From missing market incentives to misaligned incentives What is choking India’s rural sanitation progress?

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  • Thakur
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Re: From missing market incentives to misaligned incentives What is choking India’s rural sanitation progress?

A powerful point raised demanding adequate attention while talking about targets of .....number of toilets.
Thakur

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  • Marijn Zandee
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Re: From missing market incentives to misaligned incentives What is choking India’s rural sanitation progress?

Interesting discussion. I have been meaning to write a longer contribution, but can't find the time. So this quick rhetorical question will have to do.

I think one issue related to an enabling environment is how well the government (at all levels) holds up "their end of the deal". By which I mean, how well is sewage treatment, pit emptying, FSM, etc. organized? If we can't get that together, and if our rivers are open sewers, how are we going to convince the population that toilets are important?

Regards

Marijn
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  • nityajacob
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Re: From missing market incentives to misaligned incentives What is choking India’s rural sanitation progress?

Hi Aprajita,

The choke points PSI has found are all valid. Sometimes they occur in isolation, sometimes together. The impact is different in both cases but is highly context specific. I'll try to comment individually below.
Incremental increases in SBMG allocations. This year's budget allotted substantially more to SBMG than the previous years' budgets. The Ministry also tried to rationalise disbursements so states and districts could plan their programmes better. They were also asked for high priority districts that were targetted for making ODF last year, followed by more this year. The planning process till 2016-17 was to incrementally increase the number of toilets to be made in a district without a clear goal in mind, such as becoming ODF by a definite date. That seems to have changed somewhat to achieve ODF by a particular date. Planning is not commensurate though in terms of number of toilets and the funds needed. This still remains incremental rather than transformative. Another issue is SBMG funds on the ground have remained stuck to the Rs 12000 subsidy for more than three years. The feedback is this is not enough to make a usable toilet, to which the riposte at all levels is this is a subsidy and not the cost of a toilet, meant to reward those who make toilets. More than the amount, the concern is with the mode of payment. This happens in 1-2 installments with the second one at completion. Instead, to ensure usage the second installment should be paid six months after completion on verification of usage by all family members regularly. There are also concerns over how it is paid as some states have made the community (or ward) the unit of ODF before the subsidy is released to anybody. Planning to become ODF by a realistic, non-political deadline in a way that recognizes the time needed to effect behaviour change would address some of these problems.

Supply chains. This may be fragmented in some parts of India but in many places I have not found this to be a problem. The more proactive district governments have worked around this by negotiating in bulk with suppliers and ensuring they have stockpiles of material at the start of the year. The other critical gap has been in shortage of trained masons who know how to make twin leach pit toilets instead of only septic tanks. I have found responses to this have been knee jerk, such as getting masons from neighbouring districts. Their skills are doubtful even though they go through the mandatory 3 or 5 training. Here I would like to say these masons need training to make septic tanks, not subterranean chambers. The tanks I have seen would not meet norms for regular septic tanks since the lack baffle walls and the inlet pipes are not properly located. Their size has less to do with the effluent quantity and more with the perception that they should never fill up.

Missing incentives for market behaviour. I am assuming this means sanitation is not seen as a business venture. This seems to come from the standpoint that the government must provide all benefits for all. Rather than taking ownership of SBM, panchayats are happy to be passive implementers. District governments are complicit in this by taking the onus of planning and implementation. Targets and timelines are determined at the district level and communicated to panchayats. In a few rare cases sarpanchs come forward to take the lead but are completely dependent on district and block officials for executing the work. They are in effect glorified BCC agents who work in the time and space between trained motivators and the subsidy pay-outs. Some of the smarter sarpanchs have taken it on as a business even though SBM has discouraged contractor-led construction. I think the issue is how to balance sanitation markets with individual action where people make their own toilets but there is enough to encourage local sanitation entrepreneurs.

The last point. I think this means SBMG should create an enabling environment. The problem with this is insufficient and improper use of IEC funds. There is too much emphasis on mass media advertising and not enough on using this money for inter personal communication or other grassroots activities. To create and sustain demand more of the latter is needed especially as there are no permanent sanitation staff at the grassroots unlike in health or education. One solution could be to pay village cleaners from IEC funds and have them speak about sanitation constantly everyday when they are work, reach out to households to make and use toilets, and focus on SLWM. If there is demand, the market will follow. I am not sure the state should get into creating supply chains as it is inefficient and susceptible to pulls and pressures, as well as rent-seeking. This is best left to entrepreneurs and the creators of demand.

