Informal settlements suffer health issues due to inadequate toilet facilities and unsafe faecal sludge management (FSM). In addition to the people's unsafe management, sweepers provided emptying services informally with unsafe methods, and authorities adopted city-wide vacutug-based services where informal settlements are excluded. This paper explores factors causing unsafe FSM and develops a contextual model that includes informal settlements with environmentally safe city-wide services. It took Notun-Bazar Char Khulna as a case, and purposefully sampled toilets, settlement people, sweepers, and key persons for interview and group discussions. These responses located some existing sanitation intervention factors responsible for unsafe containment, emptying, conveyance, and discharge practice. This paper proposes equitable, impenetrable, and emptiable containment, periodical emptying and conveyance, adaptive equipment, adaptive health safety kit, and proximal safe discharge location as components of a context-sensitive model to include informal settlements with a city-wide environmentally safe FSM system.

No abstract

Integrating socio-economic development-led spatial-physical design intervention in traditional settlement needs a deeper understanding of the social-cultural-economic dimensions of the people, place, and environment. Such intervention at the settlement level involves the challenge of context-sensitive placemaking concerning the existing social-cultural-economic space systems that contain the social way of life and livelihood. This research explored this challenge taking Bang-Phli, Samutprakan, Thailand, a successful water-integrated placemaking project. With a mixed research approach that combines methods from design ethnography and built environmental design, this study focused on exploring the spatial-physical design approach, process, and considerations behind the context-sensitive placemaking. Outcomes of this research suggests how people-place-environment sensitive placemaking can nurture the co-existence of socio-cultural way of life, environmental stewardship, and economic development in traditional settlement in a socially and environmentally sustainable manner.

Informal settlements suffer sanitation challenges of inadequate toilet facilities and a high accumulation rate of faecal sludge due to land crises and dense populations. However, settlement people who struggle with informal living, either way, manage to keep their toilets running. This research explores faecal sludge management practices by people in informal settlements. It took Notun-Bazar Char Khulna as a case, purposefully sampled toilets, and populations, and conducted interviews and group discussions among settlement people, sweepers, key persons, and detailed observations of settlement premises. It also mapped excreta flows and discharge locations in drawings and diagrams. It illustrates how faecal sludge from all types of containment ending in the water is unsafe. This study analytically finds practices related to periodical containment management, Collective emptying mechanism, and faecal sludge’s conditional conveyance available in the informal settlement. It suggests developing environmentally safe faecal sludge management in informal settlements with an appreciation of the identified practices.

Dhaka, the one of the megacities in the world have been facing the pressure of new development and redevelopment due to rapid socioeconomic development. Like the other part of the city in old Dhaka, this urban renewal is misunderstood as the process of demolition-reconstruction of old buildings and historical sites. Change in land use pattern, land scarcity, increased land value, lack of mature theoretical guidance and the awareness of preservation the old part of the city is losing its identity. This kind of development not only affecting the city fabric but also destroying the vernacular built environment, cultural values and collective memory of habitants. Introduction of heritage tourism and development of tourist trails in different part of the old city may become an effective and sustainable measure to protect the heritage sites and old fabric of the city. Heritage tourism not only has a positive effect on economic development activities but it also promotes and protects the intangible heritage resources. The study tries to explore some different ways in which tourist trail and heritage tourism can be developed in old Dhaka. Additional emphasis will placed on investigating how tourism can be used to promote awareness among local communities and the importance of assuring a balance between responsible tourism and the preservation and protection required for heritage sites.