Hello and welcome to this module on the assessment of the initial situation. We will look at the data that you need to collect in order to get a comprehensive overview of the sanitation situation in your city and to be able to take informed decisions. The aim of this module is also to link the different aspects requiring data collection presented in this course. The main goals of the assessment of the initial situation are to set the scene, understand the context, get to know the stakeholders and provide enough information to start elaborating the fecal sludge management scenarios. This includes, among others, the definition of context specific design parameters. It would allow you to make logical plans to move forward. This phase of the planning process is therefore characterized by data collection via different means. The question is which data and by which means? The idea is to get a snapshot of the situation. Start with a helicopter view of your city. You can take a map or look at Google Earth and start by identifying different situation context as discussed in the previous module. What are the existing infrastructure services? Are there sewer networks? Which type of toilets do people have? Who are the service providers and how are they organized? Whether they bring the sludge? You can start by looking at the general context like demographic, water and hygiene, storm water management and climatic conditions. Then collect data about the sanitation sector considering the whole sanitation supply chain as mentioned in the last module. Especially, carry out a stakeholder analysis and establish the profile and practices of manual and mechanical service providers. Further on, it is important to understand the practices a household level and at the other end of the sanitation chain the end use practices and the potential market for the treatment product. Talking about stakeholders we should know what are the financial transfers between them. For example, how much do households currently pay for emptying services? At that stage, you should check the enabling conditions. How is the government support? What is the legal and regulatory framework? What are the rules but also where are the gaps? Which are the relevant institutions and how are they organized? What are the skills and capacities, especially in terms of human resources and management? The financial arrangements, as I mentioned before. And, lastly, the socio-cultural acceptance of different options. The environment is rarely fully enabling in the beginning of the process and identifying the gaps is the basis to plan for action. A lot of this information with the type of latrines, standards or the stakeholders needs and interests will also help you to quantify and characterize the sludge to be treated and estimate context specific design parameters for your future fecal sludge treatment plant. Talking about treatment plants you will see if you look at the FSM from A to Z planning synthesis presented in the previous module that it is also the time to identify the potential treatment sites. As this is also a very difficult question it is good to start as soon as possible. Often, there's no available land, land is expensive or people do not want a treatment plant in their back yards. If you're lucky, you will have several options to choose from by then comes the question of the level of decentralization. So we will have one or several plants. In large urban areas it makes a lot of sense to have several plants at different locations. The mechanical service providers should be at the core of the decision. First, they know all about the current disposal sites. Then it is crucial to identify what are the constraints of their business for example, problems with traffic, the average distance and duration of the trips and the money they gain from each of them. They are the ones who can tell what is practically and financially feasible. We have to see that larger treatment plants require on average longer haulage distances from the pits, implying higher costs for the collection companies. Companies then have two choices either increase the tariff for the households which may threaten the affordability of the service or use closer, illegal disposal sites. There are examples of fecal sludge treatment plants which were never used because they were too far away or not accessible. We talked a lot about data, but not yet about how to collect it. It is not that easy to collect good quality useful data. There is a lot of bad quality data around and it is important to get your own primary data as much as possible. The best way to get accurate information is to get it from different sources and then cross-check. Data can be gathered through literature review, semi-structured interviews, household surveys, qualitative field observation. We will see a few more tools in the next module and you will find a few interview guides in the fecal sludge management book. Finally, what do we do with our data? Well, we have to analyze it, and also it is important communicate the results in a form that is understandable and adjustable by the different stakeholders. You will get more insight in the analysis of the different data in the respective module of this course, so we'll not go any deeper here. I would like to mention that in addition to Sandec's work there are a number of tools and tool boxes under development to help you in the collection analysis, and visualization of your data. You may have heard about the FSM toolbox the world bank's diagnostic and decision making support tools about the tool kit of Sept in India or WHO sanitation safety plans. You will find the links to these and more in the course materials as well as dedicated modules in our MOOC on sanitation planning. Now, let me just show you two ways to share some of your results. First, SWOT analysis. With the SWOT analysis you systematically analyze the strengths weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, for the implementation of a proper fecal sludge management scheme in your city. Strengths and weaknesses describe existing situations whereas opportunities and threats represent the potential that you've identified. You can make this assessment more systematic by doing it for each of the enabling environment components. Secondly, you were already introduced to the Shit Flow Diagrams or SFDs. This is an effective way to represent in one figure the main results of the assessment of the initial situation and provide a good advocacy tool to talk to authorities. The SFD website is there to help you make your own SFD and you can learn more about it by watching the dedicated module in our MOOC on sanitation planning. A large part of your success with the future of fecal sludge management scheme actually depends on the quality of the assessment of the initial situation and how it is communicated. Don't forget the importance of the human dimension of this assessment. It is the time for first contact but also the trust building which is the best way to access information and get people on board. It is also paramount for the selection of the potential sites for treatment. Now you got a better picture of how to collect data and what to do with it. I hope that this module helped you to link some of your learnings in the course, that you can better visualize what an integrated approach practically is and how to assess the enabling or disabling conditions. Creating enabling conditions has a lot to do with stakeholder involvement. That's what we will see in the next module. See you then!
