Improve faecal sludge management: Experts at CSE global conclave

New Delhi, Aug 22 (SocialNews.XYZ) Countries in the Global South must move the issue of sanitation beyond the idea of toilets to that of effective management of faecal sludge, experts at CSE's online global conclave said.

The Swachh Bharat Mission (Clean India Mission) launched in 2014 claims to have built over 100 million toilets in 0.6 million villages across the country. This had resulted in the Government of India announcing in 2019 that every rural household in the country had access to a toilet.

"The next, and decisive, phase in this battle for safe sanitation is now upon us -- that of moving the debate and the issue beyond the idea of toilets, to that of safely managing the enormous amounts of faecal sludge that rural India will produce from these millions of toilets," said director general, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) Sunita Narain on Saturday.

Else, "We would be looking at a public health crisis of unmanageable proportions. Besides the obvious connection to health and environment, sanitation is also critical for that sense of dignity for every human," she said.

Apart from India, experts from Tanzania, Uganda, Malaysia and Bangladesh also spoke at the 'Africa-South Asia online conclave on faecal sludge management in rural areas'. Africa and South Asia together is called the Global South.

Other experts who spoke at the webinar included senior environmental health officer, Water and Sanitation Section, Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, Tanzania, Amour Seleman; assistant commissioner, Planning and Development, Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Department, Ministry of Water and Environment, Uganda engineer Olwemy Lamu; water sanitation and hygiene specialist, UNICEF-India, Sujoy Majumdar; international FSM consultant, Malaysia, Dorai Narayana; chief operating officer, CWIS-FSM Support Cell, Department of Public Health Engineering, Bangladesh Abdullah Al-Muyeed and programme manager, rural water and sanitation programme, CSE, Sushmita Sengupta, a release from the CSE said.

Sengupta said: "The existing practices of managing faecal sludge in many areas of these regions -- dumping in open fields or water bodies or burying in pits -- are extremely unsanitary and can trigger a public health disaster."

"Effective faecal sludge management -- treating excreta completely before any disposal or reuse -- is the real need of the hour," she added.

Bangladesh, according to Abdullah Al-Muyeed, has crossed a big milestone in 2021 with the launch of its National Strategy for Water Supply and Sanitation. Al-Muyeed did not think open defecation was that big a problem in his country.

Recounting the Ugandan experience, Lamu said his country loses US $177 million every year due to poor and inadequate sanitation. The pan-Africa statistics that Lamu presented were equally telling: 19 per cent of Africa practices open defecation, and there are 115 deaths every hour due to excreta --related diseases -- a direct result of poor sanitation. Seleman, from Tanzania, agreed that an - institutional framework for managing faecal sludge was what his country needed as well.

With 75 per cent of Malaysia's people living in cities, and the country making big strides in sanitation management, Dorai Narayana offered a different perspective: "Good governance, involvement of the private sector, and selection of appropriate technologies have helped."

CSE recommendations in view of the huge scope for reuse of treated faecal sludge and wastewater in the agriculture and aquaculture sectors, as well as for non-potable uses such as flushing, included strengthening of legal and institutional structures for the implementation of faecal sludge management, the release added.

Source: IANS