The business of the honey-suckers in Bengaluru (India)

A new IRC paper explores some contributions being made by honey-sucker tanker operators — that renders a small-scale sanitation service informally and within the private sector — on waste (faecal) extraction and, in some cases, reuse. Operating outside the legal framework of waste management, this paper provides preliminary insight into the limitations and potentials of the ‘honey-sucker business’ as a sanitation service model, based on selected experiences in Bengaluru (India).

Through semi-structured interviews and the application of Osterwalder and Pigneur’s (2010) business model building blocks tool, this paper reveals that:

1. a two-sided business model is being employed by the business (benefiting both septic tank/ pit owners and farmers);
2. positive outcomes of sludge reuse in farms seem to outweigh negative outcomes; and
3. the honey-sucker business seems to be a financially viable sanitation service model (especially amongst middle-class households with no piped connections).

As an exploratory study, the authors of the paper encourage further research into aspects that interlink with the honey-sucker business to achieve greater clarity on its positive contributions to society, and its prospects of scaling up and replication across different contexts.

Kvarnström, E. et. al., 2012. The business of the honey-suckers in Bengaluru (India): the potentials and limitations of commercial faecal sludge recycling – an explorative study. (Occasional Paper 48) [online] The Hague: IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre. 59 p. : 2 boxes, 2 fig., 5 tab. 39 ref. Available at: <
http://www.irc.nl/op48
>

Related materials

• A feature story entitled “Productive sanitation – the honey suckers of Bengaluru”, based on the case study, was published in the July 2012 issue of New Agriculturist at
• A presentation on the honey-suckers by Vishwanath Srikantaiah is available on Slideshare.
• IRC’s Joep Verhagen presented the honey-sucker case study during an IRC webinar organised on 2 May 2012. His original presentation is also available on Slideshare.

Arrangements and cost of providing support to rural water service providers

Smits, S. … [et al.] (2011). Arrangements and cost of providing support to rural water service providers. (WASHCost working paper ;  no. 5). The Hague, The Netherlands, IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre.  42 p. :  1 fig., 16 tab.  37 ref.
Download full paper

This joint WASHCost and Triple-S paper is about the costs of providing direct and indirect support to rural water service provision. It provides an overview of the features such support entails, how those features can be organised, what they cost and how they can be financed. It also provides recommendations to countries for strengthening support. The paper is based on a desk review of existing literature from seven countries and an analysis of primary cost data collected by the WASHCost project in Andhra Pradesh (India), Mozambique and Ghana in 2010 and 2011.

Assessing sanitation service levels – 2nd edition

Potter, A.; Klutse, A.; Snehalatha, M.; Batchelor, C.; Uandela, A.; Naafs, A.; Fonseca, C.; Moriarty, P. (2011). Assessing sanitation service levels. (WASHCost working paper; no. 3). 2nd ed. The Hague, The Netherlands, IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre. 27 p. : 16 fig. 12 ref.
Download full paper

Conventional sanitation ladders rank sanitation in increasing complexity of technological options. However, sanitation improvement is not as straightforward as the concept of “a ladder” with incremental improvements, might suggest. For example, from the user perspective, a VIP toilet may in some circumstances be a better option than a septic tank system. There is a wide gap between technologies and service provision, especially when O&M considerations are taken into account. This working paper from IRC’s WASHCost project sets out a common framework to analyse and compare sanitation cost data being collected across different country contexts (Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mozambique, India) with different service delivery norms and standards. It represents a fundamental shift away from the focus on capital investment costs, to the costs of sustainable sanitation services.

India – A decade of the Total Sanitation Campaign

 Water and Sanitation Programme (WSP) – South Asia (2011).  A decade of the total sanitation campaign : rapid assessment of processes and outcomes. New Delhi, India, Water and sanitation programme (WSP) – South Asia
Vol. 1 : main report. 80 p.; ill.; 10 boxes; 56 fig.; 7 tab.; photogr. 17 ref.
Vol. 2 : annexes. 83 p.; 37 annexes (= 37 tab.)

The Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) of the government of India has been in operation for over a decade (1999 to date), and the Nirmal Gram Puraskar, a fiscal incentive programme that rewards local governments (Green Panchayats) that achieve total sanitation, has completed five years (2005 to date). The country has made significant progress in terms of coverage and outcomes. However, these achievements have been concentrated in a few states while others continue to lag significantly behind.

This report analyses primary and secondary data on the TSC to arrive at an understanding of the processes, outputs and outcomes at a national level and across the states; this is compared with the inputs which have gone into the programme. These indicators are then compared individually and in combination to benchmark the states, to understand the relative performance of the states. This benchmarking, based on a combination of eight indicators, is undertaken for both states and districts across the country. The analysis is also useful in tracking the efficiency of the states in terms of time taken to achieve total sanitation (rate of acceleration of the programme) and the financial expenditure on achieving outcomes. It, then, extrapolates, based on current achievements, to understand when the various states would achieve the ultimate objective of full coverage. [authors abstract]

Download volume 1 and volume 2

Toolkit for Public Private Partnership in Urban Water Supply for the State of Maharashtra

CRISIL (2009). Toolkit for public private partnership in urban water supply for the state of Maharashtra. (Knowledge series / GOI-ADB PPP Initiative. Water). Manila, Philippines, GOI-ADB PPP Initiative Mainstreaming PPPs in India, Asian Development Bank. 213 p. : 11 fig., 11 tab.
Download full document [PDF file]

Public Private Partnership (PPP) solutions for Maharashtra’s urban water supply sector are being developed under the Mainstreaming PPPs in India Initiative. This toolkit is expected to assist the relevant public entities in the state of Maharashtra for developing PPP-based projects in the water supply and sanitation sector.

Related web site: Mainstreaming PPPs in India

Water governance in motion – towards socially and environmentally sustainable water law

Cullet, P., Gowlland-Gualtieri, A., Madhav, R. and Ramanathan, U. (eds.) (2010). Water governance in motion : towards socially and environmentally sustainable water laws. (Foundation Books). Cambridge University Press India. 570 p. ISBN: 9788175966345
Hardback. Price: Rs.875 | $36.50
Order online
Full details

This book focuses on the work undertaken by International Environmental Law Research Centre IELRC on water law reforms in India. It is divided into two parts. The first part critically analyses the context of international law for water reforms and the second part discusses the multifaceted aspects of water sector reforms in India. The contributions address a wide range of issues including water distribution to households, irrigation, industrial use and wastewater treatment. These questions are dealt with from a range of perspectives including human rights, environment, agriculture, development and trade.

Target group: academia, researchers, NGOs and policy-makers.

Contents

I: Water Law, Policy and Institutional Reforms in India
1. Water and Questions of Law: An Overview
2. Water law–Evolving Regulatory Framework
3. Discourses in Water and Water Reform in Western India
4. The Slow Road to the Private–A Case Study of Neoliberal Water Reforms in Chennai

II: Ongoing Irrigation and Ground Water Reforms in India
5. Canal Irrigation, Water User Associations and Law in India–Emerging Trends in Rights Based Perspective
6. Customary Rights and their Relevance in Modern Tank Management: Select Cases in Tamil Nadu
7. Ground Water–Legal Aspects of the Plachimada Dispute

III: Perspectives on Privatisation
8. Tirupur Water Supply and Sanitation Project–A Revolution in Water Resource Management?
9. The World Bank’s Influence on Water Privatisation in Argentina: The Experience of the city of Buenos Aires
10. Linkages between Access to Water and Water Scarcity with International Investment Law and the WTO Regime
11. More Drops for Hyderabad City, Less Crops for Farmers: Water Institutions and Reallocation in Andhra Pradesh

IV: Environment and Human Rights
12. Balancing Development and Environmental Conservation and Protection of the Water Resource Base: The ‘Greening’ of Water Laws
13. The Right to Water as a Human Right or a Bird’s Right–Does Co-Operative Governance Offer a Way Out of a Conflict of Interests and Legal Complexity?
14. South Africa’s Water Law and Policy Framework: Implications for the Right to Water
15. Respect, Protect, Fulfill: The Implementation of the Human Right to Water in South Africa

