How Small Towns Could Outdo Cities in Handling Sewage
CSEI-ATREE co-hosted a webinar on improving sewage and faecal sludge management in India’s small towns.
Sneha Singh and Shreya Nath
India’s smaller towns (settlements with a population below a lakh) are rapidly urbanising, but this growth far outpaces the speed at which local governments can set up basic infrastructure such as sewage treatment, stormwater management and drinking water supply. There is no clearer evidence of poor urban planning than the recent floods grinding cities across India to a halt.
It is important to plan and take action early on, so that smaller towns do not follow the same development trajectories as metropolises like Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru. They need to be able to leapfrog to more sustainable and effective systems that account for future population growth and more extreme weather.
In terms of sewage treatment and faecal sludge management, what would this entail? These are vital components of healthy cities that can affect other sectors such as water availability and quality, as well as urban flooding.
It is estimated that 80% of sewage in 4,041 urban local bodies (ULBs) and 100% of sewage in panchayats is untreated. There are 816 sewage treatment plants (STPs) across the ULBs out of which only 522 are operational.
To understand best practices and possible strategies, CSEI organised a webinar in collaboration with Ecoparadigm, a company specialised in implementing sustainable and eco-friendly development projects, and the central government’s Technology Development Board (TDB) on Sewage, Septage and Faecal Management in Small Towns.
Experts in the field from across the country participated in this event held in July and emphasised on five key areas for effective management:
- Funding
- Appropriate selection of technology
- Proper operation and maintenance (O&M)
- Appropriate standards
- Behaviour change
Funds are available through different central schemes
The Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), 15th Finance Commission, the Jal Jeevan Mission, and the Swachh Bharat Mission — Gramin are some schemes that small towns can tap into for improving their water and sanitation infrastructure. VK Chaurasia, Senior Advisor, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs who attended the webinar said that the central government is ‘providing 65–70% funding required for small towns and villages to set up sewage and sanitation infrastructure’.
As most of these national schemes cover water and sewage management, it becomes easier to unlock funding. If central funds prove to be insufficient, the state governments, Public Private Partnerships and municipal bonds are meant to bridge the gap in financing sanitation infrastructure.
There is also a push in policy to ensure treatment of water and sewage in class 2 and 3 towns (class 2 towns have less than a lakh population and class 3 towns have a population between 20,000–50,000). For example, Kerala in 2017 had a state sanitation strategy to align with the National Urban Policy to address issues around the state’s urban agglomeration.
Choosing the right technology and O&M are important
Often selection of treatment systems is done poorly — there is a tendency to install a replica of a model adopted elsewhere, which may not really be the right fit. This leads to malfunctioning systems, financial losses and limited options for reuse.
‘There is a lack of awareness on the types of treatment systems. The faecal sludge management practice on ground is outdated’, said Pravinjith KP, Managing Director of Ecoparadigm at the webinar.
Improper sludge management can also lead to contamination of water and soil, said P Bineesha, TDB board member, who gave examples of incidents recorded over the years of the only source of water in a region getting contaminated with faecal coliforms, nitrates and other contaminants due to mismanagement of sludge, a byproduct of sewage treatment that is used as a soil supplement.
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It is therefore critical to ensure that a treatment system of appropriate technology is selected and designed considering all important parameters such as:
- Population
- Effluent characteristics
- Discharge standards
- Type of reuse
- Site selection done considering topography
- Budget for proper O&M
- Resources such as skilled labour and spare parts
- Social and legal factors.
Organisations such as the Kerala Institution of Local Administration (KILA) equip local urban and rural governments by educating practitioners about the different technologies available and detailing case studies that might offer solutions applicable to their context. The Director General of KILA, Joy Elamon, also participated in the event.
Need better wastewater treatment standards for different reuse options
Current wastewater treatment standards in India should adhere to schedule 6 of the Environment Protection Act. However, most STPs are currently unable to comply with treating wastewater to the bare minimum standard, ruling it out for more widespread reuse. Out of all the installed STPs, only 23% are able to meet parameters of treatment.
Priyanka Jamwal, a senior researcher at ATREE, said during the webinar that discharge standards specifically for greywater are yet to be defined.
‘Several pilot projects have shown that nature-based solutions are effective in further improving the quality of treated water’.
Moreover, often very expensive technologies are selected to achieve a very high quality output of treated water, which is a financial burden for the ULB to install and maintain. To avoid this, local bodies have to be made aware about treatment standards and viable reuse options. The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) report encourages reuse of treated wastewater for non-potable purposes such as horticulture, irrigation, fire fighting, industrial cooling, toilet flushing, washing of roads, buses and trains. Industrial clusters and zones are also mandated to reuse treated wastewater to bring down the pressure on freshwater sources.
Paramita Dutta Dey, Head (Resources & Waste) at the National Institute for Urban Affairs pointed out that emphasis on reuse of treated wastewater and sewage has not percolated into policy and planning across many states in India.
Behavioural change, community involvement can ensure projects succeed
ULBs also need to factor in awareness building and ensure that they work closely with communities to identify problems with sewage and waste management and solve them effectively. Several pilot studies have shown that engaging the community right from the inception of a project and enabling their participation goes a long way in sustaining the project and its benefits.
‘The way forward for solving the waste problem is behaviourally informed and community-owned change along with the right dose of technology,’ said Ajith Kaliyat, Urban Chair at KILA.
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To sum up, most speakers suggested streamlining funding, identifying and selecting affordable innovation, conducting capacity building to ensure proper O&M and prioritising behavioural change as important measures for ULBs in small towns to consider as they chart their future growth.
Speakers also emphasised on the need to plan ahead, factoring in population growth, to either prepare for smooth upgradation of existing small plants or earmark zones for construction of new ones to meet the rising demand.
For more information on this webinar, you can follow this link for a full recording of this session.
