SUSTAINABLE SYSTEMS FOR URBAN SANITATION

Role of Architects and Urban Designers

Date: 16 – 17 October 2018

Submitted to Submitted to

Institute of Design Environment & National Institute of Urban Affairs, Architecture – INDUS University, New Delhi

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BACKGROUND

Today societies as well as nation are confronting the issue of Global warming and its consequences and hence they are trying to identify the ideal way of sustainable development holistically. In all the conversation of sustainable development, sanitation is however seems to be not given enough importance. Based on Census 2011, only 46.9% out of 246.6 million households have lavatories while 49.8% defecate in the open. The remaining 3.2% use public toilets. This means nearly half of ’s 1.2 billion people have no toilet at home. Urban cities in India have centralized underground sewerage system, pumping station and huge treatment plants. These systems are very expensive, needs large infrastructure, constant power, large water supply, skilled operators and heavy maintenance. According to the data released in the report “Inventorization of Sewage treatment plants, 2015” by the Central Pollution Control Board, out of the 816 municipal sewage treatment plants (STPs) listed across India, 522 are operational (only 64% are functioning), 79 STPs are Non Operational, 145 STPs are under construction and 70 STPs are proposed. The treatment capacity that is available is only for 37% of the total 62,000 MLD (million litres per day) of sewage that is generated in urban India.

Based on Census 2011, more than 45% of urban Indian households depends onsite sanitation facility and this proportion is increasing. In spite of large proportion of onsite sanitation system, little attention is given to proper construction, maintenance and safe disposal of faecal sludge and septage from septic tank and pit latrines. Poor and inadequate sanitation has led to significant health hazards and untreated faecal sludge and septage from urban cities is the main source of water and soil pollution in India. In October 2014, Government of India launched the Swachh Bharat Mission with the aim to achieve a Clean and Open Defecation Free India by 2019. This means that city needs to take care of Faecal Sludge and waste water that is generated.

AGENDA

A two-day introductory workshop is organised, in collaboration with National Institute of Urban Affairs, as an initiative to set platform and bring about awareness regarding issues of safe, hygiene and sustainable sanitation in Urban India. Workshop will discuss and focus on Decentralize Faecal Septage treatment systems and its importance. Experts and on field practitioner will share their experience.

The workshop was attended by 25 participants, representing students, professors, architects and urban designer.

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SCHEDULE

DAY 1 – 16th October 2018

TIME SESSION SPEAKER Prof. Bhanupratap Sharma, H.O.D – 14:00 – 14:05 Introduction to workshop IDEA – INDUS University Importance of Water and Anand Iyer, Chief Program 14:05 – 14:20 Sanitation for Architecture and Manager, NIUA Design community • Yatin Pandya (Footprint Earth, Presentation followed by Panel Ahmedabad) Discussion on ‘Sustainable Building • Anurag Tamhankar 14:20 – 15:45 Design for Water and Sanitation – (BIOME Environmental Reuse and Recycle’ (moderated by Solutions, Bengaluru) NIUA) • Dhawal Patil (Ecosan Services Foundation, Pune) 15:45 – 16:00 Tea/Coffee break • Sandeep Patil Presentation followed by Panel (Earthscapes, Ahmedabad) Discussion on ‘Ways for Architects • Pravin Bhikadiya 16:00 – 17:15 and urban Designers to contribute (Utthan NGO, Ahmedabad) to the cause of urban • Ashish Shah sanitation’(Moderated by NIUA) (Flow Dynamics India, Ahmedabad) Depinder Kapur, Senior Domain 17:15 – 17:30 Conclusion and Closing remarks Expert, Team Lead, NIUA

SPEAKER PROFILE

1. YATIN PANDYA - Yatin Pandya is an author, activist, academician, researcher as well as the practising architect, with his firm FOOTPRINTS E.A.R.T.H. Ahmedabad. He has been involved with city planning, urban design, mass housing, architecture, interior design, and product design as well as conservation projects. Environmental sustainability, Socio-cultural appropriateness, Timeless aesthetics and Economic affordability are key principles of his work.

2. ANURAG TAMHANKAR- Anurag is Additional Director at BIOME and has been working with the firm since last 10 years. BIOME has been a forefront organization in the country that has extensive expertise in providing knowledge services in water management and rainwater harvesting, ecological wastewater treatment and

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sanitation practices. BIOME’s unique capability lies in thinking through the key ecological and social issues in each project.

3. DHAWAL PATIL - Dhawal Patil is General Managers at Ecosan Services Foundation, a non-profit organization in Pune. He is an engineer with specialized masters in wastewater management from Germany. ESF has emerged as a leading knowledge hub in the field of sustainable sanitation and water & waste-water management. Through its dedicated, well informed, technically sound and streamlined staff, ESF promulgates capacity building and training modules of stakeholders, while providing specialized cost-effective technical engineering solutions.

