Dear Amruta,
The following administrative processes were followed for allotment of the land for the establishment of Faecal Sludge Treatment Plant in our project areas:

1. Dhenkanal and Angul Municipalities passed resolutions in their respective Municipal Councils committing to provide land in their respective areas for the establishment of FSTP.
2. Practical Action, Bhubaneswar submitted ‘Request Letter’ to Dhenkanal /Angul Municipality for allotment of suitable land for establishment of Faecal Sludge Treatment Plant (FSTP).

A: Identification of Suitable land:
1. Based on the above request letter, the Dhenkanal /Angul Municipality examined their own land records to find out if any suitable lands (3 acres) are available within their own jurisdiction for the purpose conforming to the norms of the State Pollution Control Board.
2. Due to unavailability of own land, Dhenkanal/Angul Municipality submitted request letter to the Tahasildar of the Revenue Department for identification and allotment of 3 acre of land for FSTP within the municipal area or close periphery area.
3. On receipt of the request letter from the Municipality, the Tahasildar asked the concerned Revenue Inspector for identification of suitable land conforming to the Pollution Control Board norms.
4. After identification of such land, the Revenue Inspector (RI) submitted the Field Visit report along with land Plan and land schedule to the Tahasildar.
5. On receipt of the report from the Revenue Inspector, the Tahasildar asked the Executive Officer of the concerned Municipality to submit Form I –A along with the land schedule and land plan to him for alienation of such identified land in favour of the Municipality.
6. On receipt of the Form 1-A, the Tahasildar asked the Revenue Inspector to enquire about the status of the land (land kisam, encroachment, access road to the plot etc.).
7. The Revenue Inspector submitted the enquiry report on the status of the identified site to the Tahasildar.

B: Selection of suitable land:
1. The Tahasildar submitted the land file enclosing the Form 1 –A submitted by the concerned Municipality along with the enquiry report of Revenue Inspector, Land Plan and Land Schedule to the Sub-Collector with request to convene the Site Selection Committee to consider the land for FSTP.
2. The Sub-Collector fixed the date for the selection committee meeting and accordingly issued the letters to the concerned members for the said meeting.
3. The Selection Committee met under the chairmanship of the Sub-Collector to discuss, select and recommend to the District Collector for approval.
4. The selection process of the land got completed with approval received from the District Collector.

C: Alienation of the Land in favour of the Municipality
1. On receipt of the approval from the District Collector, the land file came back to the Tahasildar with a direction for initiation of the alienation process for the said land.
2. The Tahasil Office prepared a case record of the said land for alienation and issued General Notice (GN) for a period of one month to the public inviting complaint against the land selected for the purpose.
3. After the one month notice period got over, the Tahasildar examined the nature of the complaints in conformity with the rule of land alienation Act of the State and accordingly fixed the date for public hearing to settle the matter.
4. Once the public hearing was over, the case file along with the note on the issues discussed during the public hearing sent through the Sub-Collector to the District Collector for approval.
5. As per the Government Rule, the District Collector is empowered to approve the alienation of land up to 5 acres.
6. In case of more than five acres of area, the District Collector sends the case file through the Revenue Divisional Commissioner (RDC) to the State Government for approval.
7. On receipt of the approvals from the above as required, the land was alienated in favour of the Municipality and accordingly the Tahasildar issued the land Patta (RoR) to the concerned Municipality.

D: Demarcation of alienated Land
1. With the request from the Municipality, the Tahsil Office fixed the date and accordingly demarcated the physical area of the land as per the RoR in the presence of the Municipality officials and handed over the physical possession of the land to them.

The following major challenges faced during the allotment of land to the project:
• Identification and selection of suitable land is a long-drawn process due to the existing Government norms and procedures.
• Selection of a site in compliance with the State Pollution Control Board guideline is another challenge for the district and city administration to identify a suitable land for the purpose.
• The protest by the local people against the Government decision with the apprehension that the facility would create pollution and adversely affect their health adds to the problem.
• Court case by the local against the establishment of FSTP.

Hello Sir,
Thank you for the detailed description on the projects. Can you please provide further updates on this, especially on the administrative procedures followed and documentation required for land acquisition to construct treatment plants in both the cities, and the challenges you might have faced in the process?

