Welcome to week four of our course on sanitation planning and implementation. This week, we will be taking a look at three case studies from around the world that have successfully or unsuccessfully implemented different sanitation solutions for urban areas, and tried to improve environmental conditions. In this first case study, we will analyze an example of a small town in Nepal. The Nala case from Nepal is an example of the CLUES planning approach and subsequent implementation conducted between 2009 and 2012. We'll look at the sequence of planning steps, the main outcomes, and the costs involved in turning the plan into reality. The Nala case study highlights the great advantages of involving communities from the start, and the cost savings that can be achieved through community engagement. The case study of Nala in Nepal is a typical case study for a small town in Asia. Nala is a small town near Katmandu with a population of about 2,300 inhabitants, 390 households, with an average household size of 5.8 persons. Why was Nala chosen? Because of the strong demand from the community to improve sanitation conditions in the area, and secondly, because of the high settlement density in Nala that allowed to test urban service provision that goes beyond individual onsite solutions and to test sewered, connected sanitation solutions like this one here, with a simplified sewer under construction. Some of the socioeconomic data about Nala: Nala is not very poor, but there is a considerable minority Dalit population of about 10% of the population that lives just under or about at the poverty level. Health and hygiene is also partly very poor, with 66 households within Nala that did not have access to toilets, and that relied on open defecation on the outskirts of the small town. The main economic activities in Nala is agriculture. A lot of potato seedlings for the entire country are grown here, and Nala is also positioned well near Katmandu Valley with less than one hour drive to Katmandu, the nation's capital. The infrastructure conditions were quite poor. The majority of population had pour flush toilets that were connected to cesspits, but because of the poor condition, needed frequent emptying. The storm water and gray water in town was also poor, emptying into temporary drains and frequent flooding events. Water supply in Nala came from public tap stands like the one shown here on the left, or from private taps within households. Common to all public and private taps is the high microbial contamination of all sources due to the poor sanitation found in Nala. Solid waste: you could find traditional composting practices which combined kitchen waste and animal waste at household level. We'll now look at the planning steps that were undertaken, in CLUES planning in Nala and how the six planning steps led to the implementation that was then chosen. It all started with step one, process ignition and demand creation, in April 2009. A series of workshops, people were brought together from the community to inform them about the CLUES planning approach and the proposed project to improve sanitation, environmental sanitation services for the Nala community. Closely linked to the ignition was user empowerment and the holding of several key promotional events like the sanitation bazaar shown here, where people were informed about solutions, about different technologies, and about how at the individual levels households could also improve their individual sanitation and water supply systems. The sanitation exhibition shown here was held on one day in November, 2009, and brought together NGOs from all over Nepal who showcased some of their solutions that they had come up with in other parts of the country. Step two was the launch of the planning process. This included household mapping, a socioeconomic survey, and a stakeholder assessment of all the key actors in Nala. In step three, a detailed assessment of the current situation was carried out. This included expert workshop and the assessment of user preferences that was conducted in focus group discussions. Important was that the detailed assessment and the information that was found during the assessment period was also shared with the community. An example is shown to the right: the water quality for the different public taps found in Nala that were shared with the population at large. In addition, exposure visits were carried out by the Nala committee. Here was all about learning from others, how had others solved some of their environmental sanitation problems but also exposing the users committee from Nala to management options and other technology choices that were made in similar settings in Nepal. Step four included the prioritization of the community problems, and the validation. The factors considered here were technical feasibility of solutions and the socio-cultural acceptance, making sure that the solutions to be proposed in step five really meet people's and users' expectations. During step five, the identification of service options was done. This included drawing up an action plan for offsite sewered sanitation, shown in brown on the map to the right, or onsite sanitation for VIP latrines. The two areas were selected due to physical conditions. The green areas are areas that cannot be easily connected to the sewered network. The following, the three options that were discussed, both with experts and with the community, are quickly shown. The first option was a fully onsite, double VIP latrine option, which included pour flush toilets that are connected to a double pit solution and further transport and treatment that are offsite. The second solution included urine