Dear forum members,

This study was done as a part of master thesis in my master degree program. Although it does have lot of initiatives to carry on this research. This business runs informally in the Bangalore city (and also might be in other cities of India), so it was a challenging task to get business details from the entrepreneurs. However, the researcher some how managed to get in touch with the entrepreneurs and successfully completed this research. During this research there are some other interesting scope of research have been found. Any comments are most welcome.

Thanks and regards
Suman


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Abstract of the thesis:

The local government in Bangalore is inadequate to provide sewer connection to all the
households in Bangalore city. Out of 16,20,000 households 8,20,000 rely on onsite sanitation
facilities. Under this situation some private tanker operators emerge in the market to provide
service to empty septic tanks and dump it to the farms, sewer pipelines, open space or compost
units. This study explores the socio-economic impact of this business in Bangalore city by using
snowball technique.

The local government has already proposed a Draft Project Report for
providing water supply and underground drainage network at an approximated estimate cost of
Rs 1500 crores (187.5 million €) for a length of 3000 Kilometers. However, this study finds that
Honey Sucker Business is a financially viable service model; at least to middle class households,
which are not connected to the main sewerage network. The reuse of faecal sludge by farmers
has added benefits in terms of cost savings, potentially serving as an added income generating
activity and increasing crop yield. From an environmental perspective, faecal sludge reuse
seems to have reduced the burden and pressures on the environment, while at the same time
recycling nutrients back into the soil. With the spread of sewer network these benefits can not be
attained. This study also investigated the financial and economic feasibility of the honey sucker
business model. The findings of the study describe that this business model is quite profitable and the net present value (NPV) of the investments and returns without considering depreciation
came positive for all the entrepreneurs.

However, if depreciation cost is considered then NPV for
one entrepreneur of new tanker and three entrepreneurs of old tankers became negative from
among eighteen entrepreneurs. The reuse of faecal sludge has significant impact on saving of
fertilizer and increase in yield. Ten farmers out of fifteen have reduced their application of
chemical fertilizer between 30% to 90% and increase their yield by 20-50%, depending on the
crops they grow and the time since they have been using faecal sludge in their field. Remaining
five farmers mentioned that they did not reduce the amount of chemical fertilizer but seen
increase in yield by 10-20%. The average increase in net benefit calculated for each hectare of
land from all the farmers, it comes around Rs 23395 (289 €) /ha-year. In the economic analysis
of this business model, it is explained that the benefits of business model outweigh the costs
significantly and benefit cost ratio of the business comes around 4.02.

Hi Suman,

I just noticed your posting. Are you still looking for input?

AW

Hello forum members,

I am master student pursuing "Rural Development" course. I am going to start my master thesis on "Estimating the Socio-economic Impact of Honey-Sucker Business Model in Bangalore, India" by using cost-benefit analysis method. I am facing bit difficulty in drafting questionnaire as I don't have any expertise in this field. I am wondering which questions I should ask to the tanker operator which will help me to quantify indirect benefit and costs of the business model. If anyone have any relevant information then please share with me.

Thanks
Suman