WAC News Sept 2006

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dence that, world-wide, cities areattracting moreforeign peoplethan in the past. And although thescale of migration

varies amongworld regions,almost everywherecities are the desti-nations for peopleescaping poverty,conflict, humanrights violations,or simply thoselooking for a change, for some-thing better. The leading expertsat UN-HABITAT, and the authorsof the 2006 International migra-

tion and development Report ofthe UN Secretary-General agreethat migration, if well managed,can be good, both for the mi-grants themselves, and for thesocieties and cities they join.

Cities are the hubs of muchnational production and con-sumption economic and socialprocesses that generate wealthand opportunity. But they alsocreate disease, crime, pollution,poverty and social unrest. TheUN-HABITAT report on the Stateof the Worlds cities 2006/7says the number of slum dwell-ers will top 1 billion in 2007.Never before in history has theworld witnessed such a rapidgrowth of urbanization. Nodoubt migration is largely re-sponsible. In short, there arerisks and rewards of both ur-banization and globalisation.

This year, the Italian city ofNaples has been designated byUN-HABITAT to spearhead the2006 global celebration ofWorld Habitat Day on Monday2 October. The theme of theoccasion decreed by the UnitedNations to reflect on the state ofhuman settlements around theworld, this year will be Cities,magnets of hope. The theme,chosen by the United Nations, isto remind all of us that the worldis witnessing the greatest migra-tion in its history of people intotowns and cities. In 1950, one-third of the worlds people livedin cities. Just 50 years later, thisrose to one-half and will continueto grow to two-thirds, or 6 billion

people, by 2050.Just as migration is increas-ing, so the worlds cities aregrowing at unprecedentedrates. And although there is arise in absolute numbers ofpeople on the move, accordingto new UN research, the mi-gration flows around theworld today are much lowerthan in the period from 1860to 1914, when the percentageof migrants in some developedcountries was much higherthan now.

The latest facts and figures showthat migration and urban growthare strongly linked, mainly be-cause the majority of people onthe move go for the bright lightsof the city. The flows of peopleaffect the economies of boththeir home countries and those towhich they travel, especially thecities. There is empirical evi-

Volume II - Issue 11

World Habitat Day 2006 focus on Cities

September 2006

Publication on Social

Marketing of Sanitation

2

Community-based WAT-

SAN System Built in

Siddhipur, Nepal

3

Thimis Community Man-

aging Wastewater Locally

4

International Conference

held in Kathmandu, Nepal

4

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

Our research showsthat by the year2050, six billionpeople - two-thirdsof humanity - will beliving in towns andcities. And as urbancentres grow, thelocus of global pov-erty is moving intotowns and cities,especially into theburgeoning informalsettlements slums ofthe developingworld.

- Dr. Anna K. TibaijukaExecutive Director

UN-HABITAT

World Habitat Day 2006Celebrations in India

This years World Habitat Dayis being celebrated by the Minis-

try of Housing and Urban Pov-erty Alleviation, Govt. of Indiain Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhion 3 October 2006. HabitatDay address on the theme ofCitiesMagnets of Hope willbe delivered by Kumari Selja,Minister of State for Housingand Urban Poverty Alleviation,Govt. of India. UN SecretaryGenerals message will be readduring the opening session bythe Director, UNIO, New Delhi.

An exhibition on the theme isalso being put up jointly byHUDCO and BMTPC. In addi-tion World Habitat Day celebra-tions include release of specialpublications brought out on thisoccasion. National HousingBank of India has organised anEssay Competition and the win-ners will be given awards onthis occasion.

Dr. Tibaijuka has alsoaccepted the new andchallenging assignmentas Director General ofUnited Nations Officesin Nairobi (UNON)

Naples, host city of World Habitat Day 2006 is acrossroads of trade, culture and innovation. It is abustling city that will set many future trends.


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PAGE - 2 September 2006

In order to promote the demand for sanita-tion, the United Nations Human Settle-ments Programme (UN-HABITAT) Nairobiin cooperation with Sulabh International Academy of Environmental Sanitation(SIAES) India has brought out a Publicationon Social Marketing of Sanitation. ThePublication discusses in detail various sani-tation technologies which are sustainable,affordable and culturally acceptable. Itanalyses the various approaches for inte-gration of social marketing with hardwareto the implementing agencies in the contextof various socio-cultural, economic, organ-izational, financial and legal barriers per-ceived in promoting sanitation. Severalcase studies have been presented to under-stand the mechanism of social marketing

of sanitation.The Publication was released by Mr. BertDiphoorn, Chief of Water, Sanitation andInfrastructure Branch, UN-HABITAT Nai-robi in the presence of Dr. BindeshwarPathak, Founder, Sulabh Sanitation andSocial Reforms Movement in a functionheld in New Delhi on 24th September2006. Addressing the distinguished gath-ering and the media persons, Mr. Bert

Publication on Social Marketing of Sanitation LaunchedDiphoorn said that the socialmarketing of sanitation shouldfocus on advocacy andawareness building so thatpeople should be able to

make their choices, keepingin view the issues of healthand hygiene in addition tohuman dignity, productivityand economic gain matchedwith affordable technical solu-tions. Environmental sanita-tion, increased access to im-proved sanitation and its sus-tainability has been theglobal concern.

