A Preliminary Study of a Water, Hygiene and Ecological Sanitation Project in a Rural Village in Bihar State of India
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A PRELIMINARY STUDY OF A WATER, HYGIENE AND ECOLOGICAL SANITATION PROJECT IN A RURAL VILLAGE IN BIHAR STATE OF INDIA Abhilash Salimath April 2014 TRITA-LWR Degree Project ISSN 1651-064X LWR-EX-2014:13 Abhilash Salimath TRITA LWR Degree Project 14:13 © Abhilash Salimath 2014 Environmental Engineering and Sustainable Infrastructure Degree Project Done in association with the Stockholm Environment Institute and WASHi Department of Land and Water Resources Engineering Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) SE-100 44 STOCKHOLM, Sweden Reference should be written as: Salimath, A (2014) “A preliminary study of a Water, Hygiene and Ecological Sanitation project in a rural village in Bihar state of India” TRITA-LWR Degree Project pp 1-67 ii A preliminary study of a Water, Hygiene & ecosan project in a rural village in Bihar SUMMARY IN ENGLISH This thesis comes as a result of the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA)-financed action research project which comes as collaboration between the Water Sanitation and Hygiene Institute (WASHi) in India, the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), Sweden and Systematic Agro-Based Research Institute (SABRI) which focuses on sustainable sanitation solutions in areas that lack sanitation facilities of any kind. The idea behind this project was to bring about a change in the practises of the community members of this village from the current practise of open defecation (ODF) to using a sanitation facility. Promoting hygiene and educating the community members about the benefits of an ecological sanitation facility to bring about behavioural change among the community members was deemed as a critical step to ensure the success of this project. This thesis adopts the social research strategy known as „Participatory Action Research (PAR)‟ or just „Action Research‟. All formulations of PAR work on the idea that action and research should be carried out „with‟ the people and not „on‟ or „for‟ the people. The central aim of this preliminary study was to understand the underlying factors that would influence the acceptance of an ecosan toilet facility in all aspects including cultural, social, economic and environmental in the village of Mohaddipur in the district of Nalanda, India. The initial barriers that were identified in this village included lack of awareness, poverty, high levels of illiteracy, cultural sentiments, negative attitude towards handling human excrements and reusing them. The factors that influenced the implementation of this project included were monetary benefits by promoting the reuse of the human excrements, health promotion and safety for the women. These factors were the main drivers behind this project. iii Abhilash Salimath TRITA LWR Degree Project 14:13 iv A preliminary study of a Water, Hygiene & ecosan project in a rural village in Bihar SUMMARY IN SWEDISH En första studie om ett vatten-, hygien- och ekologiskt sanitetsprojekt i en landsortby i Bihar i Indien. Detta arbete är resultatet av ett tillämpat forskningsprojekt, stött av SIDA och baserat på ett samarbetsprojekt mellan WaterSanitation and HygieneInstitute (WASH), Stockholm Environmental Institute (SEI) samt Systematic Agrobased Research Institute (SABRI). Det är inriktat på lösningar för uthållig sanitet i ett område där anordningar för sanitet över huvud taget inte finns. Tanken bakom projektet var att få till stånd förändringar i vanorna hos innevånarna i denna by från det rådande sättet att förrätta sina behov var som helst (opendefecation ODF) till att använda en toalett. Att befordra hygien och ge byinnevånarna kunskap om fördelarna med en ekologisk toalett ansågs vara kärnan i att nå framgång med projektet. Detta arbete tillämpar den sociala forskningsstrategin känd som ”deltagarorienterad aktionsforskning ” eller kort sagt ”aktionsforskning” innebärande ett aktivt deltagande av alla involverade. Alla formuleringar inom aktionsforskning är baserade på att handling och forskning skall utföras med deltagarna och inte som en studie över eller för dessa. Det väsentligaste syftet med denna första studie var att förstå de underliggande faktorer som kan påverka acceptansen av en ekologisk toalett i alla avseenden, kulturella, ekonomiska och miljömässiga, i byn Mohaddipur i distriktet Nalanda i Indien. Den första svårigheten som identifierades i denna by innefattade brist på insikt, fattigdom, omfattande brist på läs- och skrivkunnighet och kulturella attityder som en negativ syn på att hantera mänsklig avföring och använda den. De faktorer som påverkade genomförandet av detta projekt innefattade ekonomisk vinning genom återanvändning av