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7th WEDC Conference23-25 September 1987

water, peopleand waste indeveloping countries

PROCEEDINGSedited by Susan Ball and John Pickford

lit.

Water and waste engineeringjor developing countries

published by the WEDC Group

Department of Civil EngineeringUniversity of TechnologyLOUGHBOROUGHLeicestershire LE11 3TUEngland

February 1982

ISBN 0 906055 12 1 softback

Printed by the University Printing Unit

Loughborough University of TechnologyDepartment of Civil Engineering

Water and waste engineeringfor developing countries

LIBRARYInternational Reference Centrefor Community Water Supply

7th WEDC Conference23 — 25 September 1981

water, peopleand waste indeveloping countries

PROCEEDINGSedited by Susan Ball and John Pickford

contents

LIST OF PARTICIPANTS 5

GROUP PHOTOGRAPH OF PARTICIPANTS 6

SESSION 1:

Opening Address 7Dr Peter Bourne, Co-ordinator, International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade

People's participation in slum upgrading 10

Quratul Ain

Discussion 15

SESSION 2:

Incremental utilities provision and affordability 18David B Allen, Forbes W Davidson and Alistair C BluntPlanning for community participation in water supply and sanitation: accounting forvariability in community characteristics 24Raymond B Isely

Community requirements in the design of appropriate water supply systems 20

Dr Alan Rew and F R Delauzun

Discussion 33

SESSION 3;Human resources development in water supply and sanitation 35Dr John H Austin, Dr Dennis Warner and Dr Mary Elmendorf

The interdependance of public health engineering and a system of lifelong education 39Terry Murphy

Vietnam's sanitation system 43

Dr Krisno Nimpuno

Discussion 49

SESSION 4:

What role for the consulting engineer? 52David 0 LloydUrban sanitation and planning in Khartoum and Omdurman 56Jack R Preston and Richard P Cree

Local influences and their effect on the concept and design of sanitation projects 61R B Harris and J F Jackson

Discussion 67

SESSION 5A:

Treatability of rice starch wastewater 71Dr Ahmed Hamza, Dr Fathy Hamoda and Dr Samia Saad

Membrane techniques in effluent disposal along with water/chemicals reclamation 75Dr S Basu and Sumit Moulik

Installation and operation of a Nigerian anaerobic digester based on crop wastes 78Barry I Wheatley, S E Etheridge and Dr K Adesogan

Discussion 82

n

SESSION 5B:

Organisation development 84R Franklin

The prehistory of public health 88Robert Miller

Treatment needed for groundwater in some Middle East countries 92

Dr Hassan Mitwally and Dr Jack I Ibrahim

Discussion 96

SESSION 6:

Irrigation in Africa and Asia - politics and problems 99

Chris Edwards and Linden Vincent

Discussion 104

SESSION 7:Migration and squatting and the implication this has on water supply and sanitation 105Hildegarda M VanlankveldDiscussion 109

General discussion; Women, water and waste 110

participants

Quratul AINDavid ALLENC E BASHAMS BASU

S K BHATTACHARYAJo BUKY

Peter G BOURNE

M CARLISS

Ruth CHARD

V H CHIPOFYAAdrian COADAndrew COTTONRichard P CREEC J N DAVEYJan DAVISF R DELAUZAND G DOWNEYAthleen ELLINGTONKen ELLISJ J ENEMARIER C EVINSRichard FAULKNERR FRANKLINBrian GRIEVESON

Craig HAFNERAhmed HAHZARoger HARRISJ E C HENHAM-BARROWAndrew HERBERTJ HOSEINJ A HOWLEYL M W HUTTLen HUTTONH Z IBRAHIMJohn F JACKSONC JOUBEBTT KATKOJ R M KEARSEY

T KHAKETLABrian KIDDDavid 0 LLOYDC MAIDMENTJ R MARSDENRobert MILLERHassan MITWALLY