This publication will be extremely useful tothe professionals, administrators, policy-

makers, the academicians and all stake-holders who are engaged in the promotionof sanitation in pursuance of the Millen-nium Development Goals. The gatheringwas also addressed by Mr. Andre Dzikus,the Programme Manager, Water for AsianCities Programme, UN-HABITAT Nairobi.In his address he said that official statisticssuggest that 2.4 billion people do not haveaccess to improved sanitation. Lack of a

toilet in the home means millions of peoplehave to spend walking to unhealthy and

sometimes unsafe locations to defecate. Hesaid that there is a strong internationalconsensus that increased access to appro-priate sanitation hardware (toilets) whencoupled with the adoption of key hygienepractices, it would have a major impact onhealth status, particularly for women, andthe poorest families with significant bene-fits to education and the economy.

Mr. Bert Diphoorn, Chief, WSIB, UN-HABITAT Nairobi releasing the Publicationin the presence of Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak and Mr. Andre Dzikus

UN-HABITAT in cooperation with Administra-tive Staff College of India (ASCI) has organ-ized third capacity building programme onEnhancing Water and Sanitation ServiceDelivery in Madhya Pradesh, from 11-15September 2006 in Hyderabad. Mr. V.N.Shejwalkar, Honble Mayor of Gwalior, Mr.M. A. Khan, Deputy Project Director,UWSEIP and other elected representativesand senior officials from Bhopal, Indore,Gwalior and Jabalpur participated in theProgramme. The Programme enabled partici-pants to adopt balanced integration of pol-icy, regulatory, technical, operational, finan-cial, organizational, social, and behavioralchanges for a effective and sustainable wa-ter supply and sanitation service delivery.The core objectives of the programme were:

To mobilize Political Will and advocacy topromote Change Management in Waterand Sanitation sector.

To promote an active exchange of experi-ences and enhance awareness of nationaland international good practices for ensur-ing delivery of water and sanitation ser-

vices particularly the poor and create envi-

ronment for pro-poor investments.

To enable participants to formulate abroad road map to meet the strategicvision.

The programme broadly covered five mod-ules on various aspects. In addition, studyvisits for the participants were also organ-ized during the four days of the programme.The specific objectives of the field visits wereto expose the participants on the practicalaspects and post implementation benefits ofvarious initiatives and best practices takenup in Hyderabad. The participants visited

various sites which included e-seva and Sin-gle Window Cell, Metro Customer Care,Metropolitan Water Supply & SewerageBoard; Water Treatment Plant & 24x7 WaterSupply Project of Kukatpally Municipality;Quthbullahpur Municipality and YousufgudaPark; and Sukuki Exnora BHEL Campus inHyderabad. The participants comprehendedvarious PPP initiatives like road widening,foot over bridge & toilet which are main-tained by Hyderabad Municipal Corporation

Capacity Building Training Programme at ASCI, Hyderabad

Mr. Bert Diphoornhas taken over in August 2006 asthe new Chief ofUN - H A B I T A T s Water, Sanitationand InfrastructureBranch (WSIB).

Mr. Bert Diphoornis a very wellknown profes-sional in the international water sector withmore than twenty years of experience in

operational management and the provisionof technical assistance and policy advice inAfrica (Burundi and Burkina Faso) and Asia(Yemen and Sri Lanka) in the area of waterand sanitation.

Mr. Diphoorn brings to UN-HABITAT awealth of experience in the internationalwater sector, both in operational manage-ment and the provision of technical assis-tance and policy advice in Africa and Asia.

New Chief of WSIB, UN-HABITATNairobi

Mr. Bert Diphoorn being publiclyrecognised by Crown Prince WillemAlexander of The Netherlands for

significant contributions to the GWP.


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slow sand filters and a chlorination unit. In addition to this, Siddhipurnow has more than 100 ecosan toilets, including a few indoor ones,about 150 new home composting systems, as well as a plastic wastecollection system. Work is now ongoing to construct community toi-lets and communal septic tanks for people who do not have enough

space in their houses or who cannot afford a private toilet. The com-munity also plans to purchase a septic tank sludge cleaning unit toprovide faecal sludge management services at the local level at anaffordable price. The sludge will be taken to a treatment facility inKathmandu for treatment.

