Scoping Study: Faecal Sludge Treatment Plants in South-Asia and sub-Saharan Africa
Creators: name: Klinger, Marius
name: Amadou Gueye
name: Sherpa, Anjali Manandhar
name: Strande, Linda
name: , Bill
Publisher: name: Gates Open Research
Year: 2019

description: Worldwide over the last years, a shift has taken place in the acceptance of faecal sludge management (FSM). It is now considered by many to be a viable solution alongside sewer-based systems in achieving citywide inclusive sanitation, and faecal sludge treatment plants (FSTPs) are starting to be constructed throughout Asia and Africa. For example, more than 40 FSTPs started operation in India and Bangladesh in the last four years, more than 30 are under construction in Uganda, and more than 400 will be constructed in India the next two years. This scaling up is urgently needed, as every year tons of faecal sludge are discharged directly into the environment. However, there is a lack of adequately functioning FSTPs, and a lack of information on operating FSTPs, upon which to base this scaling up. Inadequate designs will lead to the failure of many future FSTPs. Hence, there is a desperate need to learn from the failures and successes of existing FSTPs, so that future designs and scaling up can be sustainably.<br><br>Identified Challenges and Reasons for Failures<br>Based on project expertise and the results of the scoping study, the main challenges for FSTP failures are: Institutional recognition: In general, institutional frameworks for the regulation of FSM are not well established. For FSM to be a success, governments need to acknowledge the need. Quantities and Qualities (Q&amp;Q) of faecal sludge: Q&amp;Q of faecal sludge are highly variable, which greatly complicates operation. Financial and technical resources for analytical methods are lacking, but they are necessary to design treatment plants for operation, and to monitor treatment performance. New methods and approaches need to be developed to address this gap. Eawag has recently developed and field-tested methods to address this gap (Strande et al. in preparation and Bousek, Skodak et al. 2018) Capacity for operation: O&amp;M is one of the most common reasons for failure of FSTPs, and financial resources for FSM are lacking. Due to the rapid growth and implementation of management and treatment solutions, there is a lack of trained design, operation, and management capacity. Many planned FSTPs will be located in small towns or peri-urban areas. Therefore, they will require the development of stand-alone, relatively easy to implement, adaptive operating and management guidelines. Design for operation: There is little to no information available on the actual operation of FSTPs. Hence, there is no way to learn from existing experience to improve future design and operation. Currently, designs are based on estimated average values, even though faecal sludge does not follow a normal distribution, meaning the design assumptions are not valid during operation. The result is treatment technologies that are not loaded correctly, which leads to poor treatment performance and/or failure. There is an urgent need to figure out how to design FSTPs for the reality of actual operating conditions, so they can be operated effectively under real-life conditions. Communication: Coordination and communication between the stakeholders throughout the entire FSM service chain remains a challenge. Pathways of communication for active South – South sharing of knowledge need to be strengthened.Project Objectives<br>FSM is now at a turning point with rapid scaling-up, but there are still many barriers to success to overcome. At this transition point, it is imperative to learn from existing FSTPs, in order to solve these hurdles for the design and operation of future FSTPs. The scoping study was designed to identify current gaps, evaluate the actual operating condition of existing FSTPs in comparison to design assumption, and to lay the foundation for what next steps should be taken.<br><br>The report is comprised of two parts: An overall analysis of the situation in 13 countries from South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa and a tentative way forward. 20 factsheets that summarize important aspects of the FSTPs that were visited during the scoping study. The factsheets are separated into four main parts: background; management scheme; designed versus actual operation and; challenges and way forward.