Fecal sludge management: a comparative analysis of 12 cities

Abstract

This paper outlines the findings of a fecal sludge management (FSM) initial scoping study in twelve cities. This short, desk-based study used innovative tools to assess the institutional context and the outcome in terms of the amount of fecal sludge safely managed. A range of cities was included in the review, all in low-and middle-income countries.None of the cities studied managed fecal sludge effectively, although performance varied. Where cities are seeking to address fecal sludge challenges the solutions are, at best, only partial, with a focus on sewerage which serves a small minority in most cases. FSM requires strong city-level oversight and an enabling environment that drives coordinated actions along the sanitation service chain; this was largely absent in the cities studied.Based on the findings of the review a typology of cities was developed to aid the identification of key interventions to improve FSM service delivery. Additional work is recommended to further improve the tools used in this study in order to enable better understanding of the FSM challenges and identify appropriate operational solutions.

The Influence of Household- and Community-Level Sanitation and Fecal Sludge Management on Urban Fecal Contamination in Households and Drains and Enteric Infection in Children

“…Though there is systematic evidence showing that sewerage interventions, another form of contained FSM, are associated with decreased incidence of diarrhea and enteric infection, onsite containment with emptying and transport has not been studied 19. Further, in contrast to our findings, recent city-level assessments of FSM have shown that long-term management of onsite fecal sludge is generally poor and may lead to nonfunctional toilets and backflow of excreta into homes during floods, contaminating the household environment 7,17. Given that we did not have the ability to assess the frequency or quality of FSM longitudinally, we cannot definitively make conclusions about the long-term effectiveness of the onsite containment in place.…”

“…While management of fecal sludge in low-income, urban areas is generally poor, the associations between FSM and fecal contamination or enteric infection within that environment have not been examined 7. There is a need to understand how fecal contamination and enteric infection vary with toilets and FSM in the urban environment.…”

Behaviour change intervention to improve shared toilet maintenance and cleanliness in urban slums of Dhaka: a cluster‐randomised controlled trial

“…If users cease open defecation and consistently use clean toilets, we still might not achieve optimal health impacts as toilets may continue to drain or empty somewhere other than into a sealed pit or sanitary sewer . We observed a number of toilet drainage systems without flow that contaminated the community environment, but upgrading dysfunctional infrastructure was beyond the scope of our intervention.…”

The Costs of Meeting the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal Targets on Drinking Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene: Summary Report

“…Data available on sewerage for most countries from a published paper (Baum, Luh, and Bartram 2013) and on fecal sludge management from on-site systems for 12 countries (Peal et al 2014).…”