Tuesday, September 17, 2013

24 September 2013: Urban Sanitation: Assessing Priorities and Options

Meera Mehta
CEPT University, Ahmedabad

Abstract:
Little is known about the outcome of significant government investments being made in urban water and sanitation sector in India. To address this, a Performance Assessment System (PAS) Project was initiated at CEPT University in 2009to develop a sustainable system for monitoring of performance outcomes of urban water and sanitation services. Development and implementation of a sustainable system for the past four years in 419 cities in Gujarat and Maharashtra has enabled state and local governments to track service level outcomes. This experience has shown that assessing urban sanitation requires different benchmarks than those suggested under Service Level Benchmarks (SLB) Initiative by MoUD. For example the reality of urban India is that while 80% of households have access to on-premise toilets, only 30% are connected to a sewerage system, which often lack functional treatment facility. A majority depends on on-s ite systems, but this is not included in the assessment.Thus, an outcome based framework rather than a technology based one is needed.

To address these issues, a framework for city wide sanitation assessment has been developed for the entire value chain of sanitation, including grey water, storm water as well as solid waste. To ensure sustainability, financing is also considered in assessing sanitation options. Using this framework, the PAS Project has supported development of plans for four cities in Maharashtra to assess a range of options and their implications on service levels and local finances for capital funding and operations. These plans demonstrate that desired service levels can be achieved with investments that are affordable by municipalities and suggest wider policy implications for financing of sanitation.

Date: September 24, 2013
Time: 03:45 P.M.

Venue:
Conference Hall
Centre for Policy Research,
Dharma Marg, Chanakyapuri,
New Delhi–110021(INDIA)

Note:
For further information, please contact: Marie-Hélène Zerah at marie-helene.zerah@ird.fr or Partha Mukhopadhyay at partha@cprindia.org

Location:

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