diverting dry toilets. The UDD toilets are quite well know in Nepal and have been tested in other locations, and of course, include an onsite treatment to separate urine from feces. Both of them which could then be used in agricultural areas outside of town. The third option and most complex option is the simplified sewerage connected to a DEWATS, Decentralized Waste Water Treatment System. This actually was the option that was chosen by the community, connecting existing pour flush toilets connected to a collection, then to transport through simplified sewers, treatment through DEWATS, and then final reuse or disposal of the influent to natural water bodies. All three of these options were discussed in the Environmental Sanitation Improvement Plan for Nala, which is shown here, and the action plan was drawn up and written by a local NGO, CIUD, which also prioritized black water and health and hygiene promotions as the first step for improvement of the urban environment in Nala. Let's look at some of the CLUES outcomes that have been implemented since. Nala has built a new offsite infrastructure system. It is the first sewered small town in Nepal that features a simplified sewerage network for the entire town, except for the few households we had mentioned before. 352 households are connected to the system, and each household pays a user fee, which amounts to $1,300 that are collected annually in fees. Out of this money, a caretaker has been employed, and he ensures a daily maintenance of the entire system plus treatment plant. The cost sharing arrangements for the capital expenditures was met by the local authority, the UN-Habitat, Water Aid, and Eawag. Most of the capital costs were paid by external donors such as UN-Habitat or Water Aid. There was, however, a significant contribution by the Nala community, contributing an estimated 37% of the overall CAPEX for sewers and the DEWATS plant. All households connected to the sewer system were expected to pay a connection fee of USD$80 and could apply for a micro-finance loan with 6% interest yearly. By 2014, all of the loans have been repaid. Great attention was also paid to operation and maintenance, and during the construction period, an O&M workshop was conducted with the Nala Water and Sanitation Users Committee. Since 2013, a full time caretaker has been employed who ensures smooth running of the sanitation services and can troubleshoot any problems in daily operations of both the simplified sewer and the plant. After over one year of operation, the simplified sewers have only been blocked once due to construction activities whilst connecting a new household. The infrastructure that was put in place in Nala includes a state-of-the-art DEWATS treatment plant, including 36 cubic meter settling tanks, two ABReactors with 105 cubic meter volume, and shown in the left in the background, two horizontal subsurface flow constructed wetlands with a surface area of 210 square meters. This is during construction phase. That is why the constructed wetlands have not yet been planted. The entire spatial footprint of the plant is 350 square meters. The overall treatment capacity is designed for 32 meter cube per day. The management arrangements were also a key to the success of the Nala planning. It involved three key actors: most importantly the WatSan Users Committee, which is legally registered entity that acts as the local operator and ensures the long term O&M of the system. The Users Committee also collects the annual maintenance fee from each household. Second, the formal LA, local authority, called Village Development Committee, or VDC in Nepal. They were instrumental in ensuring the land acquisition for the DEWATS plant. Lastly, the supporting NGO, CIUD which provided expertise and coordination on the ground, ensuring smooth planning and implementation. Let's take a look at the capital expenditure and operational expenditure of the Nala case. On the CAPEX side, we have costs for the planning, the DEWATS plant, the simplified sewerage, and quite a hefty cost, the land acquisition, at USD$31,000. Together, these costs add up to a per capita capital expenditure of USD$75 per capita for both sewers and DEWATS plant, and that is quite a good price ratio for a complete system for a small town. Important to note is also the high cost contribution by the users, which adds up to an estimated 37% of all the costs mentioned above. This was brought by in-kind contributions in cash, or through labor contributions. The estimated operational costs are given at around USD$1,000 per year, although this number is only after one year of operation. The timeline, the planning took 14 months in 2009 and 2010, and the implementation, 12 months between 2011 and 2012. Some of the conclusions and lessons learned from the CLUES case study in Nala. It pays to have a strong, community based leadership that is well rooted in the community and can drive forward the process. Secondly, the labor and cash contributions by the community contributed considerably to lowering the costs of the overall infrastructure and services that were put in place. Thirdly, the incremental improvements that were brought to the system, starting out with the black water system put into place for Nala, combined together with hygiene promotion efforts. Then fourthly, the informed choice by key stakeholders in Nala, ensuring that empowerment and ownership of the new services and infrastructures are guaranteed in the long run. This was the first case study presented in week four on different case studies of urban sanitation planning and implementation, and gave an overview of the CLUES approach between 2009 and 2012 in Nala, Nepal.
