Gaps in toilet revolution

Debapriya Mukherjee
Recent interaction with many people residing in rural area with a access to subsidized toilets still practice open defecation though Prime Minister Narendra Modi, through Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (SBA), also known as “Swachh Bharat Mission”- assured to make India open defecation free (ODF) by building tens of millions of toilets for the poor. It is true that many millions of toilets have been built using public money, mainly in rural areas of the country. The current SBA has addressed sanitation with unprecedented political support and scale. As assumed, lack of access to suitable sanitation facilities is also a major cause of risks and anxiety, especially for women and girls in many rural areas . Also sanitation that prevents disease and ensures privacy and dignity has been recognized as a basic human right. But as opined by many rural people, the  existing sanitation facilities  are not optimally used  in many villages on account of  the paucity of water and poor construction of toilets due to financial constraint and difficulties in emptying of filled-in pits, which have lead to many people reverting to open defecation (OD) mostly in rural areas of low-income families. During heavy rainfall, overflow of excreta from these pits is also a cause of creating breeding ground for mosquito and offensive smell. In addition, as observed during inspection, leaching of contaminants from the pit-latrine excreta to groundwater cannot be ruled out particularly during rainy season as no investigation has been made to  understand risks posed to groundwater by pit latrine based sanitation policies typically implemented. Many household  open wells, once those were the important sources of drinking water, have become dead and place of dumping the waste as people are expecting contamination from these excreta pits.  Thereby the importance of sanitation improvement on the control of nutrient discharges to environment  and spread of diseases has lost its significance. The improved sanitation is defined as the access to facilities that hygienically separate the faeces from human contacts, including flush or pour flush to a piped sewer system, septic tank or pit latrine, ventilated improved pit latrines, pit latrines with a slab and composting toilets.
In some cultures, women demand abundant water supply  for cleansing ( bathing and cloth washing) after defecation, so its absence has forced the people open defecation near surface water bodies such as ponds and rivulets. Practically all these toilets are used only in case of emergency, during night time or by the patients.  To overcome these barriers they generally, not by all,  use the “cat method”.  They made a small hole for defecation and covered the excreta with sand/soil afterwards. Piped water to the household can incentivize to use toilets, if system is technically feasible, affordable and contribute to health improvements and environmental protection but  year-round  availability of water cannot be ensured. Thereby access to adequate water supply is a vital part of ensuring a safe sanitation service chain for operation (e.g. flushing, sewerage), maintenance and cleaning of facilities and various parts of the sanitation service (containers) as well as for personal and domestic hygiene purposes.
Despite progress in providing so many toilets to poor villagers, it is quite uncertain whether the acclaimed SBA goal to eradicate OD  will be met and whether the officially recorded new toilets will actually be used sustainably. Sustainability with respect to sanitation implies that the system needs to comprise of waste containment (toilets), emptying (of pits and septic tanks), transportation (to sewage treatment facilities), waste treatment, and disposal/reuse. Caste issues also remain a significant barrier relating to reuse of excreta  after emptying filled-in pits, such as religious practices. People particularly higher caste, even they are poor, hesitate to handle human faeces which has traditionally been reserved for a certain category of people in our society -- manual scavengers. In this context it is pertinent to mention that intimidation, harassment and violence, as was happened on two dalits, to end ODF is a bleaker reality. The issue related to development was focused but that was practically unclear because the meaning of development in relation to the limitations of economic development and sanctioning of money towards all these programs was not clearly focused in the announcements made by the politicians.
Toilet revolution requires understanding of all these issues to ensure sustainability. In the backdrop of all the progress made so far, important knowledge gaps still remain in identifying their specific barriers towards  ODF and no specify policy has been framed for behavioural and attitudinal changes of the users. Despite growing awareness of persistent gaps in sanitation access and the associated implications for society, progress to ensure access and use of safe sanitation has lagged compared to other development challenges, particularly in rural areas.  Behavioural  change towards OD, key to achieving the goals of the SBA,  is a highly complex issue that requires a holistic approach that goes beyond building toilets.
Earlier the material unaffordability of toilets was the primary barrier largely attributable to structural constraints such as poverty and socioeconomic inequality though the provision of subsidized toilets was first step with the expectation that the health and other benefits of toilets will be realized after gaining access. Now, the SBA facing the challenges are insufficient funding and policy support to improved sanitation system and reuse of nutrients in human waste for agricultural production, weak sanitary awareness and low acceptance of new toilets, lack of innovative technical input and service system. The toilet revolution in India requires a concerted effort from many governmental departments by  addressing technology implementation, social acceptance, economic affordability, maintenance issues and increasingly, gender considerations.
Present sanitation system still needs to overcome some critical barriers  at least for safe disposal of human excreta to aquatic environment.  In this context. OD as practised  by 90% people particularly in rural areas on account of  these  barriers  may be encouraged by adopting “cat method” as there are abundant agriculture field in rural areas because OD may help not only to reduce water consumption but also to improve soil condition of agricultural field following ecological principles. This practice also prevents encroachment of land closed to the ponds on protest by the people.  This practice may be better alternative to existing sanitation system till Resource-Oriented Sanitation (ROS) system or Ecological sanitation (ecosan) system with the assurance of sustainability is implemented with a provision of requisite  water supply to every household. This system will be the best way to meet sanitation needs and  to contribute food security by recovering nutrients and organic matter found in excreta for safe agricultural reuse particularly in areas with declining soil fertility on account of continuous use of  chemical fertilizers. On filled up  the pits and tanks of the sanitary toilets, the owners will deposit the sludge directly onto the vegetable crops. The promotion of sanitary facilities with a access to undiluted and source separated urine and faeces would be more useful for agronomic utilization as it is being already practised in “Amader Haspatal” in Bankura, West Bengal. Proper training on emptying and reuse of materials is an emergent need to maximize  use in agriculture and  to minimize  health risks while handling.
In addition, improved sanitation facility needs to identify based on face-to-face communication for rapid feedback and information to  build trust and collaborations among different actors, research gaps that include strategies for persuading governments and NGOs  to prioritize, encourage and monitor sanitation;  securing correct, consistent, sustained use; estimating health impacts from sanitation interventions; improving methods for assessing presence of and exposure to sanitation-related pathogens in the environment; preventing the discharge of faecal pathogens into the environment along all steps of the sanitation service chain; exploring alternative designs and services, including safe emptying and management of on-site sanitation and ensuring culturally-appropriate this proposed sanitation interventions; mitigating occupational exposures; reducing adverse ecological effects; elaborating the links between sanitation and animals and their impact on human health; and investigating the issues around sanitation and gender.
The writer is Former Senior Scientist, Central Pollution Control Board, based in Kolkata and can be reached at 919432370163 & 916290099509 or dpmcpcb@yahoo.com