Hi Everybody
The report on pro-poor FSM in Bangladesh is quite lengthy. However, I fail to underline the pro-poor market based solution for FSM. It mentions co-composting. But Composting process its quality and economics is not mentioned making it difficult to level it pro-poor market based solution.

Pawan

Hello guys, this Qurratul from SNV, Bangladesh. I am here to refer you guys regarding the updated project database entry.* Click here : (www.susana.org/en/knowledge-hub/projects/database/details/122).

These are the highlights of our biggest success so far

• An important part of the work of the program team and partners has been the raising of awareness and gaining of official support from national and local authorities. Providing field-based evidence has been integral. The program has been highly successful in this endeavor. The evidence generated by the program was instrumental in developing the institutional and regulatory framework (IRF) for FSM at national level. The Government of Bangladesh has now decided to pilot the IRF for FSM across the country, including in the cities of the program.

• The program also worked on setting up an integrated GIS based sanitation information management system to provide a solid base for Local Government Institutions (LGIs) for better planning and decision making on urban services, including FSM. The database brought together information from the three different authorities in the Khulna area: the city cooperation, the utility, and the development authority. These are entities not usually inclined to work together, but whose smooth collaboration is essential for sustainable service delivery in the city.

• While working with the emptier community in Bangladesh, we worked with both manual and mechanical emptiers. The former is a large group, with little social mobility. The program built an emptier data base, which was endorsed by the LGIs, recognizing the importance of formalizing this area of work, developing their skills and gradually moving towards a decent and safe job. The program also developed and trained emptiers on occupational safety and health, with technical support from the local universities. In this way, the program successfully brought key stakeholders together to discuss a profession previously considered semi-illegal.

• A behavioral change and communication (BCC) strategy was developed for each of the cities, based on formative research. The BCC work was linked to existing communication and outreach, influencing their practice. Eleven different business models were developed and numerous tests were conducted for different parts of the city. The hypotheses tested were around efficiency of the service provision, as well as willingness of households to pay (WTP) for scheduled emptying services (or “not-emergency emptying”). Demand for emptying is steadily increasing, but is still yet to reach the minimum quantity required for efficient treatment plant operation and/or for ensuring a clean living environment. Of the eleven models developed, two have been identified as most relevant and are being piloted in more depth: these involve Federation of Community Development Committees (CDC) rather than individual CDCs and services directly provided by Municipalities.

• The existing treatment facility in Jhenaidah was non-functional, and the one in Kushtia was underperforming. Limited load was presumed to be the root cause, but as the program discovered after some time, there were also serious flaws in design. Knowledge regarding sludge treatment plants in Bangladesh is very superficial, often based on just a few trainings, with no on-the-job coaching or feedback provision. The program worked with local and international service providers to revive both treatment plants. In Khulna, an innovative structure using earth and HDPE sheets was designed and constructed on an old dumping site. The intervention has transformed the sites in both Jhenaidah and Kushtia from nuisances to attractive, functional landscapes. This is contributing to changing the perception of Bangladeshi about waste management. This is important because in the Bangladeshi context, due to population density, treatment will always be close to settlement areas.

• The program has also been working on new management models. In Kushtia, operation and management of FSTP was recently outsourced to a private sector and the program is currently discussing support needed for their business planning. This is seen as a key activity in demonstrating the benefits of outsourcing of treatment plant operations to other cities in Bangladesh.

• Re-use (mainly co-composting) at scale in Bangladesh is only legally possible with the approval of the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC), and must be based on trials conducted by an in-country research institution over a stipulated time. For this reason, the program engaged with Bangladesh Agricultural Research institution (BARI), and trials have been ongoing for the past 3 years. To date, positive results have been found and in principle BARI is favorable to follow-up research which would eventually formally allow safe re-use of FSM in agriculture to be mainstreamed in the sector’s outreach/extension units. Similar research was conducted on re-use in fisheries but for one season.

• The potential capacity of the sludge treatment plants currently installed, e.g. in Kushtia, does require someone to purchase co-compost in bulk. Ideally there would be strong links to the private sector which could provide both additional income to the plant and alleviate operators from the inefficiency of small-scale sales. This is a highly specialized field, but currently city authorities of Jhenaidah and Khulna are reluctant to lease the activity to a third party, and are still hoping to do this in-house. The program continues to engage with them in raising awareness regarding both the scope of the work, and the available network of the private sector in the country. Ways to link production to the commercialization of the product are continuing.

• Detailed sanitation planning along with action plans for piloting of different sanitation facilities in vulnerable areas such as slums and public toilets have been conducted. Whilst many of the identified issues are being addressed, the quality of containment remains a sizeable challenge. A study has been conducted for upgradation of containment and at the moment the program is developing an inspection modality for compliance with national building standards regarding septic tanks. Inspection of sanitation has been virtually absent in the practice of authorities so far.

(Find attachment to read more )

* Note by moderator: The project took place from 2013 to 2017 under the title of "Demonstration of pro-poor market-based solutions for fecal sludge management in urban centers of Southern Bangladesh". A new phase of this project is funded for 2017 to 2020 with the title "City Wide Inclusive Sanitation Engagement in Khulna – Continuation of Support in Two Towns and Diffusion of Best Practices in National Flagship Programs". The new project is described in the project database here: www.susana.org/en/knowledge-hub/projects/database/details/569

In Khulna City Corporation, there will be a complete new treatment plant and In Kushtia and Jhenaidah, the existing treatment plant will be upgraded. KUET and AIT are working on these in full swing.
Beside these, we are working on business model.
Certainly, it will take time to show something as it is almost new issue for Bangladesh. Citizens and the city authorities are also not in serious position as it is not visualized such as solid waste or like flood or drought.
Positive thing is, they have just started to realize the issue.

