Fecal Sludge Management in Bangladesh

A way forward to overcome urban sanitation challenges engaging Microfinance institute and private sector
Written By Zahid Hossain, Consultant, World Bank Group-water
June 2017

Introduction: Bangladesh, a country of 160 million people, and about 25% people among them have been living in
urban and this trend continuously increasing over the year eventually urban is extended. So rapid urbanization in
Bangladesh is creating an increasing strain on overburdened infrastructures, as well as more demand on limited
public services. However, in terms of open defecation free (ODF)
Bangladesh achieved commendable sanitation success during the 15
year Millennium Development Goals (MDG) period. The laudable
achievement was possible through a remarkable growth in on-site
sanitation (OSS) facilities of which about 98% of the people in the
country depend upon. However, the management of OSS remains
neglected with a large quantity of fecal sludge generated in these
facilities inaptly managed leading to significant environmental, health
and economic challenges. This is an alarming in 11 City Corporations
and 325 Paurashavas (Municipalities) in Bangladesh rather than in
rural areas as couple of reasons are in behind, one of them urban is
very congested and depended on services provided by city/town
authorities. Nowadays the challenge to providing the services by
municipality has been critical due to rapid urbanization with limited
resources in Bangladesh. In urban area, OSS facilities have become
major sources of groundwater and surface water pollution, with
significant environmental, public health, and economic impacts. Most
OSS facilities including septic tanks are built without following any
engineering design principle and therefore perform poorly, as was
evident from a case study conducted by K-Hub, ITN-BUET (2015). In
the absence of effective fecal sludge management (FSM) services, a
huge quantity of FS generated in septic tanks and pits/pour- flush
latrines are being discharged in low-lying areas, storm water drains, in lakes, canals and rivers leading to serious
environmental degradation, particularly in urban areas, endangering public health. A root cause for lack of FSM
services in these cities and towns is that there is no clear assignment of responsibilities with regard to fecal sludge
management among the utility service providers (e.g. Water Supply and Sewerage Authority, City Corporations and
Pourashavas) [ SNV and DevCon, 2014] . There is also lack of awareness among these institutions and
organizations as well as town dwellers regarding FSM. As a result, there is a lack of concerted effort by all concerned
to address this serious issue.
What is FSM?
Fecal Sludge Management (FSM) refers to a systems approach that includes technologies and mechanisms for
containment/ storage, emptying, collection, transportation, treatment, disposal and/ or reuse of sludge produced in
onsite sanitation systems such as
septic tanks and pit/pour flush
latrines. Conventional sewerage is
not included in a FSM system. FSM
system elements should be
considered holistically:
 User: Raise awareness regarding entire
Current FSM practice in Bangladesh service chain and ensure participation in all
FSM has recently been initiated as an urban sanitation stages of planning, design, implementation,
option in some areas operation and maintenance of FSM services.
Some 16 Paurashavas (Municipal) have initiated FSM Users are a critical stakeholder in the
services, on a limited scale, with treatment plants built system.
with assistance from the Department of Public Health
Engineering (DPHE) and NGOs, and employing Containment /storage: Proper design for
Vacutug for emptying, collection and transportation effective containment of fecal matter like as
of fecal sludge to treatment plants. septic tank
SNV, international NGO supporting Khulna City Emptying: sufficient access for mechanical
Corporation, Jinaidah and Kustia Paurashavas for desludging, example as vacutug
implementing FSM Collection: Align collection vehicle size with
Local Government Engineering Department has just available access to OSS facilities.
started to implement FSM under Coastal Towns Transport: Include transfer stations for cost-
Environmental Infrastructure project in 4 towns effective transport of fecal sludge up to
In all urban areas, unhygienic manual emptying treatment plants.
systems predominate over the mechanical emptying Treatment: Ensure availability of land for
system using vacutug because of its limited establishment of fecal sludge treatment
availability and lack of public awareness. plants.
Source: ITN-BUET K-Hub policy brief and SNVs webpage Disposal/ Reuse: Implement quality
assurance of treatment and of treated FS for
end use.
Policy Message:
Sanitation means human excreta and sludge disposal, drainage and solid waste management. Source: National Water
Supply and Sanitation Policy 1998
Recently approved Sanitation Strategy by GoB has laid down the broad direction for managing fecal sludge
(FSM), to be worked out in greater details during the 7th Five Year Plan period. Source: 7th Five Year Plan
A municipality shall make adequate arrangements for the removal of refuse from all public streets, public latrines,
urinals, drains, and all buildings and land vested in the municipality and for the collection and proper disposal of
such refuse. Source: local government (municipality) act 2009

Scope of Implementing the FSM engaging Microfinance institute and private sector:
As FSMs service has been segment into storage, collection, transportation and treatment where key stakeholder is
different to operate the every segment effectively keeping environmental safeguard also.

