Planning Tools for City-wide Faecal Septage Management using Whole System Approaches (Thursday 22 January, 14.00 – 17.30)

Organisations involved: GIZ, IRC, Eawag / Sandec

Lead organizer: Dirk Walther (GIZ, New Delhi, India, information & contact)

Names of Workshop co-facilitators: Ingeborg Krukkert (IRC), Christoph Lüthi (Eawag), Rahul Sharma (GIZ), Nagasreenivas Kanchi (GIZ), Trevor Surridge (GIZ), Arne Panesar (GIZ), Giacomo Galli (IRC)

Description

Context

Getting FSM right is not simple. To date, there are still sanitation programmes that do not take faecal sludge management into account, and even if they do, it is often not easy to make faecal sludge management work beyond pilot-scale. No single organisation working on faecal sludge management (FSM) can succeed changing a failing system by itself. The whole system of individuals, organisations, technologies and the institutions (political, financial and regulatory) that links them needs to work and work more effectively. Taking such a ‘whole system approach’ into consideration is thus necessary for adequate faecal sludge management. However, despite knowing what needs to be in place, it remains challenging to integrate all these aspects into a single intervention, beyond technical solutions.

Rationale / Purpose

Given the critical role of septage management in supporting rapidly urbanizing cities in developing nations as a solution, the FSM3 conference provided an ideal opportunity to understand and reflect on whole system approaches. This included generating knowledge for the development of FSM planning tools and instruments and testing practical and implementable tools to advise cities in upgrading sanitation.

Specific learning objectives

1. Share the faecal sludge management whole system approach and provide practical means to use it in city-wide professional practice
2. Find out which factors are required for sustainability (and which are not being addressed); synergize the whole system approach and tools in FSM
3. Reflection/feedback on applicability of whole system approach and provided tools

Presentations

*Procedure
presentation

*Definitions & Terminology
presentation

*Introduction: Dirk Walther, GIZ, India, Ingeborg Krukkert, IRC, Netherlands, Christoph Lüthi, EAWAG, Switzerland
presentation

*Handouts for Participants
presentation

*City Wide Septage Management Planning Tool “Introduction & Session Details”: Rahul M. Sharma, GIZ, India, Christoph Lüthi, EAWAG, Switzerland, Jitendra M Yadav, Nagasreenivas Kanchi, GIZ
presentation

Participatory Process and Participant Engagement Methods

Two participatory formats were used as part of the workshop.

Format 1: A rating exercise cum role play to map key issues for sludge management from different stakeholder perspectives. This exercise will help participants reflect on what a ‘whole system approach’ on FSM entails, and what the benefits are of adopting such an approach.

Format 2: A modelling exercise to learn and understand elements of city-wide septage management planning. This exercise will allow participants to dive into the details of FSM planning in a typical city using various elements from a whole system approach. The methodology for the exercise focuses on practice-oriented and interactive learning. It has the background of the Harvard Case Method, which conveys teaching messages mainly through interactive practical work done by the participants.

The goal of the two exercises was to make the participants familiar with the various dimensions of a whole system approach to FSM, as well as providing experience on how to put this approach into practice when planning for city-wide septage management. The joint reflection summarized the exercise results in using planning tools for sustainable city wide approaches.

*Output (click on image to enlarge)

For more pictures taken at the Workshop click here.