Update of the work done by Sanitation Capacity Building Platform can now we viewed in the attached brochure.

We have entered the second phase of capacity development for FSM where we are focussing on updating training modules, developing new content and modules and upscaling capacity development through digital medium.

In the last 6 months of Covid 19, SCBP has tested a range of digital dissemination options for FSM training and has come out with a digital strategy as well. Those interested in this strategy may please contact me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Yes this is a good article. The Tamil Nadu Masons Training.

Thanks for sharing.

How to upscale such trainings and how to include aspects of cost savings in construction designing is important.

We have just embarked on the first level of capacity building in FSSM and need to find out how to carry it forward to a higher level of capacity building and training.

Hi Depinder
Just wanted to flag an excellent article from Oct 2, 2018 Business Standard, titled: Why we need to realise value of trained masons to ensure safe sanitation.

Here is the link:
www.business-standard.com/article/curren...-118100200162_1.html

It reports on a survey of masons done by the Tamil Nadu Urban Sanitation Support Programme (TNUSSP) and supported by the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS). This project is also described in the SuSanA project database www.susana.org/en/knowledge-hub/projects/database/details/575

Regards

Please see this news report.

www.hindustantimes.com/education/drdo-re...jIbjFYga7DK0mgK.html

A presentation made in Feb 2017 at FSM 4 in Chennai had presented the findings.

Depinder, in a conversation we has in Stockholm last week you referenced studies done that compared biofil toilets to others in terms of ability to clean outputs. Can you post those results?

Hi Elizabeth,

In addition to the City Sanitation Plans(4 towns of Odisha) and the Research on Urban Sanitation(4 States) that you mention on our portal : scbp.niua.org, we have also posted 4 Training Modules on FSM on Susana.

The CSPs and the Urban Sanitation Research are about what exists in these states/towns and has recommendations on what needs to be done to improve city sanitation. The FSM training modules are futuristic since few FSTPs exist in India today.

We had a learning dissemination event where we had presentations of these reports and followed by discussion and feedback that was incorporated in finalisation. The feedback we had received was positive : the challenges of centralised sewer based sanitation systems, the precarious municipal financing and affordability of new/proposed centralised sanitation systems and the long years it takes to implement them - were well brought out in these reports. The reports are being disseminated at state level by the consultants who did this work and by NIUA through our portal. The research reports also serve an advocacy purpose.

The consultants who did the reports were free to use SFDs. A detailed narrative analysis of urban sanitation challenges is perhaps more powerful than SFDs. There were a set of 5 questions we had posed for the research hence a narrative style was adopted.

We have done 3 more state level research that we will put up in the coming months.

Thanks for your interest and questions.

Hi Depinder,

Thanks for sharing these reports here. You didn't mention it in your post so I just copy the information from your website here for people to know which towns this is about:

Research reports
Research work undertaken through SCBP includes :

1. Four City Sanitation Plans developed for Odisha towns

2. State and Towns Urban Sanitation Research for MP, Telengana, Odisha, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Uttrakhand, Jharkhand and UP.

Purpose of the research work is to develop content for Training Modules and for Advocacy for Decentralised Sanitation Systems promotion.

NFSSMA research - 4 Towns Sewage-Septage Co Treatment Study done by Sanjay Gupta.

My questions to you are:
1. Do these reports only describe the current state or do they also describe future options (the report that I looked at only seemed to describe the current situation, but I didn't study it in detail so may have overlooked it).

2. Do you know if these reports are being read and utilised by the right people who are in charge of sanitation in those cities? Have they given you feedback regarding their usefulness?

3. We hear a lot about shit flow diagrams. Did you consider adding shit flow diagrams to your reports or was there a decision not to do so (I am personally not convinced that SFDs add so much value but I am curious what you think. More on SFDs here on the forum: forum.susana.org/204-shit-flow-diagrams-...xcreta-flow-diagrams )

Regards,
Elisabeth

Four India specific reports of city level sanitation research(covering 12 cities) and another 4 reports of city level studies on co treatment options for septage with sewage - are uploaded on our portal :

scbp.niua.org/research-reports

Over the last two decades there has been a big jump in the number of formal WASH sector meetings, webinars, networks and workshops of sector professionals. Structured, 5 minute presentations in packed agendas, little time for Q&As. Formal workshops are always under pressure of formal speeches and inaugurals by some senior officials, some with many parallel sessions, becoming more of networking meetings. Leaving little room for deeper interaction and learning. There is little room for critical reflective discussion and learning in these face to face meetings. Specially challenging for young professionals to meet and learn from peers. Its become a joke that you can meet WASH experts only in these national workshops, and some you can only meet in international workshops!!

While a lot is being done by WASH agencies, there is little awareness even among professionals and staff of different organisations as to who is doing what and with what challenges and lessons. There are calls from Government and UN agencies from time to time, to try and initiate some learning networking. In India we saw some such initiative in the last decade but these fail to sustain as they are dependent on some donor funding and become too structured and impersonal. One exception In India was a non funded informal WASH learning initiative a few years ago, under Juan Costain at the WSP South Asia office in Delhi. Where thematic discussions were organised at UNDP Delhi seminar room and all sector agencies and experts invited. These quarterly informal meetings were structured for short presentations, but allowed for more interaction and discussion on a regular basis among professionals, face to face.

