Do you want learn how to apply concepts of sustainable faecal sludge management (FSM) on a city-wide scale? This course starts with an overview of what faecal sludge is and an introduces you to the engineering fundamentals and required information for the design and selection of technologies. Sanitation solutions are prone to failure if an integrated planning approach that includes stakeholder involvement and the development of appropriate institutional, management and financial arrangements is not implemented. The course therefore dedicates a complete week to presenting the full picture, in addition to technology, that needs to be considered for sustainable solutions. It concludes with a focus on current research and innovations in technologies, to provide an understanding of the most up-to-date options. This course is one of four in the series “Sanitation, Water and Solid Waste for Development".
4.4 Institutional Frameworks
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來自 École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne 的課程
Introduction to Faecal Sludge Management
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從本節課中
Integrated approach to faecal sludge management
Sanitation solutions do not rely on technology alone, and are prone to failure if an integrated planning approach that includes stakeholder involvement and the development of appropriate institutional, management and financial arrangements is not implemented. Presented in week 4 is the full picture, in addition to technology, that needs to be considered for sustainable solutions.
與講師見面
Dr. Linda StrandeGroup leader
Management of Excreta, Wastewater and Sludge (MEWS), Eawag-Sandec
Can you imagine trying to get from one side of your city to another,
if all of a sudden traffic did not follow any rules at all?
Depending on where you live, certainly sometimes
it feels like this, but the reality could be much worse.
What if there was no consequence for parking cars in the middle
of the street, or trucks driving on the wrong side of the road?
What if anyone could drive, even 5-year-old children?
Certainly with no clear laws, responsibilities or enforcement
the system would be much more dangerous
and would not provide as much protection of public health.
Following this module, you will have an overview
of the importance of legal frameworks
for regulating and enforcing roles and responsibilities.
Be able to explain difficulties in implementation
with overlapping or gaps in responsibilities,
and understand advantages and drawbacks
to different institutional arrangements.
As presented in other modules, there are untold examples
of ways that faecal sludge management service chain is not working.
From the household level, when people cannot afford
to have faecal sludge removed, manual and mechanical emptiers
who dump faecal sludge throughout the urban environment
because they cannot afford transport, lack of treatment plants,
or failed treatment plants, and unsafe end use or disposal.
Like the traffic analogy, this is because
faecal sludge management and on-site sanitation are frequently
not recognized in law with no one mandated to deal with it.
So people are just doing the best they can by themselves,
frequently with awful results.
Even when there are adequate laws protecting public
and environmental health, they're frequently not enforced
and many projects only consider one aspect of the service chain.
Subsidizing septic tanks or building a treatment plant
but without considering the organizational or financial
aspects to coordinate the entire service chain.
To get where we want to be with a fully functioning service chain
the system needs to be overseen and monitored
by an entity with a clear mandate.
This is why it's so important to have legal recognition
with a specific framework that includes faecal sludge management.
Laws are required for defining responsibilities
of each stakeholder, regulation, enforcement, managing treatment plants.
Basically, adequate functioning of the entire service chain.
Another frequently encountered problem with incomplete,
institutional and regulatory frameworks,
is overlapping responsibilities or gaps in responsibilities
throughout the service chain, resulting in a lack
of ownership or incentive to fulfill roles.
If jobs and roles are not clearly defined, how can people fulfill them?
How can they be monitored for effectiveness?
Or if two people are responsible for a job, maybe neither one does it
or one rejects the authority of another?
To illustrate, I'll give you a few examples.
Imagine in your city, you're designing a faecal sludge treatment plant.
You need to find out the requirements for the level
of treatment required for use in agriculture.
Where do you go? Ministry of Works?
Water? Sanitation? Ministry of Health?
Ministry of Agriculture? Environment authority?
You want to use treated faecal sludge as a soil conditioner.
You need to find out if this is allowed.
Where do you go? Ministry of Agriculture?
Ministry of Health?
You are interested in starting a faecal sludge management company.
You need to find out if you are legally allowed to start your own company.
Where do you go? Ministry of Trade and Industry?
Registrar of companies? Municipal Sanitation Department?
