Faecal Sludge and Septage Management(FSSM)

Vision

The vision for Faecal Sludge and Septage Management in Bhubaneswar is: The City becomes totally sanitized, healthy and liveable and ensure sustenance of good sanitation habits with improved Onsite Sanitation Services together with faecal sludge and septage management to achieve optimum public health and maintain environment integrity with a special focus on the poor.

Objectives

The key objective of the urban FSSM Policy is to set the context, priorities, and direction for, and to facilitate, citywide implementation of FSSM services such that safe and sustainable sanitation becomes a reality for all in each and every household, street, town and city. More specifically, the Policy will:

• Move Bhubaneswar on the path of mainstreaming FSSM by the year 2020, and ensure that all benefits of wide access to safe sanitation accrue to all citizens across the sanitation value chain from containment, extraction, transportation, treatment, and controlled disposal / re-use of all faecal sludge, septage and other liquid waste and their by-products and end-products.
• Suggest and identify ways and means, including the methods and resources, towards creating an enabling environment for realising safe and sustainable FSSM in Bhubaneswar.
• Define the roles and responsibilities of various government entities and agencies, and of other key stakeholders such as the private sector, civil society organisations and citizens for effective implementation of FSSM services throughout the city.

• Enable and support synergies among relevant Central Government programs such as SBM, AMRUT and the Smart Cities Mission to realise safe and sustainable sanitation for all at the earliest, possibly by the year 2020.
• While not compromising the eventual compliance to the strict environmental discharge standards already set, recognising the constraints in achieving these standards, adopt an appropriate, affordable and incremental approach towards achieving standards.
• Mitigate gender-based sanitation insecurity directly related to lack of toilet, reducing the health impacts and the involvement of both genders in the planning for and design of sanitation infrastructure.

Toilet containment typologies

Bhubaneswar has 2 lakh HHs. As per census 2011, 80.2% of the HHs have individual toilets. Open defecation (OD) due to lack of toilet access stands at 17.2%, which is higher than national urban average of 12.6%. Around 2.6% of HHs are dependent on public or community toilet. As per the survey conducted by BMC, 436 OD points were identified in Bhubaneswar. Most of the OD points are either located near waterbodies or slums. It was noted that open defecation is being practiced mostly by male members even after being provided individual toilets under SBM. This is mainly because of habits, family size and lack of water supply. This can be noted from our primary survey wherein, 61% of the HH felt that lack of water supply to toilets is the major reason for practicing OD.

Connectivity to sewer network is 26.7 %. More than 50% of HHs are dependent on onsite containment system (septic tank and pit latrine). Our primary survey indicates that around 50% of slum population and 33% of the non-slum population have unlined onsite systems. 31% HHs have septic tank connected to soak-pits. Together, this could be a potential source of ground water pollution due to lack of safe distance from water source. Median of distance found between onsite system and open well or hand-pump or bore-well during survey is 4 m, which is lower than conventionally considered safe distance of 20m. This holds significance as it was found that approximately 38% of total HH1 are dependent on water sources other than tap water (from treated sources) within premises. Primary survey data supports this.

The state government has taken steps to implement septage treatment plant in order to treat and thereafter safely dispose or reuse the faecal waste. This is being covered under the AMRUT scheme. The treatment plant is designed such that it has capacity to handle faecal waste generated for next 7 years. Incremental capacity required beyond this would is being planned to be covered through sewerage system. The proposed plant shall work on ABR approach with supernatant going to pond system for treatment while separated sludge shall be sent to unplanted drying bed to remove pathogens.