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Chapter 8 Lessons Learned and Recommendations Through the Bauniabad study, we learned the following lessons and came up with the recommendations. 8.1 Needs for Appropriate Systems Lessons Learned The study revealed that unless appropriate systems are adopted, WS projects cannot be sustainable. In Bauniabad, two systems: (i) hand pumps for water supply and (ii) alternate pit latrines were equipped in all houses. The hand pumps did not work as the water table of the area in one of the fastest growing capital city, Dhaka, lowered to almost beyond manual pumping level. Since there was no provision for supplying piped water to poor settlements like Bauniabad where billing system did not exist, the people had to walk for long distance to a pump that was barely working to collect their water and/or had to use contaminated pond water. The alternate pit latrines also did not work well due to poor maintenance and improper use of the pits. It indicates that appropriate systems should be considered, taking into account various issues including technological, financial, cultural and social factors. For instance, people did not want to remove sludge from their latrine pits by themselves because they were not socially accustomed to do so directly by themselves. There was no committee or other formal system to empty the contents of the pits. The commission fees for sludge removal were too high for them and both pits were almost full with liquid especially in the rainy seasons. Moreover, due to the severe space constraints, the people could not use the pits in turn as required. In order to address all such issued, a multidisciplinary team, involving scientific/engineering, economic, cultural and social disciplines as appropriate, is required. The biogas based sewerage system worked relatively well in Bauniabad. The factors for success and its replicability should also be investigated by this multidisciplinary team. The main factors may be: (i) the new design of the system based on people’s sanitation needs and developed through people’s participation, (ii) relatively small-scale, gravitybased waste water (excreta) collection system, which can only be applied to densely populated areas with slopes that are of a certain angle (difference of height), and (iii) minimum space used for the system because the plant were constructed underground. The installed piped water system provided safe drinking water to the people. But the institutional and water safety issues were poor until recently when an action research has started again. Recommendations - Adoption of an appropriate system is the key for successful WS projects. The system should be selected with not only technological considerations but also economic, cultural and social considerations. The following factors should be considered when we adopt appropriate systems. • Engineering performance (pollution removal rate etc.); • Initial costs for installation; • Operation and maintenance of the system and its associated costs; • Community management mechanism(s) to construct and operate the system; and • Social and cultural acceptability of the system. - A multidisciplinary team may need to be established to consider appropriate technologies for a specific site. This team should document the factors as to why the technologies are adopted in the specific site and investigate replicability of the technologies. 8.2 Collaboration with Scientific and Engineering Experts Lessons learned In considering technological and engineering aspects of the system, particularly when the technology is not the conventional one, it is important to involve competent scientific and engineering experts. They should be continuously kept involved during the operation stage as well. In the case of biogas based sewerage system in Bauniabad, the research and development (R&D) stopped before its completion. This created the following problems in engineering design and operation of the projects. - Quantity of inflowing waste water was much bigger than originally planned, which caused insufficient retention time in the biogas chambers, leading to both a lesser removal rate of pollutants and generation of biogas. - Lack of effluent monitoring resulted in the delay to find heavily polluted discharge, leading to the inability to take the necessary measures in time to combat the adverse environmental consequences. Engineering design was based on the idea that no maintenance was required, which made appropriate maintenance, especially periodic cleaning of biogas chambers and removal of sludge, quite difficult. - Biogas generation optimization was to be included in the second phase of the R&D after meeting the immediate sanitation need of the people. However, the second phase did not occur. More efficient biogas generation and 52
