Hi Hanns-André,

I looked around the Sanitation Capacity Building Platform (SCBP) website and found the document you're looking for here (not easy to find as there is no search function on their website and a typo in the document title, "feacal" instead of "faecal"):

Compendium of Feacal Sludge Treatment Plants in India
scbp.niua.org/?q=content/compendium-feac...tment-plants-india-0 

There are many interesting reports on their website. We have included some (14) in the SuSanA library, too (see here ).

Regards,
Elisabeth

Hello Mr. Depinder,

I was checking your link and the site in general.  A lot of publications, but this particular one apparently is not available to the public, isn't it? *

In any case, thank you for the link, and

Best regards,

Hanns-André

*  scbp.niua.org/content/fssm-technology-and-costing-compendium    gives an error message (added by moderator).

Glad I could help. We haven't experienced trash or debris in the conservancy tanks of pour flush toilets. The tank is lined properly (concrete base slab + masonry walls) and the waste has to go through a siphon shaped pipe before entering the tank, which makes the passage of trash and debris physically impossible.

Thank you Alexandra, that his helpful. Do you see much trash/debris in the pour-flush toilets?

Thank you for the recommendation. I am currently working with Nicola on another project...hi Nicola!

Cheers,
Tom

Nicola, Alexandra,

Kindly check the link below to see the compilation of all existing functional Faecal Sludge Treatment Plants in India.

scbp.niua.org/content/fssm-technology-and-costing-compendium

More such compendiums of basic information on treatment plants in Africa will be helpful.

Hi Tom,

The toilets constructed under the UBSUP project are poor flush toilets connected to a conservancy tank. In theory, the DTF is meant to treat the faecal sludge coming from those toilets, whose sludge is collected and transported by a vacuum truck. It often happens that pit latrines are also present in the UBSUP targeted area, in these cases, vacuum trucks are also the ones taking care of the emptying and transport of the faecal sludge, but as you can imagine it is sometimes challenging. From the Water utilities (running the DTF) and the vacuum truck operators we gathered the following issues related to emptying pit latrines:

• difficult access

• poor quality of construction: risk of the pit collapsing during the emptying

• pit used as garbage dumping facility, which can damage the vacuum pump

When those issues become too important, the vacuum truck operator generally refuses to empty the pit and become an ambassador of the project by encouraging the household to invest in an UBSUP toilet (the pit latrine is then either closed or emptied by manual emptiers). What is important to understand is that this constellation of technologies (poor flush toilets, vacuum trucks, DTFs) is only possible because the UBSUP concept is implemented in urban areas where low income areas are suitable for the project: sufficient space, landlords are able to invest in sanitation facilities (not the poorest of the poor). For rural areas or highly densely populated low income areas, it is another story, and I would suggest you to contact Nicola (who posted earlier on the thread) to give you more details on "faecal sludge emptying in Kenya", she is the No. 1 expert on the topic.

Thank you for sharing, Alexandra.

Could you elaborate on the types of issues in your area that make it difficult to empty latrines? Are you aware of the types of systems that have been employed for doing so, or is it limited to vacuum trucks and manual exhausting? This kind of information is very helpful for work being done on the exhausting side of FSM.

Thanks so much!
Tom

Dear Bhagwan

Those documents are no longer available because they were outdated and became obsolete. The moderator has now edited the first post of the thread so it doesn't bring confusion. However the link to the key documents in the SuSanA library is still valid and it has been updated recently. You will find all relevant documents for the UBSUP and the DTF implementation on this link

I could not find these manuals. Please suggest.

DTF Design Adaption Manual (pdf) • Size: 3.06 MB
DTF Construction Manual (pdf) • Size: 11.26 MB
DTF 3D simulation (pdf) • Size: 0.21 MB

Regards,

Bhagwan

Hi,
Nicola asked: "2. Do you know of other countries with such widespread networks of decentralised FSTPs?"

India comes to mind. See for example this discussion thread which talks about 78 Fecal Sludge Treatment Plants to be built this year in the state of Andhra Pradesh:
forum.susana.org/280-faecal-sludge-treat...andhra-pradesh-india

Wouldn't it be awesome if we could identify someone like Alexandra who utilises this forum to inform the world about their progress and learnings with these treatment plants?