Here is an update about our project:

1. Project Governance System:

Project Steering Committee as an apex body of the project has been constituted under the chairmanship of the Commissioner-cum-Secretary to Government, Housing and Urban Development Department, Government of Odisha, to advise, oversee, monitor, review and guide the sanitation programme to be undertaken in the ULBs of Angul and Dhenkanal under “Project Nirmal”. It comprises of senior most officials of the Housing and Urban Development Department, Water Resources Department, State Pollution Control Board, Odisha Water Supply and Sewerage Board (OWSSB), District Collectors of concerned district, Public Health Engineering Organisation (PHEO), Planning authority of the respective towns, and senior officials of pilot Urban Local Bodies and the representatives of BMGF, Arghyam, Practical Action and Centre for Policy Research.

A District Coordination Committee has been constituted under the chairmanship of the Collector and District Magistrate of the Angul and Dhenkanal district respectively to guide, monitor and assist the sanitation programme to be undertaken both in Angul and Dhenkanal Municipalities under Project Nirmal. Accordingly, DCC has been constituted and notified by the respective district administration for the respective municipalities.

To comply the National Urban Sanitation Policy, 2008, City Sanitation Task Force (CSTF) has been constituted both in Angul and Dhenkanal Municipalities to coordinate, implement and monitor the City Sanitation Plan and related activities under the Project Nirmal. Meanwhile, the first meeting of the City Sanitation Task Force in both the municipalities have already been conducted to initiate the process for preparation of city sanitation plan.

In order to demonstrate a participatory and inclusive planning process through involvement of communities, community structures have been set up both at the Ward and Slum levels in the form of Slum Sanitation Committee and Ward Sanitation committee in both the municipalities. The Slum and Ward level committees are being conducted to assess the needs and requirements pertaining to sanitation services and accordingly develop sanitation plan at the respective level so as to contribute to the overall city planning process.

2. MoU with the State Government has been signed to formalize efforts of the Parties to ensure city wide sanitation by demonstrating appropriate and sustainable sanitation service delivery systems in Angul and Dhenkanal towns of Odisha.

3. ULB Resolutions from Municipal Councils of both the towns has been issued to ensure support for pilot, provision of land necessary for the project and vision of success for the project.

4. City level inception and orientation workshop has been organised in both the Urban Local bodies with participation of all the city level stakeholders
5. Project Management Units (PMUs have been established both at the state and city levels for effective sanitation service delivery.
6. Baseline study in both the towns have been completed.
7. Draft Behaviour Communication Change (BCC) and Information, Education and Communication (IEC) has been prepared.
8. Market mapping of city level faecal Sludge value chain has been initiated, in both the towns.
9. Community level meetings and consultations, sanitation week and observation of various events ( World Toilet Day, Global Hand Washing Day etc.) have been organised to create awareness among the various stakeholders on the importance of sanitation and adaptation of good sanitation behavioural practices.

Regards,

Hrudananda

Hi,
We are in rural sanitation in Odisha & are working in NGO network in business model.
Very interesting to know that you are implementing the same in urban slums to make ODF to each slum.

Few days back, BMC has called our NGO network to work in some selected slums for piloting ODF in those slums. It has been decided to implement this on CLTS.

Great that you have started this .

Premananda Biswal.
Consultant, Svadha

In the meanwhile many developments at the ULB (urban local body) level have taken place. The support base is increasing with IEC work at the ground. I would like to request Practical Action-Bhubaneswar team to update the project status.

Best,
P.K.Mohapatra

My turn today to introduce to you a grant that I am project managing in India for Practical Action, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation:

Title of grant: Orissa State level Urban Sanitation
Subtitle: Project Nirmal (Nirmal stands for “clean”): Piloting Appropriate and Sustainable Sanitation Service Delivery in Two cities of Odisha, India

Odisha – a state in India - is the new name of Orissa, we have however the earlier name as our project title, in all other documents it is Odisha

Name of lead organization: Practical Action, Bhubaneswar (India); and Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi; The project is being jointly implemented by two organizations. Practical Action leads the city level demonstration whereas Centre for Policy Research leads the research and advocacy components of the project.

Primary contact at lead organization: Dr. Birupakshya Dixit, Programme Coordinator, Practical Action in Bhubaneswar, the capital city of State of Odisha - and myself, Hrudananda Mohanty, I am the Project Manager in Practical Action, Bhubaneswar, India and my precise role is to manage the Urban WASH project.