more complete removal of pollutants should be investigated. - When unexpected population growth and industrial development happened in the area, the design of the biogas based sewerage system was not modified to deal with unexpected inflow of waste water from industries. Some mechanisms need to be developed to ensure continuous involvement of such experts not as an individual but in an institutional manner. Recommendations - Scientific/engineering experts should be involved in the projects from the initial stage and continuously kept involved throughout the R&D stages and during the operational stage in an institutional manner. Collaboration with scientific/engineering institutions with reliable water quality laboratories, such as engineering faculties of universities is strongly recommended. - Regarding biogas based sewerage system in Bauniabad, the following issues may need to be further investigated. • Engineering design, especially regarding inflowing waste water quality and quantity; • Water quality monitoring plan to check the performance of the system; • Guidelines for operation and maintenance, especially to clean biogas chambers and remove sludge; • Guidelines to more efficiently generate biogas; and • Design modifications to deal with industrial wastewater inflow where necessary. - The R&D activities conducted in this area should be completed to create a model for similar situations. - Regarding water supply, community based institution should be developed to manage the system in coordination with the existing city provision, such as Dhaka Water and Sewerage Authority in the case of Dhaka City. 8.3 Participatory Approach Lessons learned Community people have been involved from the R&D stage of the biogas based sewerage system in Bauniabad, which enabled the needs and desire of the community people into the design of the system and significantly enhanced acceptability of the system by community people. Such a participatory approach has been used for developing the billing system for water supply in a Block, which seems to result in the success of consensus building. In these processes, explanatory meetings, collection of information of community needs, views and comments of community people through surveys, interviews, and discussion sessions were used. Since the participatory approach seems to be the key for success of community based WS project, methodologies for community participation need to be established. Recommendations - Participatory approach should be adopted for all community based WS projects. - General guidelines for community participation may be developed. A multidisciplinary team, as mentioned in Section 8.1, will consider adoption of the guidelines to a specific site, taking into account various specific social, cultural and economic conditions. 8.4 Integration of Hygiene Education and Awareness Raising Lessons learnt The Bauniabad case study revealed that the introduction of the new improved options changed the behavior of the people in relation to sanitation and source of water. It was also evident that the hygienic benefits that the new options provided increased their willingness to pay for them. It may be noted that only education without making access to appropriate technological solution cannot bring about behavioral changes among poor people. Improvement concerning the sanitation situation was successful in that the people now had access to the biogas based sewage system, which provided them with a sanitary form of human waste disposal that was acceptable to them. Though many of the people were satisfied with the hygienic benefits that the biogas based sewage system provided, it was evident from sections of the case study that some of the people were satisfied with the option from an aesthetic point of view rather than a health point of view. This may have been due to a small percentage of the people not understanding the importance of using a hygienic latrine from a health perspective, indicating that further education about hygiene may be required. The problem of access to safe hygienic water was also accomplished with the introduction of the piped water system. The demand for the piped water system from the people arose from them recognizing the benefit of safe hygienic water from a health perspective, indicating that they understood the importance of it. However, though 53
Page 2 and 3:
Authors Dr. Bilqis Amin Hoque, Envi
Page 5 and 6: Contents Foreword 5 Executive Summa
Page 7 and 8: Foreword Water and sanitation (WS)
Page 9 and 10: drinking water. All the various sam
Page 11 and 12: Lessons Learned and Recommendations
Page 13 and 14: List of Tables, Figures, Maps and P
Page 15: List of Abbreviations and Acronyms
Page 18 and 19: Photo 1.1 : A Street in Bauniabad P
Page 20 and 21: Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Backgrou
Page 22 and 23: Bauniabad was established as a spec
Page 24 and 25: 2.2 Water and Sanitation Educationa
Page 26 and 27: system in Bauniabad. For the trial
Page 28 and 29: scopes (financial resources) to obs
Page 30 and 31: Chapter 3 Methodology The cross-sec
Page 32 and 33: Chapter 4 Social Variables The soci
Page 34 and 35: when the people found the biogas ba
Page 36 and 37: Table 5.1: Physical performance and
Page 38 and 39: As the supply was not continuous, t
Page 40 and 41: It was observed that initially thos
Page 42 and 43: Chapter 6 Sanitation Sanitation pro
Page 44 and 45: 6.3 Costs and Financial Aspects The
Page 46 and 47: and E in different years (1996-2002
Page 48 and 49: The effluents from the systems of B
Page 50 and 51: 48 • There should be research and
Page 52 and 53: 7.4 Observations of Water Use Pract
Page 56 and 57: the people had access to safe hygie
Page 58 and 59: Appendix 1 Summary Report of the Fi
Page 60 and 61: 14:00-15:30 Technical Session II co
Page 62 and 63: Appendix 2 Base Line Survey Form St
Page 64 and 65: SANITATION S-1: Use of Latrine:
Page 66 and 67: Table A-3.1: Results of the analysi
Page 68 and 69: 66 Table A-4.1: Sources of water us
Page 70 and 71: Table A-4.3: Sanitation practices i
Page 72: 70
Page 75 and 76: human poverty. UNDP, New York. UNIC
Page 77: Edited by L.S. Clesceri, A.E. Green
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