4. SANDIP PATIL - Sandip is a landscape architect who balances his professional work at Earthscapes along with academic explorations at the post-graduate landscape program of CEPT University. His involvement in the profession ranges from public to private projects in various parts of India. Sandip has been exposed to the nuances as well as a myriad set of challenges demanded of a landscape architect and has been enriched by the ensuing experience. Sandip is actively involved in the development of landscape profession as a past member of the Executive Council of ISOLA, and present member of Managing Committee of ISOLA’s Chapter.

5. PRAVIN BHIKADIYA - Pravin Bhikadiya is an activist, a team leader and a community organiser. Presently, he is Chief Executive Officer at Utthan trust, Ahmedabad. He has conducted and organised several workshops and trainings on Capacity building for ecological sanitation, nationally and internationally. He has also conducted several awareness campaigns through camps, exhibition, focus group discussions for Environmental Sanitation, Hygiene promotion and quality of drinking water.

6. ASHISH SHAH - Ashish Shah is a Founder of Flow Dynamics India. Having a complete engineering background, and the zeal to work for the environment he floated Flow Dynamics India in 2006. Flow dynamics is a technology provider in the field of water and waste water treatment solutions.

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EVENT – DAY 1

Vishal Chudgar, Assistant Professor at IDEA – Indus University welcomed everyone for this half day workshop on water and sanitation, as part of IDEA Indus University Workshop series. He overviewed the schedule and agenda and explained the workshop being divided into two sessions, followed by panel discussion each. He introduced various speakers and invited them on stage to share their experiences and work towards sustainable water and sanitation systems.

Bhanupratap Sharma, Head of Department of Institute of Design, Environment and Architecture, INDUS University welcomed the participants and made opening remarks. He shared the collaboration between INDUS . University, Ahmedabad and NIUA, New Delhi – an

autonomous body of Ministry of Housing and Urban

Affairs, Government of India. IDEA, Indus University has signed a MOU with NIUA, Delhi to include course curriculum on sustainable building designs revolving around issues pertaining to water and sanitation. Bhanupratap also shared his concerned regarding the need for architects and urban designer to contribute to the cause of sanitation and wastewater management. It is necessary to work in team and address these issues collectively. He stated that it is imperative to understand technicalities related to wastewater and sanitation and foster partnerships with engineers, sanitation experts and Mr. Bhanupratap Sharma addressing the audience to understand need and technology providers to provide comprehensive solutions contribute to the issues of sanitation on site and wastewater management.

Followed by Bhanupratap Sharma, Anand Iyer, chief project manager at NIUA, shared his view. He discussed about the larger responsibility that we need to keep in mind and our commitments towards its starts at very small local scale. It’s about understanding once own skills, and how one can contribute with that knowledge . and skill towards the larger responsibilities. The focus should be towards the end product and the process ones

go through it doesn’t matter what path one takes. Laurie

Baker said that while designing one should have

consciousness towards larger responsibility. It doesn’t not matter what part you choose but how much you design in that part which eventually makes the difference. This job is of skilled person it’s not about dreaming less, it is about Mr. Anand Iyer is sharing his thoughts about sustainability as humble cause humility. Sustainability is humility and highest amount of and to focus on larger responsibility. craft.

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DAY 1 – SESSION - 1

SPEAKER 1 – YATIN PANDYA

Yatin elaborated on the postulate – ‘Wherever there is life, there is water and waste.’ And emphasized on the importance of architects owning up this responsibility and be inclusive about the topic of water and sanitation when they design and build. He started off the presentation with acknowledging the many challenges we face on the way viz. crisis in housing, poverty, economic disparity and so on. He showcased the work of Safai Vidyalaya and Environmental Sanitation Institute. Siting certain ancient buildings he spoke about the wisdom ingrained in the way water was dealt with.

SPEAKER 2 – ANURAG TAMHANKAR

Anurag explained the wisdom of traditional water system such as lake, tanks and water well that and its surrounding region had in the past and touched upon the present scenario about how and from what distance the city of Bengaluru receives its water. He explained the concept of closed – loop water system about reusing and recycling the waste water as far as possible. Moreover, he shared ideas and design that Biome has implemented in few of theirs projects, especially in ECO HOUSE, BENGALURU.

SPEAKER 3 – DHAWAL PATIL

Dhawal presented his views about sanitation being safe management of human excreta and wastewater. Environmental sanitation includes hygienic management of solid and liquid waste, control of disease vectors and provision of facilities for personal and domestic hygiene. He explained the scenario of centralize and decentralize approaches. Moreover, he also presented sanitation value chain via various user interface, collection and storage systems, Conveyance, and use and/or disposal of waste.

