IE : A slum sanitation plan for the fringes that works wonders : Oct 22,2007
A slum sanitation plan for the fringes that works wonders
Kavitha Iyer
Posted online: Monday , October 22, 2007 at 12:00:00
Updated: Sunday , October 21, 2007 at 11:37:41Mumbai, October 21
Kavitha Iyer
Posted online: Monday , October 22, 2007 at 12:00:00
Updated: Sunday , October 21, 2007 at 11:37:41Mumbai, October 21
In townships on the fringes of the financial capital, preparing for a fierce nudge towards big city status, work is now underway to put in place the most basic urban infrastructure — sanitation for all. And, as Mumbai’s administrators battle to decongest the city, there is reason to be optimistic about the plan to end all open defecation anywhere in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.
For, leading the Nirmal MMR scheme is Metropolitan Commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad, now attempting to replicate the huge success of a toilet-construction programme he implemented in Pune, where he was municipal commissioner “in the late 1990s.
“When I took over as municipal commissioner of Pune,” says Gaikwad, “the ratio of toilets to people in the slums was one toilet seat for every 800 persons. We did the math to understand the magnitude of the problem. Technically, if everybody queued up to use one of these toilets, the last man’s turn would arrive after 15 days.”
Between 1991 and 1999, incurring an expenditure of less than Rs 25 lakh per year, Pune’s administrators had constructed 50 to 100 seats per year, totalling a little over 20 toilet blocks in nearly a decade. From 1998 to 2000, over 8,000 toilet seats were constructed, at a cost of Rs 43 crore.
“It was 150 years’ work in one year,” Gaikwad smiles. Better still, there were vast advantages of giving the building contracts to local slum dwellers’ organizations: Construction costs reduced 20 per cent, the sense of ownership within the community led to routine maintenance of the toilets and the toilet block buildings and, in a bonus, the women of Pune’s slums suddenly tasted empowerment.
Sundar Burra of Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centres, (SPARC), which was closely associated with the Pune programme, says it was a “third path” that Gaikwad took—neither the government-constructed, government-maintained model free sanitation, nor the private model where organisations build pay-per-use toilets in commercially viable locations.
“For, the first model was theoretically free, but practically not available,” Burra says, explaining that poor construction of load bearing structures and poor maintenance led to disrepair and a wasteful cycle of demolition and reconstruction. Families using Pune’s new slum toilets were charged Rs 20 or Rs 30 per month, which most found affordable.
“The Pune model was a renegotiation of roles — the government agency provided land, capital, water and electricity, while local organisations provided design, construction and maintenance.” Calling the Pune model a “pathbreaker”, Burra says slum sanitation can be a genuine anti-poverty programme thanks to the improved health and productivity they stir up.
Gaikwad agrees the impact on health and environment of the city, where 6 lakh people were then estimated to be squatting on the edges of nullahs, streams and the Mula-Mutha river network, was immense. “Sanitation should be one of the basic parameters of city development,” he says. “But it’s sadly neglected by city managers under pressure to get roads widened and flyovers constructed.”
The Pune model won accolades from everybody from the World Bank to the Centre, even inspired the Nirmal Bharat scheme. Gaikwad is now a member of the Ministry of Urban Development’s commission on urban sanitation. And while political will may not be difficult to garner right now, Gaikwad says it’s not merely a populist plan.
“We have to live with slums, they are a reality,” he says, pointing out that even in 2031, as much as 14 per cent of Mumbai and the metropolitan region’s people will live in slums despite various slum rehabilitation and slum-free city programmes.
For, leading the Nirmal MMR scheme is Metropolitan Commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad, now attempting to replicate the huge success of a toilet-construction programme he implemented in Pune, where he was municipal commissioner “in the late 1990s.
“When I took over as municipal commissioner of Pune,” says Gaikwad, “the ratio of toilets to people in the slums was one toilet seat for every 800 persons. We did the math to understand the magnitude of the problem. Technically, if everybody queued up to use one of these toilets, the last man’s turn would arrive after 15 days.”
Between 1991 and 1999, incurring an expenditure of less than Rs 25 lakh per year, Pune’s administrators had constructed 50 to 100 seats per year, totalling a little over 20 toilet blocks in nearly a decade. From 1998 to 2000, over 8,000 toilet seats were constructed, at a cost of Rs 43 crore.
“It was 150 years’ work in one year,” Gaikwad smiles. Better still, there were vast advantages of giving the building contracts to local slum dwellers’ organizations: Construction costs reduced 20 per cent, the sense of ownership within the community led to routine maintenance of the toilets and the toilet block buildings and, in a bonus, the women of Pune’s slums suddenly tasted empowerment.
Sundar Burra of Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centres, (SPARC), which was closely associated with the Pune programme, says it was a “third path” that Gaikwad took—neither the government-constructed, government-maintained model free sanitation, nor the private model where organisations build pay-per-use toilets in commercially viable locations.
“For, the first model was theoretically free, but practically not available,” Burra says, explaining that poor construction of load bearing structures and poor maintenance led to disrepair and a wasteful cycle of demolition and reconstruction. Families using Pune’s new slum toilets were charged Rs 20 or Rs 30 per month, which most found affordable.
“The Pune model was a renegotiation of roles — the government agency provided land, capital, water and electricity, while local organisations provided design, construction and maintenance.” Calling the Pune model a “pathbreaker”, Burra says slum sanitation can be a genuine anti-poverty programme thanks to the improved health and productivity they stir up.
Gaikwad agrees the impact on health and environment of the city, where 6 lakh people were then estimated to be squatting on the edges of nullahs, streams and the Mula-Mutha river network, was immense. “Sanitation should be one of the basic parameters of city development,” he says. “But it’s sadly neglected by city managers under pressure to get roads widened and flyovers constructed.”
The Pune model won accolades from everybody from the World Bank to the Centre, even inspired the Nirmal Bharat scheme. Gaikwad is now a member of the Ministry of Urban Development’s commission on urban sanitation. And while political will may not be difficult to garner right now, Gaikwad says it’s not merely a populist plan.
“We have to live with slums, they are a reality,” he says, pointing out that even in 2031, as much as 14 per cent of Mumbai and the metropolitan region’s people will live in slums despite various slum rehabilitation and slum-free city programmes.
Publication : IE; Section : MN; Pg : 1; Date : 22/10/07