The Informal WASH Knowledge Meet is an initiative is guided by this motive. It has been lead by among others, WaterAid, NIUA, PRAXIS, IRC, CBGA, WSSCC, WVI, AKF and Action India. A regular informal learning engagement of WASH sector professionals in Delhi, to meet regularly. The purpose of this initiative is to foster regular face to face meeting and learning, understand who is doing what, learn from the challenges we face and lessons that are difficult to share in formal structured meetings. To bind such informal meets, a Newsletter called WASH Knowledge Update with Mr. Bharat Dogra as Editor, has been started to bring together a compilation of News updates in media on WASH, alongwith contributions from WASH sector experts and organisations.

The first issue of the WASH Knowledge Update is enclosed. This is also uploaded on the SCBP portal

scbp.niua.org/content/wash-knowledge-update-issue-1

Contributions and suggestions are invited for this initiative and for the Newsletter. Those who can attend, are invited to participate in the next informal meet on 29th June in Delhi. The venue will be one of the offices of the partnering orgnisations of this initiative. Kindly let us know and we will inform.

Elisabeth has asked me to share a brief profile of Sanitation Capacity Building Platform(SCBP) so as to facilitate engagement and discussion here.

Let me introduce myself. I am Depinder Kapur and I work with the SCBP Platform, based on Delhi. This is a multi stakeholder platform of agencies promoting decentralised sanitation systems.

For more details of SCBP, please see below.

Title of grant: Sanitation Capacity Building Platform
Subtitle: To build capacity of cities and all stakeholders working in urban sanitation, to ensure improved and decentralized sanitation services
Name of lead organization: National Institute of Urban Affairs(NIUA)
Primary contact at lead organization: Depinder Kapur
Grantee location: India
Developing country where the project is taking place: India
Start and end date: 1st Oct 2015 to 31st March 2019
Grant type: Programme grant
Grant size: $3.5 million

Short description of the project:

Sanitation Capacity Building Platform (SCBP) lends support to Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), Government of India, by focussing on urban sanitation and supports states and cities to move beyond Open Defecation Free (ODF) status by addressing safe disposal and treatment of human faeces. SCBP is a platform anchored by NIUA and works as a collaborative initiative of experts and organisations committed to the goal of sanitation to support and build the capacity of towns/cities to plan and implement decentralized sanitation.

Goal(s):

Sanitation Capacity Building platform (SCBP) is designed to support and build the capacity of town/cities to plan and implement decentralized sanitation solutions.
The platform facilitates knowledge and experience sharing among cities on decentralized sanitation to accomplish national missions: Swachh Bharat Mission, AMRUT, Smart Cities Mission and Namami Gange Programme.

Objectives:

Working under the broad aim of strengthening capacity building for decentralised urban sanitation solutions, SCBP has three broad Objectives ;
• Improved awareness, knowledge and skills of State governments and Urban Local Bodies staff, to plan and implement decentralised sanitation solutions
• Institutional knowledge and skills strengthening(of Training Institutes, Academia and Private sector), for supporting national level capacity building
• Evidence based research and advocacy for capacity building to address urban sanitation challenge

Research or implementation partners:

The Platform partners include Centre for Water and Sanitation, CWAST at CEPT University, CDD Society and BORDA, ECOSAN Services Foundation(ESF), Administrative Staff College of India(ASCI)ASCI, UMC, Centre For Policy Research(CPR), iDeck and WASHi.The Platform also engages and supports Nodal AMRUT accredited training institutions, Universities, Research organisations and NGOs.

Links, further readings: Our website: scbp.niua.org/

Results/Outcomes
• State FSSM Perspective developed for Rajasthan
• City Sanitation Plans(4 towns of Odisha) with FSSM perspective
• 191 ULBs of Rajasthan supported for ODF and FSSM
• 61 AMRUT towns of UP supported for FSSM
• First Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) for setting up Faecal Sludge Treatement Plants in UP, Rajasthan and Bihar
• Capacity Building of Nodal AMRUT Institutes(5)
• State para state agencies supported for Planning and Technology
• 500 officials from 12 states provided with FSSM trainings
• Capacity Needs Assessment for FSSM undertaken
• State FSSM Policy Drafts(UP and Rajasthan)
• Training Modules Developed(5)
• National and State level Advocacy with NFSSM Alliance

Current state of affairs:

Programme consolidation and expansion phase. Reaching out to private sector and academia.

Biggest successes so far:

Successful collaborative engagement as a platform in India with the most comprehensive collection of knowledge resources on FSSM on our site scbp.niua.org. Supported 4 states with Policy, Technical Support. State level Perspective Building on FSSM. Developing and delivering Training Modules on Decentralised Sanitation solutions.

Main challenges / frustration:

Systemic barriers at institutional level to adoption of FSSM. Hence our capacity building work is both about knowledge creation as well as research and advocacy.

Please read the previous response.

See the web page for publications.

The presentation is interesting. It is, however, somewhat brief from learning point of view. Are there publications that go with it?

F H Mughal