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PANEL DISCUSSION – SESSION - 1

Anand asked Yatin as to where does he put in the maximum effort in terms of working out costs, dealing with clients or contractors, as far as working out sustainable design solutions is concerned. Yatin said that it depends on one’s belief and the rest follows. Anand reiterated that it is not so much a problem of skill; it is more of a matter of right mindset. Anurag said that it is not necessary that these systems are expensive. If the intent is there then low cost solutions could be worked out. Upon being asked by Anand about potential health hazards once these systems are installed Anurag said that it is made sure that potable water containment is kept separate from waste water and there is no scope of contact. Anand asked Dhaval to give his views and Dhaval responded by

saying that in India the quantity of ground water consumed by bore wells is not accounted for as

there are no meters installed. He added that both architects and engineers should be will to work

in a collaborative manner for successful implementation of these systems. Anand remarked that

large parts of urban areas are not connected to sewage treatment plants and therefore it becomes even more important for architects to be mindful of it and work as a team with engineers, contractors and clients. Vishal asked as to whom the ground water really belongs to, to which Anurag responded that it is supposed to be a free resource as such. He added that in gates communities in Bangalore there are no permissions given to individual plot owners to do bore wells, they have just one community bore well. Also one cannot bore wells without permits. Yatin added that metering the usage of water is a progressive step towards monitoring the use of water by plot owners. Also by limiting the quantity of water that is supplied by municipalities one can have a more judicious approach towards usage of water.

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DAY 1 – SESSION - 2

SPEAKER 1 – SANDIP PATIL

Sandip started his presentation by pointing out a very important term called water sufficiency. He explained water sufficiency by questioning how much water is available and how much water is needed by case of several cities of India. He shared their work in progress for several institutions across India with several different challenges faced due to geology and topography and their proposal for such diverse issues.

SPEAKER 2 – PRAVIN BHIKADIYA

Pravin pointed out the major objective of UTTHAN trust to help and assist communities who lack the opportunities for changes and create leadership for empowerment. Major thrust area of trust is towards Gender equality, women’s right and empowerment, livelihood security, disaster management, access to safe water and sanitation etc. Pravin shared their field work for twin pit latrine systems in rural sector and their innovation for old age people and differently abled people. He also shared their work related to safe drinking water with communities.

SPEAKER 3 – ASHSIH SHAH

Ashish shared his experience in implementing and challenges faced during implementation of waste water treatment system for various sector such as Residential societies, commercial complexes, hospitals, hotels etc. He explained the current scenario of STP’s and issues related to the scenario. He also shared few of the advantages of treating combined effluent (Grey and Black).

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PANEL DISCUSSION – SESSION - 2

Anand Iyer opened the panel discussion by encouraging the audience to come up with their

questions, views, comments based on the presentations by Pravin Bhikhadiya, Dhaval Patil and

Ashish Shah. One question that was raised was how the panel saw an inclusive approach on the

topic in terms of reward mechanism being in place to acknowledge and encourage those who actually consciously conserve water. Ashish Shah responded by saying that the ground reality demands us to be self-incentivize ourselves. The questioner reiterated that in countries like Holland one can actually monetize the waste. Anand raised a point in discussion to Sandip Patil if it is possible to intervene in a project in a retrofit manner as far as water is concerned. Sandip reflected that is it possible but it takes a certain time. Because of scarcity or flooding issues, it becomes necessary to intervene at whichever stage. Another question from the audience was whether centralization is better or decentralization to which Sandip responded that as such decentralization is better from the point of view of sustainability but it is to be seen case by case. He added that it is easier to service at a community scale rather than a stand-alone unit scale and therefore the former should be tried out first. Pravin responded to Anand’s query if it is more compatible to work in rural scale for the kind of work they are doing by saying that it is easier to work in rural areas due to availability of land but one can say for example put soil over a soak pit in urban areas as well and use the land for cultivation etc.

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EVENT - DAY 2

Day two activities revolve around design workshop with students of 5 semester (3rd year) students. Workshop was led and moderated by Dhawal Patil. He started with a presentation explaining 3 major strategies RWS - Redefining sustainability and Resource conservation, Water sensitive design (Water system optimization, water conservation and water recycling and reuse) and Sanitation system and it’s scaling up. Workshop was further continued with exercise given to students in group of 5. Each group was given a different scenario and scale and they had to design sanitation system based on their understanding and learning from 2 days.

