India’s urban areas produce 120,000 tonnes of faecal sludge on a daily basis, but an estimated two-thirds of the country’s households with toilets aren’t connected to the sewer system. As such, according to the Centre for Science and Environment, 60% of this human waste is dumped in open water and on open land - contaminating drinking water and harming other food sources.1
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A market exists to distribute and allocate resources in an efficient manner, but socializing and commercializing the need for sanitation services is no easy feat. Creating a market for sanitation requires deeper reflection on the individual capabilities and weaknesses of the public and private sectors, while also acknowledging the fundamental necessity for partnership between the two.
Yet, the reality is that market failures exist. There are cities that lack coordinated urban planning and remain disconnected from efficient sewage systems. The implementation2 of policies for disposal and waste is often incoherent and leads to contamination of the natural environment. There are also cities where administrators cannot track how much waste is being collected and transported by the septic tank operator because of poor data transparency.
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- 1. Much of the sanitation conversation has focused on practices like open defecation or the absence of functioning toilets, but we need to recognize the complicated and necessary value chain that drives the sanitation system. Specifically, we need to move from a discussion that is purely focused on the generation of faecal sludge to one that acknowledges how containment, disposal and end-use are equally, if not more, necessary.
- 2. In Patna, Bihar, Population Services International (PSI) has run a pilot of this kind. Funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Grand Challenges Canada, the pilot seeks to transform the municipal sewage treatment environment. To date, close to 80,000 residents in Patna have benefitted from this pilot with 25% less faecal sludge contaminating open areas and 5 million litres of faecal sludge disposed of at a treatment plant. To take this pilot to the next level, PSI is partnering with the Forum of Young Global Leaders over the next two years to scale the initiative across 10 Tier-2 cities in India.