ACCESSanitation final conference accelerates sustainable sanitation in Indian and Philippine cities

30 May 2013

 

Representatives from project cities as well as other interested Urban Local Bodies, from the Ministry of Urban Development, the European Commission and  technical institutions – they all came to the same conclusion: while local governments are crucial actors when it comes to sanitation provision, they need support from regional and national  governments, in terms of policy guidance, financial support and institutional capacity, to be able to provide citizens with sustainable sanitation services. This was one of the key messages that emerged during “Towards Cleaner and Healthier Cities”, the final conference of the “ACCESSanitation – Accelerating City to City Exchange on Sustainable Sanitation” project that took place on 7-8 May 2013 in Delhi.

 

The event not only showcased the tangible progress made in  participating  project cities, including the developed sustainable sanitation action plans and implemented pilot projects, but also resulted in disseminating other community based sanitation planning concepts and implementation experiences.  

 

Mr. Antonio Marquez Camacho himself (Head of Sector: Local Authorities, Decentralisation and Local Governance, EuropeAid, European Commission), highlighted the key role of local governments “We in the European Commission are very much keen in supporting local authorities; we believe that we really need to address the issue of development at the local level and we need to empower local authorities with a set of competencies that have been defined by the law”. He then continued highlighting the importance of involving other stakeholders “We believe that local authorities must have this convening role, you must work with all actors in the territory, civil society organizations, businesses, with other local authorities in the region and bring forward local strategies, like you are doing now with this project with the issue of sanitation.” The need to involve the community right from the planning stage was confirmed during the two days discussions: only in this way sanitation plans can be locally appropriate and culturally acceptable, thus leading to lasting impacts.

 

Generating an awareness and a sustained demand for sanitation, especially among the urban poor, is in many cases the deciding factor for the success or failure of any initiative; building new infrastructure does not ensure sanitation service provision and community adoption. Active and consistent efforts to generate awareness among urban poor, leading to behaviour change, are an integral and critical component of successful sanitation provision.

 

Such efforts must be combined with capacity building of the local administration itself, to enable them to appropriately plan for and manage sanitation infrastructure and to choose suitable and viable locally appropriate technologies. Financing sanitation was also discussed in depth: the financial sustainability of sanitation service implementation has to be ensured by integrating Operation & Maintenance costs and subsequently assessing the financial viability of different technologies. Income generated from reuse and recovery of by-products at different phases of the sanitation cycle is also an often neglected but potential source of finance for sanitation services.  

 

Finally, the replication of best practices can and should be ensured through peer to peer exchange of ideas, strategies and actions between local governments.

  

More information about the project, together with the main outputs and case studies, can be found on www.accessanitation.org.

 

Read more about ACCESSanitation activities in South Asia.

ACCESSanitation final conference accelerates sustainable sanitation in Indian and Philippine cities
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