Bill MOFFATW D MOSSL G MSIMBEJ A MUKUMWAB MULUNEHTerry MURPHYPeter NEWMAN

Community Organiser, UNICEF, KarachiPartner, Clifford Culpin and PartnersOverseas Liaison Engineer, Hepworth Clay Products (overseas)Professor of Chemical Engineering,Institut fur Organische Chemie, W GermanyWEDC Research StudentWorld BankAssistant Secretary General and Co-ordinator of theUnited Nations Development Programme, USADeputy Editor, Water Services,Fuels and Metallurgical Journals LtdPhysical Sciences and Engineering Adviser,British CouncilWEDC MSc Student, MalawiLecturer, WEDC GroupLecturer, WEDC GroupSenior Engineer, Watson Hawks ley-Lecturer, University of Salisbury, ZimbabweWEDC MSc Student, UK (Sierra Leone)Atkins Research and DevelopmentsWorley-Downey Mandeno LtdEditor, Waterlog Newspaper, EarthscanLecturer, WEDC GroupWEDC MSc Student, NigeriaSenior Engineer, Halcrow-Balfour LtdLecturer, WEDC GroupConsultant, UK

Principal Engineering Adviser, Overseas DevelopmentAdministrationSenior Officer, WASH, USAAssociate Professor, High Institute of Public Health, EgyptPrincipal Engineer, Howard Humphreys and PartnersAssociate, John Taylor and SonsWEDC MSc Student, UK (Fiji)WEDC MSc Student, Trinidad and TobagoDemco LtdDesign Engineer, John Taylor and SonsLecturer, WEDC GroupWEDC MSc Student, SudanAssociate, Howard Humphreys and PartnersEngineer, CSTB, FranceLecturer, University of Technology, FinlandSpecial Projects Controller, Engineering Centre,Water Research CentreUrban Sanitation Unit, LesothoProject Manager, Crown AgentsManaging Director, Halcrow-Balfour LtdEuropean Liaison Scientist, Water Research CentrePartner, Fawcett and PartnersLecturer, American University of BeirutProfessor of Sanitary Engineering, High Institute ofPublic Health, EgyptLecturer, WEDC GroupLecturer, University of SurreyWEDC MSc Student, TanzaniaWEDC MSc Student, TanzaniaWEDC MSc Student, EthiopiaLecturer, Ahmadu Bello University, NigeriaWater Research Centre

Krisno NIMPUNO0 A OBADIDAF A 0 OTIENOHarry OULTOND F H PHAROAHJohn PICKFOHDJack R PRESTONAlan REWCyril ROBINSONA C RUKOIJOS K RUNYOROSamia SAADS SACGROVColin SAYLESS M SSENTAMURichard SHIRRESE B TAWARIB N C UZOCHUKWU

Hlldegarda VANLANKVELD1 VICKRIDGELinden VINCENTBarry I WHEATLEYR P WHITINGJohn WILLISR WISEMANT WORASUTE

Bouwcentrum International Education, NetherlandsPrincipal Partner, Profen Consultants, NigeriaPost Graduate Student, University of Newcastle upon TyneDirector, Parkman Consultants LtdSenior Engineer, Binnie and PartnersWEDC Group LeaderPartner, Watson HawksleyAtkins Research and DevelopmentWEDC MSc Student, UK (Jamaica)WEDC MSc Student, TanzaniaWEDC MSc Student, TanzaniaProfessor, High Institute of Public Health, EgyptSenior Research Engineer, Norwegian Institute of TechnologyWEDC Research StudentWEDC MSc Student, UgandaFormer WEDC StudentWEDC MSc Student, NigeriaDirector Civil Engineering, Federal Ministry of Works,LagosMinistry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, TanzaniaLecturer, Singapore UniversityLecturer, University of East AngliaAssistant Manager, University College, CardiffPartner, Scott Wilson Kirkpatrick and PartnersConsultant, John Willis and AssociatesEditor, World WaterWEDC MSc Student, Thailand

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OPENING ADDRESS

Dr PETER BOURNECo-ordinator, International Drinking Water Supplyand Sanitation DecadeDr BOURNE expressed appreciation toLoughborough University and to John Pickfordfor organising the Conference. This type ofevent was vital for the interchange ofknowledge which would: be essential for thesuccess of the Decade programme,

