Stench and waste disposal are Swachh Bharat's biggest challenges
Over the last few weeks, issues related to Swachh Bharat were the topic of discussion on the WhatsApp group of the residents' welfare association (RWA) of my apartment complex in Delhi.
The first was a discussion on public toilets for hundreds of service providers who visit the complex daily, which further led to a meeting to identify a site for such a toilet. A site was identified but the decision was vetoed by others, who did not join the meeting. A more desultory discussion on waste composting techniques followed. Though the discussions did not lead to any action, the need for collective action to address the problems was highlighted and realised.
Fear of stench was largely the cause of the veto on the toilet site and the rather aimless discussion on composting. No one wants a toilet or a composting pit near their homes, children's play area, parks or parking lots and there lies the biggest constraint for Swachh Bharat in urban India.
According to the Census of India, 2011, almost 10 per cent of 78 million urban households do not have access to toilets and defecate in the open. It also projected that India's urban population of 377 million will increase to 600 million by 2031.
A change from unsanitary practices has attracted the attention and political heft from no less than the Prime Minister of India. The WhatsApp group discussions I referred to earlier have only been possible due to Narendra Modi's Swachh Bharat programme that brought these vital but neglected needs to the forefront.
The Swachh Bharat Urban website proudly informs us of the achievements since the campaign was launched. About 130,000 community or public toilets have been constructed with over 1,000 towns becoming open defecation free. There is 100 per cent doorstep collection of waste from 43,000 municipal wards in the country. These are no mean achievements for a country not accustomed to sanitary practices (despite the glorious heritage of the Indus Valley civilisation).
But these achievements fall short significantly considering the following challenges of current and emerging urban India:
a) A normal human being needs to urinate about six-seven times a day and defecate at least once, which means people don't always answer nature's call at their place of residence or workplace, thus requiring access to public toilets.
b) Daily per capita urban waste generation in India is about half a kilo (according to current estimates it ranges from 0.1 kgs in Junagadh to nearly a kilogram in Jalgaon); this needs to be disposed of properly. Much of this is kitchen waste and can be disposed of effectively by the household at its own level without creating the waste mountains such as those at Ghazipur, Okhla and Bhalswa in Delhi.
Our RWA, thus, found itself discussing these twin challenges at its level but could not reach a conclusion. The complex has 200 houses - more than 1,000 persons live there. Another 1,000 service personnel visit us each day - security guards, drivers (and drivers of guests), maids, car washers, washermen, tutors, courier and delivery boys, electricians, plumbers, staff from municipal corporation, electricity, water and telecom utilities.
Assuming varying access of these service providers, we can safely assume that our complex generates 750kgs of waste from about 1,500 people every day and needs to provide hygienic toilet facilities to 500 service persons visiting it on a daily basis. While much of the waste which is biodegradable is removed through a doorstep facility, the service staff can be frequently seen urinating near boundary walls of the complex or behind parked cars. Most baulk at the mention of allowing permanent or visiting service providers to use toilets in homes. A similar situation exists around most of urban India.
As the urban population grows by over 40 per cent over the the next 15 years, it faces two humungous challenges. First, provision of public toilets (assuming half of the urban population - over 300 million - has visitors at least twice a day), second, waste management (300 million kgs daily assuming urban population will continue to generate half a kg of waste each day).
The government of India has set forth guidelines for Swachh Bharat Urban. These guidelines revised as recently as August 2017 seek to provide an overarching framework under which the Swachh Bharat Mission will be implemented in urban India. While this framework includes specific fund allocations for all toilets (household, community or public) and waste management, it falls short of guaranteeing Indian citizens facilities that are essential for a Swachh urban India that could be possible after implementation of this framework and use of the allocated funds.
With a new union minister for housing and urban affairs taking office soon after the disaster at the Ghazipur landfill in Delhi, it is probably time to comprehensively revise the Swachh Bharat Urban guidelines to ensure that urban India is ready to meet the needs of its population not only for 2031 but also for 2051. The revised guidelines may include some of the following suggestions:
Service guarantees
The guidelines need to guarantee public toilets say every 1km of road length and in every residential complex or colony. They also need to guarantee a composting pit for biodegradable waste say every sq km and in every residential area. The actual specifications of these can be based on load assessments.
In new and upcoming residential complexes or colonies and townships, allocation of space and site for developing public toilets and composting pits must become an integral part of the approval process. While this step is likely to address the challenge emerging from population increase and the expansion of cities, realising it will require amendments in the town codes at national, state and town levels.