So you can see the current reality in many cities
is fractured, duplication and gaps in roles and responsibilities
and a lack of incentives on behalf of decision makers
to change the status quo.
This figure from the faecal sludge management book
represents a hypothetical example of the number
of different stakeholders that could be responsible
for aspects of the service chain.
As you have more stakeholders involved, it provides
for more operational flexibility to meet the needs at each step.
But also is increasingly complicated in terms of enforcement,
monitoring and coordination.
For example, different stakeholders for collection and transport
maybe results in more job creation, but complicates
the delivery of collected sludge to transport.
Or different stakeholders responsible for treatment
and resource recovery, maybe results in more effective marketing
and distribution, but then the treatment goals
and end use goals need to be carefully linked and monitored.
One entity responsible for everything could ease coordination
but requires highly developed managerial skills
and financial resources, and relies on regulation
and enforcement to protect public health.
This table, from the faecal sludge management book
summarizes stakeholders and possible responsibilities
in the organization of faecal sludge management.
There are advantages and disadvantages.
The optimal roles in different countries and cities,
will depend on the local stakeholders
and their intrinsic strengths and weaknesses.
For example, a private company might be able to provide
excellent design, build, and operation of treatment technologies.
But obviously, should not be responsible for setting the laws
regulations or enforcement regarding treatment standards.
The private interest of a company is to maximize profits
where sanitation and protection of public health are of public good.
Enforcement needs to have clearly recognized authority and be impartial.
Different arrangements also impact financial transfers
which is covered in its own module.
So what can you do?
What are steps to take in your city or country to tackle this issue?
First, you could get politicians interested
in a previously unrecognized sanitation approach.
Work on technical aspects to draft a content.
Develop legal frameworks. Obtain approval from politicians.
And enactment. This process is long
but necessary and worth the effort for sustainable solutions.
For example, based on the experience of my colleague
working for the World Bank in Maputo,
this was 1 year for step 1, 2 years for step 2,
6 months for step 3, and 18 months for step 4 and 5.
What are further steps you could take?
You could negotiate an agreement with the relevant authorities
to legally make an exception to a project.
This is called the moratorium.
The success of the project could help
eventually change the law or standards.
For example, the law on dumping fees was lifted
for small faecal sludge management operators,
developing services for low income areas in Maputo.
Critically review the law and regulations.
Laws are not usually black or white.
You can consult with key stakeholders to see if an idea
fits into the legal framework.
Other possibilities include thinking of ways to organize more efficiently.
For example, if collection and transport is by private companies
it's more efficient to organize if there's a strong association
for engagement, outreach, education, regulation, and enforcement.
Also important is to build trust with the emptiers
and consult them on project design and solutions.
For further guidance on action steps, a valuable reference
is the World Bank's faecal sludge management tools
which provide application, diagnostic, and decision support tools
for achieving city-wide sanitation
presented with case studies for how they relate to five different cities.
This is where SANDEC's technical expertise
on faecal sludge management is included.
Tool 4, Service Delivery Action Framework explains what it means
to conceptualize institutional interventions.
This table from the Service Delivery Action Framework
walks you through action steps for your city
based on where they are in the development of services.
It addresses the national and local levels, and citizens,
the users of sanitation infrastructure.
It highlights action steps based on current levels of basic
intermediate, or consolidating service provision.
It is useful to help you address the 'what next',
build on what currently works, and identify areas
to prioritize and focus actions.
I recommend downloading the tools.
For additional information, please refer to chapter 12
of the faecal sludge management book.
The case study of Lusaka, presented in this module of the SANDEC
Planning and Design of Sanitation Systems and Technologies MOOC
for an example of a bottom up approach to incrementally
improve service provision.
What types of things can you start to implement now in your city?
And this module, for the case study in Indonesia
as an example of a national program starting up and going to scale.
In conclusion, in this module you learned about
the importance of legal frameworks for regulating
and enforcing roles and responsibilities.
Difficulties with overlapping or gaps in responsibilities.
And advantages and drawbacks to different institutional arrangements.
Thanks for joining. See you next time.