V: Comparative Perspectives on Reforms
16. Learning from Water Law Reforms in Australia
17. Law and ‘Development’ Discourses about Water: Understanding Agency in Regime Changes
18. Marginal Remarks Regarding Water Policy Regimes
Governance, Rights, Justice and Development: An Epilogue

More IELRC publications on water

Ste by step: achieving sustainable sanitation – lessons from civil society experiences

A new report [1] by Arghyam highlights the outcomes of research and discussions on the experiences of civil society organisations involved in implementing sustainable sanitation campaigns in India.

Several concerns were raised during the discussions on the the manner in which the Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) was being implemented, followed by identification of steps that were needed to ensure social, technical, institutional, financial and environmental sustainability of the programme.

The discussions revealed that:

• The TSC indeed led to the mainstreaming of sanitation in India. However, more emphasis was placed on hardware targets, while social mobilisation had been largely ignored. Thus, inspite of increase in the coverage of toilets, their usage and sustainability had remained low.
• Experiences of civil society organisations indicated that a sanitation campaign needed to address a range of social, technical, financial, institutional and environmental concerns to be sustainable, rather than focusing exclusively on the technical aspects.
• A closer look at the TSC revealed that three critical elements needed strengthening to ensure sustainability:
  • Software: Social mobilisation, capacity building and IEC for behavioural change
  • Hardware: Appropriate technology, integration with water management
  • Governance: Integrated and participatory planning, institution building and convergence

It was important to allocate adequate time and resources, both human and financial, to each of these. Prior experience indicated that civil society organisations had taken between three to five years to implement sustainable sanitation campaigns.

The report highlights a preliminary template formulated by Arghyam on the phases involved in a sustainable sanitation campaign, based on responses from civil society organisations. These consist of four distinct phases that involve planning, laying the foundation, implementation and finally ensuring that the toilets constructed continue to remain in use. The key aspects of the campaign include:

• Building relationships with the community
• Selecting appropriate hardware
• Ensuring the smooth flow of funds
• Monitoring quality and inculcating a sense of ownership

The report concludes by highlighting the urgent need for documenting other such processes and experiences in different contexts that have been attempted across the country to make the sanitation effort sustainable and argues that these can go along way in facilitating better informed changes at the policy level.

[1] Babu S.V., S. (2010). Step by step : achieving sustainable sanitation : lessons from civil society experiences. (Learning document ; no. 2). Bangalore, India, Arghyam. 63 p. Download full report.

Source:  India Water Portal

Equity in school water and sanitation : overcoming exclusion and discrimination in South Asia

UNICEF. (2009). Equity in school water and sanitation : overcoming exclusion and discrimination in South Asia : a regional perspective. Kathmandu, Nepal, UNICEF Regional Office for South Asia (ROSA). xiii, 57 p.

Download full report
Download country studies: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India [not yet available], Nepal

This study examines issues of exclusion and discrimination in relation to water and sanitation in schools in South Asia and considers the potential for schools being able to act as agents of change in combating this exclusion and discrimination.

The study was carried out in four countries of the region – Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal. Each country has produced its own report, and these have been supplemented by this report, which summarizes the country reports and expands the findings into a regional perspective.

The overall objectives of the study were:

i. To examine the relationship between water and sanitation related issues and the ways in which they affect, for both practical and psychological reasons, both the inclusion and the opportunities of children who belong to groups that are perceived as being unclean, menstruating girls and children affected by communicable diseases.

ii. To identify and record instances of good and inclusive practice.

iii. To explore the possibility of good practice in schools having a transformative role in altering traditional discriminatory practices within the community.

In three of the four countries, twelve schools in three districts were chosen for in-depth study (in India, 24 were chosen).

In all countries, adolescent girls were seen to face considerable disadvantage when they were menstruating. The result was that a large proportion of girls simply did not attend school for several days each month. While the lack of sanitary facilities could not be directly linked with school drop-out, it seems certain that the embarrassment experienced by the girls, and their falling behind with their studies as a result of frequent absence, will increase its likelihood.