Dear Kim,

The attached presentation might answer some of your questions about progress with this project. It was presented by Rajeev Munankami from SNV at the BMGF-DFID City Partners Workshop on 18 January 2015 in Hanoi.




I pick out two slides from this presentation:

They have worked on a "shit flow diagram" for Khulna already (it might only be a preliminary one so far, I am not sure):




Here is some information about technologies although it doesn't say which technology for faecal sludge treatment will be used. I also wonder what kind of bags they have in mind (see 4th bullet point)?



Regards,
Elisabeth

Dear Kim,
Thanks for your interest.
Our local technical partner Khulna University of Engineering and Technology with collaboration of Asian Institute of Technology is reviewing the technology. Hopefully by June we will get the technology.

Regards,
Sahidul

Dear Sahidul,
I hope the first year of your FSM project in Bangladesh has been successful. It would be very interesting to get an updated on the status of your project, what are your results/emerging findings so far.

Pawan Jha asked before about the technologies for FS management you are applying, considering that you are aiming for improved treatment, disposal and reuse of sludge. Is it possible to say something more about this by now?

I’m interesting to know how you are implementing your project. Are you using small pilots in limited areas of the city? Are you testing different modes of implementation (public, public/private, private)? Are there any informal FSM in place that you decided to strengthen to make it more sustainable? Any insights you can share are most welcome.

All the best,
Kim

We have just started our project and baseline survey is ongoing.
Thanks,

Dear Sahidul

The project on FSM in Southern Bangladesh is important not only for this country,it may help provide useful information to professionals and local governments in other developing countries to overcome the problem of FSM in a sustainable way. The objectives of the project includes Improved treatment,disposal and reuse of sludge. I am interested to know the sustainable treatment technology of FSM being used under the project for its safe reuse or disposal. Kindly provide detail information.
regards
Pawan

This new project in Bangladesh intrigued me, so I did some more queries in the background, and here is what I found out with the help of Sahidul and Roshan Shrestha:

Title of grant:
Demonstration of pro-poor market-based solutions for fecal sludge management in urban centers of Southern Bangladesh

• Name of lead organization: SNV Netherlands Development Organization (grantee is SNV USA)
• Primary contact at lead organization: Mr. Neil Ghosh; Engr. Md. Sahidul Islam (who posted above) is working as a City Coordinator. At present, his main role is to coordinate with the adivisors including project leader of their project and the partners and stakeholders.
• Grantee location: Khulna City Corporation, Bangladesh

Short description of the project:
This project will develop, test and demonstrate city-wide sanitation service delivery models for the two main types of urban centers in Bangladesh (city corporations and pourashavas, thereby directly improving environmental health and well-being of the population, as well as demonstrating to sector stakeholders:

• how integrating FSM business models contributes to achieving city wide service delivery faster
• which roles the private sector can play in FSM and how they can be supported,
• the effectiveness and efficiency of new technology options (resulting from other BMGF work),
• how to ensure that these sanitation solutions are inclusive, benefitting poor households and workers, and not only wealthier neighborhoods

Goal(s):
The project will be a success if city-wide, pro-poor, accountable, safe and sustainable fecal sludge management services are demonstrated for the urban context in Bangladesh, showing improvement in the living environment and contributing to the health and well-being of the urban population.

Objectives:
1. Consumer behavior change and demand creation for services
2. Development of market-based solutions for improved sanitation and sludge emptying services
3. Strengthening of sanitation governance and enabling environment for services
4. Improved treatment, disposal and re-use of sludge
5. Sector learning around fecal sludge management and city-wide service delivery

• Start and end date: January 2014 to December 2017 (31 March 2014 the project was launched formally)
• Grant size: US$ 2,898,989 (see here in BMGF database: www.gatesfoundation.org/How-We-Work/Quic...s/2013/09/OPP1088405) and DFID is also contributing in this project, therefore size of this project is approx. US$ 5 million.

Research or implementation partners:
KCC (Khulna City Corporation), KWASA (Khulna Water and Sewerage Authority), KUET (Khulna University of Engineering and Technology), KU (Khulna University), WAB (WaterAid Bangladesh)

Links, further readings – results to date:
www.snvworld.org/en/regions/asia/news/mo...-southern-bangladesh

Current state of affairs; biggest successes so far; main challenges / frustration: Just started

Following were the reasons for selecting Khulna:

1. Suggested by Department of Public Health Engineering
2. Khulna was one of the city for FSM landscaping, that was carried out in 2011 (report available here: susana.org/lang-en/library?view=ccbktypeitem&type=2&id=1664)
3. Khulna city is fully based on non-sewer sanitation system
4. The city is comparatively small compared to large city like Dhaka
5. It is located in coastal belt, sludge management is critical.

Any questions about this project? Please don't hesitate to put them into this thread.

Regards,
Elisabeth

With funding support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the UK Department for International Development (DFID), SNV Bangladesh and Khulna City Corporation (KCC) proudly launched the “Demonstration of pro-poor market- based solutions for faecal sludge management in urban centres of Southern Bangladesh” project on March 31, 2014.

For details: www.snvworld.org/en/regions/asia/news/mo...-southern-bangladesh

Sahidul