mänsklig avföring, bättre hälsa och skydd för kvinnorna. Dessa faktorer var de viktigaste stöden för projektet. v Abhilash Salimath TRITA LWR Degree Project 14:13 vi A preliminary study of a Water, Hygiene & ecosan project in a rural village in Bihar ACKNOWLEDGMENTS It comes as no shock that sanitation is not one of the “hottest” topics for a thesis. But to me, being a part of this project was perhaps one of the most exciting adventures of my life. During this time I realised, happiness is relative. Sometimes all you need to tell someone is that everything is going to be OK and smile and then see what happiness really is. It is sometimes never really about the money you have or the assets you own that make you a happy person, it is seeing happiness in the people around you that really defines true happiness and this I learnt from the people in the village where I spent some of the best days of my life. It gives me immense pleasure to thank the many people who were involved in making this thesis possible. Writing this thesis has been one of the best experiences of my life. The lessons I have learnt, the people I have met and the memories I will cherish are things I will hold onto for the rest of my life. First and foremost I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my supervisor, my mentor, my inspiration and my friend Cecilia Ruben who passed away on August 19th 2013. If it wasn‟t for her this thesis would have not been possible at all, so thank you Cecilia, you will always be remembered. I want to thank the members of SEI for welcoming me and supporting me on this project. I also want to thank Prakash Kumar, Sanjeev Kumar, Rajive Ranjan and everyone else at WASHi in Patna who welcomed me like family and helped me during my stay in India. A special thanks to Jamie Myers for being not just a good colleague to work with but also a good friend. I would like to thank my supervisor Nandita Singh whose guidance, encouragement and advice contributed a great deal towards the completion of this thesis. A special thanks to Kedar Uttam for letting me invade his office space and privacy and for guiding me on the right track and for patiently addressing all my problems along this journey. A big up for my friends back in India and the ones here at Stockholm for keeping me sane and composed throughout this project. Thank you mom and dad for always being there and motivating me. You are my role models who I will always look up to in life. I would also like to thank my little sister for all the pep talks whenever I was down. If it wasn‟t for you guys this thesis wouldn‟t have been what it is now. Big thanks to the most important people who have influenced this thesis, the people of Mohaddipur, who welcomed an outsider into their community and treated me like their own. I hope this sanitation facility improves their lives and contributes to a better living. It is never easy to talk about sanitation and especially to an outsider. But the people of Mohaddipur have been nothing but helpful and co-operative with me during the personal interviews and the focus group discussions. Thanks to the family at the village I stayed with who treated me like the son they never had. I will always remember every one of them fondly. Thank you all. vii Abhilash Salimath TRITA LWR Degree Project 14:13 viii A preliminary study of a Water, Hygiene & ecosan project in a rural village in Bihar TABLE OF CONTENTS Summary in English iii Summary in Swedish v Acknowledgments vii Table of Contents ix List of Abbreviations xi Abstract 1 1. Introduction 1 1.1. Aim and Objectives of the Research 4 1.2. Relevance and limitations of the current study 5 2. Conceptual Background 6 2.1. Defining Sanitation and its other variants 6 2.2. Shortfalls of the current definitions of the indicators 7 2.3. The Story of Sanitation in rural India 9 2.4. A brief overview of the sanitation situation in the study area 12 2.5. Ecological Sanitation in Brief 15 2.6. Human excreta as a fertilizer 17 2.6.1.Urine 18 2.6.2.Faeces 19 3. Research Area 20 3.1. Introduction 20 3.2. Bihar 21 3.2.1.Closing the loop in Bihar 22 4. Methodology 23 4.1. Research strategy 23 4.2. Methods 25 4.2.1. Survey questionnaires: 25 4.2.2. Personal Interviews: 25 4.2.3. Focus Group Discussions (FGDs): 26 4.2.4. Personal Observations: 27 4.2.5. Documents: 27 4.3. The study sample 27 5. Results and Discussion 27 5.1. Description of the village of Mohaddipur 27 5.2. Characteristics of the village Mohaddipur 28 5.2.1. Physical Structure 28 5.2.2. Demographic characteristics of the study area 31 5.2.3. Occupational characteristics of the study area 32 5.2.4. Link between WATSAN and Education in the village 34 5.2.5. Water and sanitation situation in Mohaddipur 36 5.3. Encountered barriers and how they were addressed 39 5.4. The sanitation facility 45 5.4.1.