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GROUP 1 – HOUSEHOLD STUDENTS – Neerzari Patel, Hir Sanghavi, Honey Bhutoria, Vaishnavi Panchal, Meghavi Suthar

Students were asked to understand water consumption at household level and identify elements or process where they can reduce and conserve water. Students were able to identify difference between grey water, yellow water and black water and their respective sources. Understanding the consumption of water in single house and its wastage, they were able to relate the waste and loss at community level and city level.

GROUP 2 – HOUSEHOLD STUDENTS – Hani Momin, Shrey Patel, Stavan Trivedi, Mann Shah

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The project tries to address the issue of waste water management and resources conservation at a unit or a household level where the site is located on the bank of river with a settlement of farmers in its vicinity. The unit is meant to be used for a limited time of the year and its services would serve the community nearby. The waste generated by the cattle is used in biogas plant and is also used to generate electricity. The water and sludge that remains is used for landscape purpose at the household level. The project has tried to connect the individual unit to a community level.

GROUP 3 – COMMUNITY STUDENTS – Bhairavi Kikani, Prachi Patel, Vishwa Shah, Manan Oza, Pooja Bhavsar

The group was working at community level to understand and explore drainage system. The site was assumed to be a chawl in Dariyapur, Ahmedabad. The group discussed the present scenario of the service system and identified the issues with the system and came up with the solution that might help the community to accommodate better and sustainable system of waste management.

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GROUP 4 – INFORMAL SETTELMENT STUDENTS – Devangi Hinglokwala, Nimesh Detroja, Nancy Patel, Navneet Savaliya

The students were working on the informal settlements of Dariyapur, Ahmedabad. Students started to identify locations of toilets and timing of water supply. Moreover, students also identified the defecating, bathing and water storage areas of the residents. Presently, AMC provides water for two hours in the morning and half an hour in the evening. Resident fills containers and store water accordingly. Settlement has a common public toilet also; however, it is bit far, which then creates a discomfort for women to use it at night. Understanding these issues, group initially proposed a mobile toilet. Realizing the issue of maintenance, they then proposed on-site toilet in the settlement itself. Small tap with low flow of water and Bio toilets were proposed to minimize use of water.

GROUP 5 – TOWNSHIP STUDENTS – Kashish Mehta, Tanmay Raval, Jaimisha Patel, Tithi Patel, Udip Thackker

In order to understand the issue of sanitation and water at larger context, students took the case of township. Student’s referred to the case of ‘Magarpatta’ township in Pune as a study. In this study, it was observed that the commercial zone was in the center and residential zone was around it and that’s how the sanitation solutions were observed and

13 learned. Inspired by this study, student proposes the similar strategy for their case at township level. It is proposed to have storm water collection individually as cluster level itself to make it decentralize and handle able in size. The grey water, with minor treatments, from each cluster is used for gardening and landscaping and hence recycled and reused.

GROUP 6 – CITY Sanjana Nanavati, Priyal Shah, Rushank Patel, Manit Patel, Shreyas Panchal

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Challenges faced for water and sanitation at city level are very much different from the one faced at residential or community level. Group selected Dariyapur area in Ahmedabad as case to understand the present scenario and identify issues, if any, related to safe and hygiene sanitation. Students identified various zone such as residential, commercial and industrial zone and located open pockets in the same. As site is near , proposal was to supply water this area after initial primary treatment for use. Grey water coming out of each zone will undergo rigorous treatment and will be reused by industries and for landscaping. Black water will be segregated into solid and liquid first, where liquid will be sent to grey water treatment system, while solid sludge will be collected and stored. AMC will provide timely services to collect this solid waste and empty the collection chamber.

OUTCOMES AND LEARNINGS

The introductory workshop brought about awareness of the present scenario of sanitation systems in India, especially in urban context. It helped to create a dialogue between the designers and the system providers. Learning of the workshop revolved around awareness about safe, clean and hygiene sanitation systems.

WAY FORWARD

To incorporate learning and experience into the continuous curriculum at under graduate level in architectural pedagogy. To collaborate with different stake holders, organization, academia and expertise and potentially work on live participatory projects which hopefully benefit the end users. To make a demonstrative model of different water and sanitation systems which will help architects, students, and engineers in a better understanding of the subject.

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TEAM

NIUA – Delhi

• Anand Iyer • Depinder Kapur • Mohit Kapoor • Jyoti Dash • Amita Pathria

IDEA, Indus – Ahmedabad

Faculties –

• Bhanupratap Sharma • Vishal Chudgar • Pratik Zaveri

Students –

• Sanjana Patel • Navneet Savaliya • Uzair Jariwala • Deep Godhani • Nakshi Patel • Manit Patel • Rushank Patel • Tanmay Raval • Priyal Shah

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LIST OF PARTICIPANTS

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