The challenge would however, still remain in existing habitations; here, public toilets could be constructed street-side in public buildings such as market complexes, municipal offices, utility offices and other government facilities. They could even be constructed on the roads along schools.
A simple map of existing public buildings for each urban area can provide decision-makers the requisite data to identify sites where public toilets could be constructed.
In cities which have city bus and Metro services, public toilets must be integrated into their designs. One can see a sprinkling of such toilets near bus stops in the New Delhi Municipal Council areas and now often at platform levels of Delhi Metro (which had earlier chosen not to provide public toilets initially). Similarly, many residential complexes/colonies include a public facility of some sort - public toilets can be integrated with these facilities - my residential complex has a power sub-station and a water pumping station. However, in residential complexes/colonies, the problem of maintenance and foul smell may remain.
Locating a composting pit in any existing residential area, whether densely or sparsely populated, would be difficult largely on account of foul smell. But once these are installed, municipal authorities will only need to deal with construction and other recyclable waste from that area, significantly reducing the quantum of waste to be disposed of. It must be noted here that solutions that hasten decomposition and mask the stench are available, though there is little knowledge about them.
Maintenance
While the infrastructure can be created, its use will be dependent upon its maintenance. Public toilets will need to be well lit and clean. Similarly, composting pits would need to be maintained in a manner that they are accessible at all times.
Each facility - the public toilet or the composting pit - will require a unique maintenance approach whether by involving the RWAs, market associations, not for profits, corporate or individual philanthropy, or public-private partnerships. The urban local bodies will need to work these out at the ward level.
Innovations
One aspect that the guidelines do not cover and is sorely missing from the entire Swachh Bharat urban programme is innovations and their commercial applications.
Toilets require a significant amount of water each time they are used. While cinema chains such as PVR and malls have already introduced waterless urinals, the same have not found application in community and public toilets. This needs to be explored urgently to ensure that minimum water is used in maintenance of public toilets.
Another area where innovations are required is dealing with stench from toilets and composting pits. Swachh Bharat in association with Make in India and Startup India could launch a Swachh Bharat Innovations Challenge which could provide seed capital to innovators to produce applications such as absorbent and stench removing tiles or technical textiles for community or public toilets, stench-free composting units that could be installed in outdoors or indoors in existing residential areas; or even stench-free composting bins for kitchens replacing the existing ones. Such innovations will not only find application widely but will also reduce the maintenance costs significantly.
Usage fee
The Swachh Bharat guidelines rely on the Western pay and use model. However, given the enormity of the challenge (assuming at least 600 million visits to a public toilet each day), urban India may like to consider the Chinese model (yes despite Doklam and other pinpricks, there are many lessons for us from them).
Public toilets in China are free and they are almost everywhere; each toilet whether at Tiananmen Square, Beijing or Pudong in Shanghai or a hutong (like an urban village in Delhi) is free for use. Each has at least two cleaners - a man and a woman.
The toilets are clean, well-lit and inviting one to use them. While determining the maintenance approach for each public or community toilet, the urban local bodies may mobilise funds appropriately to offer the service free. The toilets in China are also overwhelmingly made in Asian style that people are more used to and which have fewer health issues from a sanitation point of view.
The composting pits for biodegradable waste can be largely maintained by the proceeds of the manure that they produce. A helper can be engaged by the local maintenance agency to keep it organised and surroundings clean.
Citizen engagement
Given the sensitivities around public toilets and decentralised waste management, the Swachh Bharat Mission needs to commence a massive citizen engagement programme. The programme should inform citizens about the problems arising from non-availability of Swachh infrastructure in their neighbourhood, seek their participation in determining needs, identifying sites and for maintaining such infrastructure. The programme should encourage the citizens reach out their elected representatives especially municipal councillors for the same.
The engagement programme should also create awareness about innovative products that could be adopted at household level (like stench free composting bins) or at a community level (like waterless urinals or tiles that could absorb stench).
The successful implementation of Swachh Bharat requires enormous funds - even more may be required if the above suggested service guarantees are to be realised. Until recently, a Swachh Bharat cess was being levied on service tax. Citizens can hopefully expect that a similar proportion of funds is earmarked for Swachh Bharat Mission even now after the introduction of Goods and Service Tax; and that the allocations will be suitably devolved to urban local bodies enabling them to effectively deal with the humungous twin challenges of Swachh urban Bharat.
Also read: Ghazipur landfill collapse: What Delhi can do to prevent another tragedy like this