2. Attention was drawn to a recent Oxfamadvertisement seen in Britain, part of a fund-raising effort for the Water Decade. Themessage was; "Water kills more people thanalcohol", Dr BOURNE thought this was aninteresting way of getting public attention,and it perhaps reflected on the fact that thegeneral public still had very littleappreciation of the significance of water tothe health and lack of health of so manypeople throughout the world. Because waterwas taken for granted in developed countries,there tended to be little appreciation thereof what a barrier it could be to good health.

3. About a year ago there was an earthquakein Italy. In one day 3000 people were killed,and there was great concern all over the worldgenerating massive contributions of aid - avery appropriate response to the tragedy.However, on that same day, 30 000 people - tentimes as many - died from water-borne diseasesthroughout the world, and not only died onthat day but on the next day and the next, andevery day since then. So this was a tragedyof major proportions, constantly with us, andin many ways a completely invisible tragedybecause it was not brought to public attentionforcibly, as events such as earthquakes were.

4. It was also pointed out that water wasnot just a health issue; it was a fundamentaltheme central to all development. As well aswater-borne diseases there was the matter ofhow far people had to walk to fetch water, andhow much better they could utilise the timespent in fetching it. Usually women andchildren did the water-carrying.

5. Also water could be used for agriculturalpurposes, cattle, light industry etc whichaffected the whole quality of life of thepeople living in the poorer parts of the world.

6. So it was out of growing concern for thelack of attention paid to this vital area thatUnited Nations organisations began to focus onthis issue in the late 1970s. It began withthe Habitat Conference in 1976 where there wasa major push for the creation of some specialprogramme which would focus attention and putpriority on the need to deal with the water

and sanitation issue as a vital threadthrough all development.

7. Subsequently the World Water Conferencein Mar del Plata in 1977 proposed anInternational Water Decade, which wasaccepted by the United Nations GeneralAssembly. The general feeling seemed to bethat a situation where more than 50% of theworld did not have access to safe drinkingwater and sanitation could no longer betolerated by the affluent developed nations.Rather than just deploring the situation itwas felt that it was necessary to set aspecific time frame within which thesituation could be put right.

8. The Decade time frame was set andformally launched by the United NationsGeneral Assembly in November 1980. This wasthe first time that the General Assembly hadgiven specific recognition of this type to aU.N. programme. There was much trepidationthat a party would be given and no-one wouldcome. However, the interest and enthusiasmwere so high that people went on speakinguntil late in the evening. This reflectedthe high priority put on the issue by manycountries.

9. Now, almost a year into the Decade, DrBOURNE thought it appropriate to look backand assess the progress made. He reflectedthat the launch of the Decade coincided withthe most disastrous financial situation seenin the international development field formany years. Almost all the major donorgovernments were cutting back theircontributions to development. For the firsttime since the creation of the United Nationsits budget this year would be less than thatof the previous year, and many programmeswould be cut back. It was therefore not avery auspicious time to create a newprogramme, especially one that was projectedby some to cost $300 billion over the nextten years.

10. However, the enthusiasm and activitycontinued despite financial constraints andmaintained the promise created at the launch.There had been committment to the Decade byalmost every developing country. Over sixtycountries had created national actioncommittees to co-ordinate the planning andimplementation. Dr BOURNE told participantsthat a directory of these committeesincorporating lists of the members and

agencies involved was available from New Yorkto anyone who wanted one. Also sixty-countries had national action plans in variousstages of development, and there had been amajor committment in principle if not alwaysfinancially, by all the international bodies,bi-lateral agencies, regional developmentbanks and the World Bank.

11. Dr BOURNE felt that after one year it wasbecoming clear that the greatest prospects forthe Decade were in Asia. There were severalreasons for this. Most Asian countries wereat the right stage of their development forwater and sanitation to be given a push. Manyof them had strong economies so thatinvestment could take place, and also many ofthem had very good academic institutions withmany well-trained people. So there seemed tobe the optimum environment for moving aheadthere.