As soon as WAC expressed its intention of supporting Siddhipurresidents in establishing a community-based water and sanitationsystem, the first three things the local people did were to form a UserGroup, write a letter to DWSS to hand over the old system to themand purchase a piece of land for establishing a water treatmentfacility. These actions clearly demonstrate their commitment to publicparticipation, local ownership and environment quality.

Just having water is not enough. It has to be treated says KrishnaKumar Maharjan the charismatic leader of the Siddhipur Water &Sanitation User Committee.

The 11 member Siddhipur Water and Sanitation User Committeeincludes three women, one of whom is the vice chairperson, andrepresentatives from all major political parities, traditional guthis andVillage Development Committee (VDC). For the past year, the grouphas been meeting twice a week to discuss the progress and planfuture activities. They also regularly interact with local communities tokeep them informed about the progress and address issues of con-cern. When the Committee called for applications for private waterconnections, within a week more than 900 people submitted theirforms, a clear indication of the popularity of the programme and theCommittees reach within the community. The Committee is now busy

raising funds locally (about US$75 per household) for the watersupply system and encouraging people to construct toilets.

A committee of 15 women has also been formed to promote house-hold waste management and sanitation. The women have trainedover 600 other women on household composting and have alsodistributed little metal hooks called Suiro to collect plastic waste.The plastic waste from households is then collected once a monththrough the 24 womens groups in Siddhipur and sold to a scrapdealer. In order to promote composting of organic waste at thesource, the programme has designed five different types of house-hold composting systems and these are being sold at a subsidizedrate, and the trained local women provide after sales serviceswhere required.

The place is much cleaner than before. It is difficult to see plasticlitter these days, says Laxmi Maharjan, one of the members ofthe Committee.

The programme has also involved school children in this initiative.Nature clubs have been formed in the local schools and the stu-dents are spreading messages on hygiene and sanitation throughstreet plays, rallies and various competitions.

UN-HABITAT is now joining hands with Water Aid Nepal as wellas other partners and local governments to replicate this modelin other communities in Nepal.

VOLUME II - ISSUE 11 PAGE - 3

Siddhipur, a small sleepy town just outside the bustling city ofKathmandu is now full of excitement. People are digging drains,laying down pipes, building ecological toilets, and more impor-tantly designing and crafting their own future. This little peri-urbansettlement, with just over 6000 people in 1308 households, isconverting itself into a model eco-community that demonstrates asustainable and eco-friendly community-based water supply andsanitation system. Siddhipur residents are also building ecosantoilets that collects faeces and urine separately and recycle themas organic fertilizer. Indeed the men, women and children of Sid-dhipur have a reason to be excited.

Having their own water supply system with treated water has beena long cherished dream for the people in Siddhipur. The peoplehad to depend on a thirty year old system that supplied waterstraight from the local stream through 52 public stand posts, and afew wells, to meet their water needs. The old system was able tomeet less than half the total water demand and because of thepoor quality water, many people, especially children, suffered

from water-borne diseases. Over the past ten years, Siddhipurresidents have knocked on many doors from the Department of Water Supply and Sewerage (DWSS) to District DevelopmentCommittee to get their old system fixed. But now, they have de-cided to do it on their own, with a little help from UN HABITATWater for Asian Cities Programme (WAC), Environment and Pub-lic Health Organization (ENPHO), a local NGO and Water AidNepal.

Besides water supply, poor sanitation has also been a major prob-lem in Siddhipur. Less than half the houses had toilets and opendefecation was a common practice. The community also has fourareas that have been identified as womens toilets. The town doesnot have a sewer system and household toilets are connected to

pits or holding tanks. In fact many people with toilets also wentoutside for defecation because they fear that the tanks or pits willget filled and emptying the tanks is expensive. Although most peo-ple had traditional compost pits called sagaa and naugaa intheir houses, these often suffered from lack of proper drainageand aeration.

The Siddhipur Integrated Water and Sanitation Programme waslaunched a year ago with the support of UN-HABITAT Water forAsian Cities Programme to demonstrate a fast track approach tocommunity-based water and sanitation. It is a comprehensive pro-gramme with components on water supply with treatment facility,improved sanitation, solid waste management and capacity build-ing. Additionally, in order to ensure that the system is pro-poor

and sustainable, a tariff system with different rates for private tapsand community taps has been designed. The project started with adetail analysis of the current situation, including gender assess-ment and poverty mapping, and preparation of technical designs.This was followed by implementation led by the local Water andSanitation User Committee. The community has been actively in-volved throughout the project and they will be fully responsible foroperation and maintenance. So far the locals have completedconstruction of the new intake at the Godavari river, laid down thepipe network for transmission and distribution of water, andstarted constructing the treatment system consisting of tube settlers,

Community-Based WATSAN System Built in Siddhipur, Nepal


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Editorial BoardHazari Lal, Director, Government of IndiaMalay Shrivastava, Secretary, UADD, State Govt. of M.P