• Grantee location: Odisha, India
• Developing country where the research is being tested: India
• Start and end date: January 2015 – December 2017
• Grant type: Other
• Grant size in USD: $1,696,172 (as per BMGF grant database here )

Short description of the project:

The project focuses on city-wide sanitation through demonstration of appropriate and sustainable sanitation service delivery in two cities of Odisha (the two cities are yet to be selected – will be suggested by Housing and Urban Development Department, Government of Odisha ). The main aim of the initiative will be to inform support frameworks at the state and national levels to enable replicability.

The project will be implemented in consultation and partnership with State Government and city authorities of Dhenkanal and Anugul Municipalities and the Project Management Structure that envisages a Project Steering Committee (PSC) to be chaired by the Secretary, Housing and Urban Development Department, Govt. of Odisha and the state and city level Project Management Units. The PSC will meet half-yearly and review project progress as well as provide inputs to and endorse project survey reports, DPRs etc. Project Management Units (PMUs) will be established at the state and city levels and will provide supports in terms of planning, technical, financial, policy, advocacy and capacity building.

The pilot demonstration will address the entire sanitation chain viz: public/ institutional toilets, toilet emptying & disposal, sludge treatment/reuse. Services of external experts will be taken where required for demonstration of appropriate technologies.

This project will be implemented in two small towns, i.e., Dhenkanal and Angul Municipalities in the State of Odisha. Both the cities together having 24,686 Households and 1, 11, 209 population. The project will cover the entire city in terms of generating database ( Baseline, GIS mapping), preparing City Sanitation Plan, Developing IEC and BCC Strategy, Developing Detailed Project Report, Market mapping of sanitation value chain and developing road map for involvement of Private Operator. The pilot demonstration will focus on safely and sustainably emptying toilets, disposing, treating and reusing sludge and related waste water.

Goal(s):

Demonstration of sustainable sanitation service delivery for small towns leading to increased coverage of households and institutions through enabling institutional and financial arrangements and increased private sector participation.

Objectives:

• To demonstrate State Government and Urban Local Bodies’ (ULBs) commitment towards sanitation service delivery in small cities
• To ensure long term sustained capacity development of state and cities for effective sanitation service delivery.
• To increase the number of households access to better sanitation services in pilot cities.

Research or implementation partners: Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi - the implementing partner of the project. It leads the research and advocacy components of the project. See also related grant here: forum.susana.org/forum/categories/194-ci...olicy-research-india

Links, further readings – results to date:
Presentation at MGF-DfiD City Partners Meeting & FSM Toolbox Planning Workshop, Hanoi, Vietnam, January 2015:

www.susana.org/images/documents/07-cap-d...BMGF-DFID/Odisha.pdf

Current state of affairs:

• State level launch workshop took place on 27 February 2015
• PSC Notification issued by Government of Odisha - Project Steering Committee (PSC) constituted at the State level under the chairmanship of the Commissioner-cum-Secretary, Housing and Urban Development Department, Government of Odisha to advise, oversee, monitor, review and guide the sanitation programme to be undertaken by the project in the selected Urban Local Bodies.
• Draft Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to be signed with State Government has been developed
• Request letter from the concerned municipalities has been received for project implementation.
• City Level Inception cum Orientation Workshop in both Dhenkanal and Anugul towns has been organized.
• City level PMU (Project Management Unit) has been established and made fully operational.
• Draft ToR (Terms of reference) for base line study has been developed

Biggest successes so far:

• PSC Notification issued by the Housing and Urban Development Department, Government of Odisha
• Request letter from the concerned Municipalities has been received for project implementation.
• City level PMUs have been established and made fully operational.

Main challenges / frustration:

1. Mobilization of officials both at state, district and city level:
Since the sanitation sector was not a priority area and the understanding on fecal sludge management is very minimal, it became difficult to mobilize the officials at the initial stage of the project intervention.

2. Political dynamics at city level:
At the city level, the Urban Local Bodies are ruled by different political parties. The required support from both the ruling and opposition parties is essential for smooth implementation of the project. But due to the political arithmetic, sometimes it becomes difficult to get the consensus/favour from both the parties pertaining to the project intervention.

3. Availability of required information and data at city level:
The city level administration lacks database on issues of sanitation in general and fecal sludge management in particular.



Regards,

Hrudananda