To be a strategic steward, SBMG would need to reinvent itself as a framework for action rather than a subsidy-led programme. The funds alloted for toilet construction should be directed towards creating demand and ensuring compliance or use of toilets. They can be used judiciously to support the really poor to make toilets. SBMG also needs to be more flexible in the type of toilets it prescribes since the 1 sq m 7" high toilets that are uniformly rolled out are not the most user-friendly. Including bathrooms or letting people choose the super- and sub-structures can help. However, in their haste to meet targets local administrations ignore the social aspects and instead, focus only on getting the numbers. A multi-year or long term view will also help to position SBMG as a steward.

Regards
Nitya
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  • andreshuesoWA
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Re: From missing market incentives to misaligned incentives What is choking India’s rural sanitation progress?

I agree with many of the points highlighted in this debate, and wanted to contribute with this really good resource, a ground-truthing exercise using immersions that was conducted by Praxis India (with IDS and WaterAid) and that gives very interesting insights of the realities at the village level. It includes a policy and practice note with practical ideas going forward: www.communityledtotalsanitation.org/reso...n-immersive-research

Thanks,

Andrés Hueso
WaterAid
twitter.com/andreshuesoWA
Andrés Hueso
Senior Policy Analyst – Sanitation
WaterAid
Follow me on Twitter @andreshuesoWA

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  • Ashok
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Re: From missing market incentives to misaligned incentives What is choking India’s rural sanitation progress?

There is at least one building centre in Bihar, which has got more than 800 good quality bio toilets ready in stock for last 18 months but no body is ready to buy. He is rerouting the prefab components to other buildings so that he is able to salvage his money, whatever he can. There are at least three more manufacturing units with the required skills and technology to make good quality toilets in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand which have been discouraged to other business for lack of demand of toilets. In really on the ground, there is demand for poor quality toilets only. If any villager comes forward to buy these better toilets, they are told by the government personnel that if they do so, even the basic subsidy would not be paid to them. (Lena hai tou lo nahi to apna banao) Sanjay has put it very aptly.

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  • aprajitasingh
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Re: From missing market incentives to misaligned incentives What is choking India’s rural sanitation progress?

Thanks everyone for the great insights. While I agree that the overall government machinery involved in releasing the incentives has challenges. For instance, in some places there is no provision for covering transportation costs that block officers incur in validating toilets. Further, though the government has got it right by in principal linking the incentive of toilet with use; in reality the release is being linked to validation of toilet constructions. The indicators for measuring use are both weak and challenging to capture. However, I would want to get some thoughts on the supply side. In our study, we found out that the overall market readiness to provide for the toilets at the required scale for 110 million by 2019 is inadequate. The requirements for some of the key components for toilet as assessed by some studies reveals a requirement of - expected demand- 800 lakh pans and doors till Oct ’ 19 for 80 million ( 8 crores) IHHLs. Rural Masons- 240 million (24 crore) person days of demand from SBMG alone; Approx annual demand of 0.5 million ( around 4.5 lakh) rural masons over the next 2 financial years. Our assessment suggest that in terms of finances current resources are inadequate for the market to be ready to supply resulting in both compromise of quality and sustainability of usage. Any thoughts/insights from the group on this would be useful.

Many of you have requested for the paper. We should have a draft ready for dissemination next month and will be happy to circulate it.

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  • sanjayg111
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Re: From missing market incentives to misaligned incentives What is choking India’s rural sanitation progress?

Completely agree with Sanjay. This is what I also found in Rajasthan and Assam while promoting toilets. A lot of people wanted aspirational toilets with facilities for bathing/washing clothes. They were ready to top up the subsidy with their own savings or seeking credits from the sanitation supplier to be paid in monthly installments. But they did not want typical government toilets. But most government officials will not listen and discuss this. A typical response is " if you want this toilet, take it or leave it or construct with your own money (Lena hai tou lo nahi to apna banao).

The second important aspect is understanding the context of water availability and storage. If that is also taken into consideration, the chances of use of toilet are much higher. I do not believe in this ODF status. Most are just target reaching on paper without any monitoring or verification. In 2012 I visited Jharkhand to see ODF villages and found that it is all on paper. Reality was quite different and that's true today also.

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  • sdeshpande
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Re: From missing market incentives to misaligned incentives What is choking India’s rural sanitation progress?

Hi Aprajita, good to see an honest appraisal for once. I have seen too many people speak about 100% ODF status in Villages, Districts and States that are simply untrue. Please share the report if possible.

As to the problem, I would say the below are main issues facing the entire Swaach Bharat (Gramin) project:

1. The Toilets: The current system gives a subsidy of Rs. 12-15,000/BPL family. This is inadequate. A decent usable toilet will cost not less than Rs. 25,000. I have seen numerous examples of toilets built at this cost all of which have been abandoned or are used sporadically yet the village is on the records ODF. They are often built with inadequate space inside and practically no ventilation further reducing their usability.