Findings on discrimination against children for issues related to water and sanitation were more mixed and varied both between countries and within individual countries. However, there certainly were indications that some children were treated less favourably than others.

A clear message which emerged was that one could not make simple assumptions as to precisely which groups of children were discriminated against. In all countries it appeared that children from very poor families were more likely to be ones who could face discrimination.

A positive message arising from the study was that both children and adults were aware that traditional discriminatory attitudes were changing.

There were, however, indications in all countries that new elites could sometimes arise in this new context and play themselves out in the same domain of cleanliness and uncleanliness.

All country studies have examples of excellent practice. Ways in which this practice has been created vary from country to country but common elements include:

• Sufficient and well maintained facilities
• Clearly worked out systems of cleaning
• A positive relationship between school and community so that good practice in one is reinforced by good practice in the other. There are many examples of children transferring good hygiene practice they have learnt at school to their families
• Children who are aware of the importance of good hygiene practices
• A strong ethos of inclusion in which all tasks and privileges are shared equally and children are automatically assumed to sit together and mix together regardless of social or economic divisions.

Thus, the study has showed the potential of school as an agency of change and indicates that this is an area which could definitely benefit from further attention.

Access of the poor to water supply and sanitation in India

Jha, N. (2010). Access of the poor to water supply and sanitation in India : salient concepts, issues and cases. (IPC working paper ; no. 62). Brasilia, Brazil, International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth (IPC-IG), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). 40 p. : 8 boxes, 3 fig., 1 tab. 58 ref.
Download full paper [PDF file,529 KB]

Access to safe water is necessary for lives and livelihoods. In India, a mid-term assessment reveals that the country has already met its MDG (Millennium Development Goal) in terms of expanding access to water infrastructure although in the parallel subsector of sanitation progress is falling far short of the mark. In reality, most basic observations indicate that water supply coverage is not as good as the figures show while national sanitation continues to be poor even after almost six decades of efforts to eradicate open defecation.

It argues that economic, technical, institutional as well as social factors constrain access to safe drinking water and proper sanitation in India for both the urban and rural poor, and that coverage figures do not reflect this restricted access. It finds that, increasingly, communities are being required to manage their own water and sanitation schemes, not just in rural areas but in urban ones as well. There are definite advantages to such an institutional arrangement if the transition to community management is carried out smoothly. Often, however, the chances of success of community management are vitiated because policy makers misunderstand and misapply three interlinked concepts that are crucial to the success of community-managed water and sanitation schemes—participation; water and sanitation burden; and project ownership. The paper concludes by clarifying these concepts and the implications they have for policy implementation in this sector.

Deep wells and prudence: towards pragmatic action for addressing groundwater overexploitation in India

Pahuja, S. … [et al.] (2010). Deep wells and prudence : towards pragmatic action for addressing groundwater overexploitation in India. (Report / World Bank ; 51676). Washington, DC, USA, World Bank. xviii, 97 p. : 9 boxes, 29 fig., 13 tab. Includes glossary. 53 ref.  Download full report [PDF file, 1.91 MB]

This report is the outcome of the World Bank’s Study and Technical Assistance Initiative on Groundwater management in India. This initiative included analytical work, policy assessments, and field surveys, as well as focused technical assistance to groundwater management interventions in a number of World Bank-supported projects in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, and an assessment in Punjab.

The report begins with a review of the groundwater crisis in India, the characteristics of groundwater overxplotation groundwater, and the institutional framework of groundwater management in India.

It then provides a menu of practical and non-controversial interventions which can be implemented in the current environment. Amongst its several suggestions, the report calls for community management of ground water, based on positive experiences in the Andhra Pradesh Farmer-Managed Groundwater Systems Project (APFAMGS). Other interventions proposed are grouped under the headings of targeted regulation, and sectoral policy interventions and coordination.

Together, the proposed set of interventions sets the basis for changing the game on groundwater
management in India, from one that presently consists of either inaction or waiting for champions who can
push through unpopular reform interventions, to one where diligent implementation of interventions within the current framework can start producing immediate management results on the ground.