Om Dharananda Rajopadhyaya, Joint Secretary, MPPW, Nepal

Debashish Bhattacharjee, ADB, India Resident Mission

Aniruddhe Mukerjee, CTA, UN-HABITAT, Bhopal

Roshan Raj Shrestha, CTA, UN-HABITAT, Nepal

EditorKulwant Singh, CTA, UN-HABITAT, New Delhi

After the success of community forestry and community watersupply systems, communities are now starting to manage thewastewater they generate. Nepals first community based waste-water treatment system at Sunga in Madhyapur Thimi was inau-gurated by Mr. Narendra Bikram Nemwang, Minister for LawJustice and Parliamentary Affairs on 1st September 2006. Builtat a total cost of Rs 1085 million with the financial support ofUN-HABITAT under the Water for Asian Cities Programme, Asian Development Bank, Water Aid, and technical supportfrom Environment and Public Health Organization (ENPHO), theplant uses constructed wetlands, a simple eco-friendly technol-ogy, to treat sewage from 200 households. Tests done by EN-PHO show that the treatment plant removes more than 97 per-cent of the pollutants from the wastewater. The project providesa good demonstration for national and international experts onhow wastewater can be managed at the local level. During thefunction, Mr. Bhushan Tuladhar, Executive Director of ENPHOhanded over the plant to Mr. Bishnu Dutta Gautam, Chief Ex-

ecutive Officer of Madhyapur Thimi Municipality, who thenhanded it over to Krishna Lal Shrestha, Chairman of the SungaWastewater Treatment Plant Management Committee. The Mu-nicipality provided the land for the treatment and has agreed toprovide Rs. 50,000 per year for the plants operation and main-

tenance. The technology of constructed wetlands was first intro-duced in Nepal by ENPHO at Dhulikhel Hospital in 1997 andsince then more than a dozen such plants have been estab-

lished. Sunga Wastewater Treatment Plant is the biggest oneand the first one to be totally managed by local communities.Because of their effectiveness and simplicity, such plants can bevery useful in the context of Nepal, especially if communitiescan be mobilized to construct and manage such plants.

Thimis Community Demonstrates Managing Wastewater Locally

PAGE - 4

Hon'ble Minster Mr. Narendra Bikram Nemwang being briefedabout the quality of wastewater after treatment

An International Conference on Management of Water, Wastewaterand Environment: Challenges for the Developing Countries, supportedby UN-HABITAT and other International Agencies, was organised byNepal Engineers' Association from 13-15 September 2006 in Kath-mandu, Nepal.

The Conference was attended by large number of participants represent-ing Government Organisations, NGOs, civic societies, academia, indus-

tries, business houses etc from within the country and abroad. The fol-lowing themes and sub-themes were covered in the Conference:

1. Institutional Aspects

Policies, legal and institutional framework; Public private partnership;Financial sustainability; Governance; Management information system;Human resource management and other related issues.

2. Water Technology and Management

Rain water harvesting; Ground water protection and recharge; Fogwater harvesting; Security of water systems; Water demand manage-ment; Community managed systems; Water safety plan and risk man-

International Conference on Management of Water, Wastewater and Environment

agement; Water conservation technologies; Operation and maintenanceissues; Virtual water and trading; Water quality & treatment technolo-gies; Monitoring and surveillance; Modelling techniques etc.

3. Wastewater Technology and Management

Centralised, vs. Decentralized WW treatment systems; Natural WWtreatment systems; Sludge management; Operation and maintenanceissues; Appropriate technologies for developing countries; IndustrialWW management and other related issues.

4. Environmental Management

Environmental health and sanitation; Sanitation issues; Total and schoolsanitation packages; Water pollution control; Urbanization and environ-mental issues; Air and noise pollution; Solid waste management; EIA;Health care and waste management and other related issues.

5. Cross-Cutting Issues

Millennium development goals; Poverty reduction; Gender issues; Re-search & Development (R&D) findings and disseminations; Cross bound-ary issues; Institutional coordination and other related issues.

UN-HABITAT

Water for Asian Cities ProgrammeRegional Office

EP-16/17, Chandragupta Marg, Chanakyapuri

New Delhi - 110021 (India), Tel: +91-11-42225019 / 22

Fax: +91-11-24104961, Web: www.unhabitat.org/water

WAC Project Office in India

E-1/191, Arera Colony, Bhopal,Madhya Pradesh, India

Tel: +91-755-2460835/36Fax: +91-11-2460837

Email: [email protected]

WAC Project Office in Nepal

UN House, Pulchowk, GPO Box 107,Kathmandu, Nepal

Tel: +977-1-5536699Fax: +977-1-5548597

Email: [email protected]

Documents

WAC News Sept 2006