Sustainable sanitation: Co-treatment emerges as a key solution in Uttarakhand

India in the past few years has adopted a holistic and multi-stakeholder approach to solve for its sanitation needs, despite the challenge of rising urbanization. The launch of the National Faecal Sludge and Septage Management Policy in 2017 was a milestone step that led the discourse beyond ensuring access to toilets, towards proper containment, disposal and treatment of faecal sludge. With a population of 1.5 billion, India generates almost 120,000 tonnes of faecal sludge. Only 32.7% urban toilets in India are connected to piped sewer networks where faecal sludge flows through treatment plants, and 45% are connected to on-site containment systems (OSS). The remaining untreated faecal sludge when discharged in water bodies or open fields has severe consequences on the health of communities, causes environmental damage and disproportionately impacts the economic growth of the country. India has 15,730 Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) operating across cities for septage treatment. However, in case of underutilization of STPs or conditions that pose a challenge to establish sewered network, there is immense scope to implement co-treatment of septage and faecal sludge. Co-treatment has emerged as a cost-effective solution where Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs), beyond treating the domestic sewage transported through sewers, also treat Faecal Sludge and Septage (FSS) emptied from OSS. This allows optimum utilization of existing site infrastructure and facilities of the STP and has the potential to eliminate the challenge of additional costs related to site infrastructure. Adopting this inclusive approach of utilizing the STPs for co-treatment also helps in achieving City-wide Inclusive Sanitation (CWIS), increases the scope of FSS treatment with current sewage treatment, benefits both stakeholders and communities, and ensures safe sanitation for all. Uttarakhand’s example Uttarakhand is one state that has shown immense progress in the implementation of co-treatment across existing and upcoming Septage Treatment Plants (STPs) to mainstream safely managed sanitation. Uttarakhand is a hilly state with 103 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) and approximately 80% is dependent on Onsite Sanitation (OSS) systems. The population dependent on OSS systems generates approximately 957 KLD of septage (based on per capita daily estimates) and only 30% is being safely managed by discharging it in the 66 operational STPs of the state. Over the past two years, Uttarakhand has shown significant progress towards managing safe disposal through diverse interventions such as capacity building of over 350 officials from more than 85 ULBs on wastewater and septage management, developing advisory documents and technical documents at the state level and providing hand-holding support to potential cities. These efforts have both ensured dignified sanitation services for communities, and streamlined the process of safe disposal and treatment. Strengthening its commitment towards formulating, regularizing and streamlining septage management across the value chain, the state notified the “Protocol for Septage Management” in 2017. The protocol directs the formation of a Monitoring Committee, Septage Management Cell (SMC) and state-level Septage Management Cell for the effective planning, implementation and monitoring of Septage Management. It further focuses on identifying and registering septic tanks, ensuring timely emptying and treatment of septage, licensing private operators involved in desludging, procuring appropriate mechanized equipment for emptying of septic tanks and securing the health and well-being of sanitation workers involved in the process. The effective execution of these initiatives has led to increased accountability amongst stakeholders, empowered sanitation workers and upheld their right to decent work and provided communities with safer sanitation systems. Collaborative efforts like these have encouraged local leaders, STP operators, engineers and sector practitioners to further implement the state’s Advisory for Co-Treatment in accordance with the Protocol for Septage Management. The advisory has emerged as a benchmark step to further mainstream the co-treatment process and move rigorously towards sustainable sanitation. It highlights the need for planning and implementation of co-treatment without adversely impacting the treatment efficiency of the STPs, focuses on occupational safety of sanitation workers and elaborates on the roles and responsibilities of ULBs and state officials. It also focuses on understanding and upgrading STPs based on infrastructural requirements and monitoring the performance of the co-treatment process to ensure smoother service delivery. Co-treatment initiatives have ensured equitable access to improved sanitation services to low-income settlements, commercial establishments and areas where sewer connections are not feasible and has restricted the discharge of hazardous faecal sludge in water bodies and open fields. Moving forward, the state aims to further scale up co-treatment across ULBs and achieve CWIS through its multi-dimensional approach. Its implementation has shown great results for both communities and sanitation workers, and has emerged as a cost-effective solution that can be replicated in other cities. With India’s rapid urbanization and its diverse topographies, it is crucial to adopt these solutions and action upon it collaboratively to achieve sustainable and safe sanitation. The author is the Program Officer, National Institute of Urban Affairs and Shantanu Kumar Padhi, Senior program officer, National Institute of Urban Affairs Read all the Latest News , Trending News ,  Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.