12. By contrast, in Latin America, althoughmany of the same benefits existed in terms ofgovernment institutions and trained personnel,the situation was not so promising. There wasa similar effort to the Water Decade for LatinAmerica set up in the 1960s. Many effectiveprogrammes were set up then, especially in themajor urban centres. So these cities now hadadequate water and sanitation. As a result itwas now difficult to convince the governmentsthat this was an area needing priority. Theytended to forget the rural areas which werestill amongst the poorest in the world. Theproblem here was one of convincing governmentsto re-allocate efforts and resources away fromthe cities.

13. In Africa there was an interestingpattern of progress. In some countries suchas Malawi, Nigeria and Kenya there had beengood progress. However, in other countrieswhere there was no strong economy and a greatneed for trained personnel, a real effortwould be needed. But the speaker believedthat there was potential in Africa for some ofthe most exciting and dramatic changes in thequality of human life.

14. There was a similar pattern in the ArabStates, where there was affluence in the oil-rich countries of the Middle East and thesecountries tended to develop water andsanitation programmes as they built andexpanded their cities and towns. Thisdevelopment was taking place as a natural partof the country's progress, and not as a resultof the United Nation's initiative.

15. A particular concern had been to identifyspecific areas of progress which could beshown to the general public to help buildenthusiasm and keep the momentum going. Tothis end, as part of the Decade programmethere would be a special drive to try toeradicate the disease guinea worm. This wasnot a high-profile disease, but was of majorimportance in many countries in Africa and

Asia. Its most important feature was that itwas 100% transmitted by drinking water, sothat if the water could be protected thedisease would be eradicated.

16. Fifteen countries had been asked to puttheir highest priority in the Decade on theeradication of this disease. Already theIndian government had made it a major projectcarrying out a nationwide survey whichidentified every village where the diseasestill existed. It was hoped that similarprojects would be started in Africa.

17. Of particular significance was that thesevere symptoms of guinea worm usually camein the harvesting and planting seasons, sothat agricultural production was reduced by30% in areas where the disease existed. Thismeant that if the disease could be eradicatedthe whole standard of life in those areaswould be greatly improved.

18. Dr BOURNE continued by outlining therole of the United Nations in the Decadeprogramme:

a) Providing promotion and technicalassistance, and maintaining momentum.A group had been set up to co-ordinatepublic relations efforts in promotionby producing publications, films,posters etc.

b) Consultancy at the country level. Theprimary focus must be at this level.The countries where most Decadeprogress had been made were thosewhere the government had becomeInvolved and taken initiative andwhere national media had increasedpublic awareness. Much emphasis hadbeen placed by the media on the hugeestimated costs of the Decade, butreally these figures were virtuallymeaningless. Different areas haddifferent needs and there was a greatvariation in costs. The greatestproblem was not the costs themselves,but that the neormity of the overallfigure could intlldate people.

c) The United Nations was a smallorganisation and as such had limitedabilities. There was therefore a needfor It to reach and influence all theother organisations, including non-governmental voluntary bodies andprofessional bodies. The latter werenot only repositories of technicalexpertise for consultation, but shouldalso be encouraged to help by promotingthe Decade and raising money.

d) Every developing country had uniqueproblems and so the solutions would beunique also. Governments alone couldnot be expected to generate sufficientinterest in projects and so privateindustry would have to be encouraged totake an Important part.

19. Dr BOURNE went on to stress that the

9Decade programme was 'people-oriented'. Itwas not concerned just with technology orhealth, but with the totality of people'slives. This applied especially to women.The availability of clean water would totallyrevolutionise the lives of women. Hereaccess was vital. The increased timeavailable to women when they did not have towalk so many miles every day to fetch watercould be used to greatly broaden their lives.

20. The successful projects were notnecessarily those with the best technology,The people had to be involved in choosingsites and trained for maintenance so thatthey had a vested interest in the success ofa project.

