitation milestone achievements, a number of tools can be considered:

• A mix of self-assessment by the CSTF based on data, citizens’ groups feedback, and field visits.
• A continuous monitoring system within the ULB.
• Independent report cards and evaluation missions commissioned by the CSTF and the State Government.
• Cross-city monitoring with participation of State level and other-city stakeholders.
• Government of India monitoring missions and independent agencies.

An important aspect of monitoring and evaluation is to make the findings and reports available to the public so that feedback and suggestions can be received from other stakeholders. Sharing key features in press briefings are also another way of mobilising city stakeholders and eliciting their cooperation.

Operation & Maintenance and Service Delivery Systems

The operation and maintenance (O&M) systems and procedures need to be institutionalised in order to be effective as to achieve and sustain the goal of 100% sanitation coverage. A city-wide perspective is needed when planning for O&M, including not only the new infrastructure but the already existing systems in all the different sectors: maintenance of public latrines (removal of excreta), solid waste management, maintenance and repairing of sewer systems, monitoring of on-site systems, sludge clearance services, cleaning of storm water drainage (nahlas), street sweeping, etc. A comprehensive O&M protocol should be prepared as part of the CSP by the ULB with the support of the CSTF and specialists, in which all the O&M activities should be listed out, including the assignation of responsibilities, the specific procedures and the related costs. Special emphasis has to be given to the financial implications of improving current and future service levels, particularly on how to recover or fund the costs of O&M (see also financing).

According to the National Urban Sanitation Policy, the following preparatory actions should be carried out in order to prepare the City Sanitation Plan:

City Sanitation Task Force

A City Sanitation Task Force (CSTF) should be formed, composed by representatives from agencies directly responsible for sanitation (divisions and departments of the ULB, PHED, etc.), agencies indirectly involved or impacted, eminent persons, practitioners, representatives of the different stakeholders sectors, NGOs and sanitary workers. The CSTF is responsible for launching the 100% Sanitation Campaign, coordinating the activities for awareness raising (see also awareness raising in wastewater treatment), revising and approving the CSP and implementing the plan defined in the CSP.

Baseline Data Collection and Creating Database

The ULB in collaboration with experts will collect data on demographic, institutional, technical, social and financial aspects related to sanitation for the preparation of status report (see also baseline data collection). As a first source, the census, the ULB and PHED data will be used, together with different assessment exercises for instance in social or financial issues. In addition, primary data might be gathered by consultants to fill-in the gaps. All the data collected must be amenable to linking to an existing or proposed Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for the city. It is also recommended that participatory approaches are used together with observation and community and household interactions.

Awareness Generation and Launch of 100% Sanitation Campaign

A citywide 100% Sanitation Campaign will be launched to generate awareness among the population. Ideally the campaign in a city should be timed with the Government of India National Media Campaign and the awareness raising activities planned at State Level (see also the chapter awareness raising for demand creation). The Sanitation Campaign should be planned in a long-term, with an intensive first round, followed by successive rounds focussing on specific aspects or stakeholders (see also stakeholder identification). Different sectors of society should be engaged to work together with the ULB and the CSTF: a professional media agency to define the message, communication channels and information material for different stakeholders (see also creating information material); NGOs to work directly with slum-dwellers bringing the messages door-to-door; school and colleges to propagate the messages among the students (e.g. school campaigns); newspapers, television and radio channels to announce the activities of each round of the Sanitation Campaign (see also media campaigns through posters and flyers, video and radio).

Specifying Legal and Regulatory Institutional Responsibilities

The CSTF will be in charge of examining the existing laws and regulations regarding standards for safe sanitation (toilets arrangements, collection, treatment and final disposal of treated water) that exist at municipal level and national level (CPHEEO and Environmental Act). The CSTF will then lay out a set of recommendations to the ULB to ensure the achievement of the goal of 100% sanitation, including a set of mechanisms to improve the adherence to the standards, monitoring and regulatory process, implementation of incentives, and creation of a system of user charges and fees (see also water charges).

Capacity Building and Training

invalid link within the ULB’s departments or service provider agencies in charge of water and sanitation services is crucial to ensure the sustainability of the actions planned in the CSP. Two kinds of interventions will be necessary to build the capacity within the staff of the ULB: (1) training courses to build up skills and aptitudes among ULB officials to carry out the activities related to sanitation and water provision in an efficient and effective manner. The training courses should allow the participants to have access to the existing knowledge as well as have practical experience with different kind of technologies, management regimes, organisational systems and processes, institutional relationships, participatory methods and consultation techniques, among other; (2) organisational restructuring within the ULBs with the required working systems (e.g. invalid link), linkages and organisational environment to allow the ULB personnel to put their new skills to productive use. National and State Level Resource Organisations such as NGOs, specialist institutions, private training agencies, etc. need to be brought together by the City Sanitation Task Force to assist in this huge agenda.