2. The Soak Pit itself whether single large or twin pit: This is a technology that should never have been allowed in India. Do not get me wrong soak pits work fine if as in rural USA or Canada they are connected to large leach fields. In India, we have dense concentrations of people all with soak pits and no leach field as there are space constraints. Villagers are not fools. I have been told repeatedly by villagers please do not put in soak pits as during the rains the dirty water will mix with rainwater flooding the area and villagers will have to cross it to use the toilet. End result is while the soak pits collect the solids the untreated liquid component soaks into the ground where it mixes with the greywater soaking in elsewhere and monsoon rainwater or locally high water tables and spread coliforms everywhere. Imagine 10 years down the road when all our water bodies are contaminated then what?

3. Bathrooms: If you talk to the villagers and especially the women they want bathrooms even more than toilets. Why? For toilet breaks they go in groups to areas with cover. For bathing they do it on platforms with cloth screens right in the village with people passing all the time. If you want to get people to use the toilet attach a bathroom to it.

4. Individual vs. Panchayat responsibility: The current system puts the onus on householders as the toilets are being built for individuals with no connection to the community. Penalties, punishments as is being done in some areas only breeds resentment and will eventually lead to failure.

5. Government Target Dates: We have a situation of one upmanship today with states and districts competing to declare themselves ODF earlier as a result we have old Soviet style reporting happening with 'targets' being achieved.

6. Pride/Asspiration: Building rubbish or things they do not want means that you do not instill pride in the beneficiaries and as a result you disinvest people from the toilet built. You also loose the opportunity for inspiring others to copy.

In summation, I would say build quality even if it means fewer are built, add bathrooms, add a sewer network, treat the sewage to agriculture reuse standards and you will not fail. To the corporates reading this, I would only say that the CSR money you are spending is your hard earned money do not waste it on rubbish and instead of building a 1000 useless toilets build a 100 good ones for the same cost.

We chose quality over quantity and succeeded, no behavioural change required and the village is invested in it. Oh and the village is 100% ODF almost two years doen the road, they have been operating it themselves for the last few months and the monthly OPEX is just Rs.40-42/month/family.

Sanjay
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  • shrikant
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Re: From missing market incentives to misaligned incentives What is choking India’s rural sanitation progress?

In India sanitation program has been a “Toilet construction program” since its inception. Moreover this has also been a game of numbers. No reporting system at any level has a mechanism to judge the quality & technological correctness of a toilet constructed under the program. There is no quality control mechanism for the toilets under construction. The targets are fixed without taking into consideration the ground realities such as availability of trained human power, hardware required, funds available vis-à-vis number of toilets to be constructed. If it is felt that the target of ODF India by 2019 looks un-achievable the deadline should be extended rather than constructing poor quality toilets in the rush to touch the finish line. It would be rather great to halt the program for some time, take a rigorous review, re-plan everything & set new targets with new deadline.
Shrikant M.Navrekar
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PIN 422 222 India
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  • magdalenabauer
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Re: From missing market incentives to misaligned incentives What is choking India’s rural sanitation progress?

Dear Aprajita,

would it be possible to share the publication from PSI you mentioned? I would be very interested to read through it. I am looking for information on different Indian states and their performance in sanitation, because as you mentioned, the state of sanitation and coverage is quite different!

Kind Regards,
Magdalena
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  • DaniBarrington
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Re: From missing market incentives to misaligned incentives What is choking India’s rural sanitation progress?

In response to Kris's post, I would be VERY hesitant about linking sanitation and nutrition in such a way; there are always going to be families who simply CANNOT afford/build sanitation for various reasons. Depriving their children of nutritional value is unethical.
Dani Barrington, PhD, BE (Hons), BSc

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The University of Western Australia

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  • Ashok
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Re: From missing market incentives to misaligned incentives What is choking India’s rural sanitation progress?

Government Machinery is the main bottleneck in choking the progress in the sanitation program. The persons responsible for paying the incentives and technology are either not educated for the job or do not want to apply their minds beyond making a cut for themselves.
A statement made by a mid level officer, quoted here, will amply explain what I am trying to say " Do the job as I am saying. Do not bother about the quality. If the latrine reaches the site without breakage, there end your responsibility. whether it works or how long it works should not be your concern. Make it as cheap as you can."
These officers are not concerned whether they are making leach pits in very high water table, Black cotton soil or rocky soils. their simple answer is that we have meet our targets. If we do not meet this quarters target, we will not get the next months money.

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