Customer is to be aware to construct
septic tank with engineering
consideration and eager to pay
against the service of emptying the
septic tank
Private sector will be engaged by
municipality to provide service to
collection, transportation and
discharge through marketing
approach ( service by pay)
Municipality will construct the FS
treatment plant with the assistant of
government
 Segment Traditional process Upgrade process Means of implementation
Local sanitation
entrepreneurs/ masons are to
be skilled for construct septic
tank with standard
specification at household
Septic tank with soak pit. level
Construction BDT 20 to 40 Municipality is to be capable
thousand (HH level) to aware the town dwellers by
Connecting to drain.
Storage motivational works and legal
Septic tank constructing
without engineering frame.
consideration Finance is to be provided to
users by Microfinance
Institute (MFI) to construct
Septic tank with baffle septic tank where needs
reactor and soak pit MFI also assist to aware
Construction BDT 30 to 50 people on septic tank in order
thousand (HH level) to increasing the outstanding
(Considering engineering
specification)
of credit
Service by pay. So good
service will ensure more
income
Collection, Private group can hire
transportat vacutug from municipality or
ion and can purchase taking financial
disposal assistance from MFI
Manually by bucket

By mechanical device -
Vacutug
Municipality will construct FS
treatment plant
GoB will financial support to
construct FS treatment plant
Treatment GoB can take loan or seek
grand from multilateral/
bilateral donor
No treatment. Discharge into
open drain and low land Environmentally FS treatment
plant

Microfinance Institute:
A huge number of Microfinance Institutes (MFIs) have been working in Bangladesh, prior they were known as
Microcredit that offered financial service only to very poor people. Right now MFIs supplement the loan that is big
amount compare to the before with other financial services (saving, insurance etc.). Markoski (2002, p. 117) states
that MFIs have a dual missions: a social mission to provide financial services to large number of low-income persons
to improve their welfare, and a commercial mission to provide those financial services in a financial viable manner
It is observed, a Branch office of any MFI where has 5 loan officers has reached generally 2.5 to 4 core BDT as
outstanding, and among them 35% to 45% is saving of credit group. So it is easy to calculate roughly how much
money has been saving and taking loan in a village in Bangladesh where many MFIs working in same area, and
there, these money has not been using for only income generating activities but also using to others for improving
their living standard like improving house, latrine, furniture as well as other necessary utilities. ASA, one of leading
MFI in Bangladesh has started Sanitation program using credit approach with taking technical assistance from
World Bank since 2014 whose good practice in sanitation convinced PKSF ( Nonprofit company, established by GoB
) under World Bank supporting to involve sanitation program using microfinance support called as OBA Sanitation
Microfinance Program since March 2017. So due to nature, MFI can easily be involved to implement the FSM where
they have credit group and Fecal Sludge Management is feasible in Bangladesh
Challenge: The lot of challenge regarding FSM, and some of them are follows:
a) Local government is not capable in terms of skilled and sufficient number of manpower
b) Local governments staff are not interested to motivate people regarding FSM
c) Town dwellers are not interested to pay against the service of emptying the septic tank
d) Narrow road in town is making critical access for Vacutug
e) FS treatment plant is not being operated properly due to lack of skilled operator and insincerity regarding the
O & M cost.

Conclusion:

What more needs to happen?
Raise awareness among stakeholders
including policymakers, local authorities,
and urban dwellers on the benefits of
FSM
Cost effective design of septic tank
Use the institutional and regulatory
framework to regulate and coordinate the
FSM service
Improve the performance of the
technologies with increased monitoring
and enforcement by relevant authorities
Train personnel to plan, design, construct,
and operate FSM infrastructure
Secure financial resources for establishing
FSM infrastructure and services in urban
local authorities
We need to move up from basic sanitation already
achieved to sustainable sanitation considering
environmental safeguard issues known as sanitation
with FSM within the timeframe set by government. In
this regards all of the stakeholders of FSM should to
be responsible to their due responsibilities for
operating the FSM. So it is essential to make a frame
work on how financing issues is to be addressed as it
is a great precondition for operating FSM. In this
paper, I wanted to try to address the financial issues
on different segments of FSM by MFI. I hope,
considering the above option, any organization can
piloting the FSM engaging MFI and private sector for
taking the learning which is to be replicated in broad
scale in later if have best practices there.

Reference: ITN-BUET K-Hub policy brief, SNV and WaterAids webpage, survey report by SNV and DevCon, 2014, National Sanitation
Strategy, National water supply and sanitation policy, 7th Five Year Plan of GoB, Perspective Plan of Bangladesh 2010-2021, OBA-Sanitation
Microfinance program by World Bank, Microfinance literature review by Eoin Wrenn

Lets go to make a clean town where we live together