Elisabeth

Hi Nicola

Nice to see you on the forum, and I am glad if you found the post informative. To answer your questions:

1. The 7 operational DTFs are located in Machakos, OlKalou, Embu, Nakuru, HomaBay, Chuka and Nolturesh. The 4 remaining ones are in Ongata-Rongai, Mwingi, Kibwezi and Molo

2. I don't know of any other country that has undertaken the activity of faecal sludge treatment plant at a national scale, maybe someone from the forum can tell us otherwise. The GIZ Water Programme in Burkina Faso will most likely start a up-scaling sanitation programme from 2019 which will include the construction of standardised decentralised treatment plants for faecal sludge.

3. Very interesting question: initially the UBSUP main objective was to provide improved toilets to people who don't have access to basic sanitation in designated low-income urban areas. While developing the concept, the team realised that in order to complete the sanitation chain, UBSUP could not omit the treatment/disposal aspect. Therefore, we came up with a decentralised low-cost technology to cater for the faecal sludge generated from the newly constructed and the existing toilets of the areas in question. So, to answer your question, the DTF has been designed and is being implemented to offer localised treatment of the faecal sludge produced in specific areas (UBSUP targeted low-income areas). The UBSUP project is not meant to provide faecal sludge and wastewater treatment for a whole town, city or region, it should not replace a conventional treatment plant, and must come as a complementary solution to a centralised treatment plant. However, the reality is that faecal sludge and wastewater treatment plants are too few and often, the DTF is used as the main treatment facility for the whole town (and sometimes the neighbouring towns).

4. The current DTF is designed for faecal sludge from septic/holding tank, meaning that the faecal sludge has a high water content and is brought in the DTF through vacuum tankers. Some tankers bring faecal sludge from pit latrines but with this type of thicker sludge, we are facing the challenge of high grit and solid waste content which tend to clog the control valve. The new DTF design will take care of this issue. Boosting the emptying service activities (mechanised) would be one of the achievement of the DTF and the UBSUP project as a whole. At the moment we are observing that most of the DTF are running below capacity, therefore there is still a certain leeway before reaching the maximum capacity. Once the DTF cannot cope with the demand anymore, it is a good indication for the water company or the local government to consider either some additional decentralised facilities or a larger conventional treatment plant.

5. For the current design, smell is not an issue because most of the treatment modules are enclosed with an adequate ventilation system. Smell is likely to come from the drying beds during a couple of days after sludge has been deposited, however for this design, the sludge drying beds are not used frequently (only for the occasional desludging of the anaerobic modules). In order to avoid any conflict with the community and increase acceptance of the project, it was recommended to construct the DTF at a reasonable distance from settlements.

I hope I managed to answer your questions, don't hesitate to ask more and if you can, try to visit some of the DTFs. I would be happy to hear your feedback and comments.

Alexandra, a few questions
1. Can you tell me where are the existing 7 and where the remaining 4 will be?
2. Do you know of other countries with such widespread networks of decentralised FSTPs?
3. In most cases are they now the sole provider of treatment in the towns/cities or a compliment to a central WWTP i.e. are they really decentralised, or more a small town solution?
4. Will they cope with heavy loading from pit latrines or are they design more with sludge from vac tankers in mind? You say you assessed the current market, but having local treatment facility in place puts these cities in a nice place to massively boost pit latrine emptying activities...if they really took off would the facility cope?
5. How are smell and pest issues- how close could somebody live? (not exactly, but could they be placed right beside some homes for example?)

Thanks for providing all of those documents and images -really great to see this well documented !

P.S. - here here...constant issue I encounter.
The topic of reuse and recycling is very trendy nowadays (biogas, fertiliser, briquettes, etc.) and might look very attractive from an external point of view, however it can easily divert the attention from the real aim and consume time and effort where it is most needed. The reuse aspect should be taken on case-by-case basis, it should be considered when socially and economically relevant

Nicola