Planning and Financing

The implementing agency, which in most of the cases is the ULB, will be in charge of preparing the plans for the city including institutional, social, technical and financial aspects to improve the sanitation situation of the city. The ULB might take the assistance of specialists, who will support on creating comprehensive plans at short, medium and long term for the entire city. The City Sanitation Plans should be realistic plans that can be attained with the existing resources. The Government of India’s JNNURM, UIDSSMT and BSUP, as well as the State Government’s own resources (see also government contributions), are the key programmes to finance the actions of the CSP. Furthermore, a special emphasis has to be given to cost recovery through connection fees and user charges, and other sources of finance (see also water charges, water pricing general and financing).

The following aspects are to be considered when planning interventions in all sectors: water supply, access to toilets, wastewater management, storm water management and solid waste management.

Technical Options

Choosing technologies to cope with the challenges of providing urban India with sanitation services is not an easy task, as the demand grows exponentially, the density of the urban areas are high, constraints of land tenure are an issue in poor areas and low budgets are usually assigned. In order to help planners and ULB, the NUSP give the following suggestions:

• A holistic approach (see also IWRM, sustainable sanitation, linking up sustainable sanitation and water management) is required when choosing a technology, considering institutional, financial, environmental, behavioural and cultural parameters. This will allow choosing only those technologies that can be afforded (capital and O&M costs), operated and maintained by the assigned institutions, and more important accepted by the people so they are willing to pay for the service provision.
• Up-grading and retrofitting the existing sanitation systems, so they perform in a sanitary and safe manner should be the first interventions.
• Technologies need to be incremental, considering the option of on-site sanitation systems that can be up-graded into more sophisticated centralised systems in the future (see also chapter wastewater treatment).
• Technologies that promote recycle and reuse of treated wastewater should be encouraged (see also chapter reuse and recharge).
• There is not only one valid technology. To be able to address the city-wide nature of the challenge of providing 100% sanitation, a mix of options should be considered.
• Technologies need to be planned for the full cycle of arrangements: from the toilet unit, conveyance, transport, final treatment and disposal into the environment (see also sanitation systems).
• Operation and maintenance, particularly the assignment of responsibilities and the financing, has to be kept in view when planning technology options.

Reaching the Un-Served Populations and the Urban Poor

The City Sanitation Plan has to serve as a road map to extend good quality sanitation services to the poor dwellers of the city. The NUSP distinguishes between public sanitation and community sanitation, the first being intended for general public or floating populations, whereas community toilets are those where an identifiable core group of users exist. The Government of India through the NUSP is particularly concerned about the facilities for notified and non-notified slums.

There are many obstacles when planning sanitation for the urban poor:

• Land tenure and legal issues prevent the provision of individual toilets in many slums.
• The density and the lack of space make the provision of conventional or shallow sewers unfeasible.
• Where on-site sanitation is an option (e.g. on-site storage and treatments), sludge treatment becomes a problem, as the streets are too small for vacuum emptier trucks to enter the slums.
• There are segments of population without sanitation who live in dispersed urban locations not being slums or in groups of houses that have legally not been notified as slums.

In order to overcome all the obstacles, the NUSP proposes the following strategies:

• To consult poor settlements’ dwellers through participatory approaches (e.g. participatory decision making, participatory monitoring and evaluation), involving them in the process of planning and management of sanitation arrangements.
• The ULB need to examine the legal, tenurial, space and affordability issues in close consultation with communities in order to plan innovative means that are owned by users and will be sustainably managed by them.
• The ULB need to partnership with NGOs and Community Based Organisations (CBOs) to initiate a process of collaborative planning and delivery of services in legal and non-notified settlements in the city (see also planning and process tools introduction).
• At least 20% of the funds under the sanitation sector should be earmarked for the urban poor.
• The issues of cross subsidisation of the urban poor and their involvement in the collection of O&M charges should be addressed.
• A concerted effort has to be taken to raise awareness amongst all stakeholders about the huge health and environmental costs of not providing sanitation to all citizens (see also economic issues, invalid link, water pollution and awareness raising for demand creation). Awareness raising activities should include: a) orientation programmes for ULB functionaries; and b) setting up permanent systems in ULBs, complemented with agreements with NGOs and CBOs, to deliver services and monitor outcomes.

City Reward Schemes

Cities can institute their own reward schemes to incentivise local stakeholders to participate in the process of improvements for reaching 100% sanitation. Rewards could be given following the national guidelines on an area basis. For example, the following could be units for rewards: municipal wards, colonies or residents’ associations, schools, colleges and other educational institutions, market and bazaar committees, city-based institutions like railway stations, bus Depot, office Bhawans, etc. The reward may contain a nominal amount of money for further upkeep and maintenance of sanitary systems, improvements in infrastructure targeted to better health and environment, as also special purposes like holding Environment Fairs, Health Camps, etc. A scroll of honour, public function to accord recognition, and rating of wards may also be considered as a part of rewards.