21. An example was given of an area of Burmaknown as the Dry Zone. There the people usedto take their bullock carts and walk milesevery day to featch water. Now boreholeswere being drilled in 6000 villages. Acharge was to be made for the water from theboreholes and some people said that thevillagers would not be willing to pay for thewater. However it was found that the peoplewere originally paying the water-carriers fortheir water. The new charges were half theoriginal charges and so the people were happyto pay. The money collected was used to payfor the upkeep of the well and the pump andin some cases there was money left over fromthis to be invested to provide otheramenities such as schools. Another advantagewas that excess water was given to cattle socausing the milk yield to go up. This meantthat the children's health was better. Therewas heavy involvement of the local people inthese projects right from the start and theyhad been very successful.

22. Dr BOURNE recognised that even the mostidealistic people in the United Nationsrealised that there could not be 100%coverage in ten years. However he believedthat it could be anticipated that the goalwould be reached in some countries withinthat time. Also by establishing the goal, aprocess was set in motion so that eventuallythe desired 100% coverage would be reachedeven if it took a little longer.

23. As an example, in Britain 130 years agolife expectancy was very low, much lower thanin the poorest country now. Water supply andsanitation was the single most importantfactor in bringing about the change there.

24. Development could be seen as trying tospeed up history. In the developing world wewere trying to make things happen much fasterthan they would normally. It was notexpected that this process would take 130years in developing countries as it had inBritain and Europe.

25. An example of what could be done was thatabout fourteen years ago the complete

eradication of smallpox was proposed. Thiswas thought to be impossible, but it had nowbeen four years since the last case ofsmallpox. This was a monumentalaccomplishment and showed what could be donewith perseverence.

0Conference: Water people and waste in developing countries; 7987

PEOPLE'S PARTICIPATION IN SLUM UPGRABING

QURATUL AIN Conmunity Organiser, Baldia Soakplt Project,Karachi, Pakistan.

1. (a) INTRODUCTION:- Pakistan faces similarproblems like any developing countries.Karachi being its largest commercial andindustrial city, has attracted people fromall over the country, resulting in a tremen-dous increase in its population. The popu-lation of Karachi is six million and increasesby 5% yearly.

Thus like any other city of a developingcountry, a large number of squatter settle-ments have grown up. In Pakistan thesesettlements are known as "KATCHI ABADIES".About a third of Karachi's population nowlive in these Katchi Abadies, scattered allaround the city. One of the largest KatchiAbadies is Baldia Township.

1. (b). BALDIA TOWNSHIP;- Baldia town islocated towards the north of Karachi. Thesite industrial area which is very close toBaldia, provides employment for many of Itspeople. According to the cen«us of 1971, thepopulation of Baldia was 79,529. But now itis not less than 150,000 covering a totalarea of 430 hectares, having 24,200 plots.

1. (c) THE PEOPLE AND THEIR EXISTINGSANITARY CONDITIONS:- The population iseconomically and socially hetero-geneous.People from all over the country live insmall pockets called "Mahallas" which areextremely homogenous, because people belong-ing to same villages live within their owncountry.

Majority of the houses are semi-pucca, thatis the walls are made of C.C. blocks with noplaster and a tin or asbestos sheet is usedfor roofing. About 5% are hutments, and 5%have good quality R.C.C. construction.

Most of the people are unskilled labourerse.g. potters, and apprentice for masons andcarpenters. Quite a few are working asloaders at the fish harbour. But a goodpercentage of trained mechanics and technicalpeople work in the industries near Baldia.Unemployment seems not to be a major problem,although they are low paid workers.

Water is supplied by a network of stand pipesinstalled by the Karachi Metropolitan Corpor-ation (KMC) pumping station which deliverswater for about 5 hours a day. The area iszoned and each zone receives water for abouttwo hours every second day. (For details,refer to the report by John Pickford and

Bob Reed on Sanitation for Baldia TownshipKarachi, WEDC Loughborough University ofTechnology, Department of Civil Engineering).

The most common latrines are served by theconservancy system, which is not popular withthe house owners. About 70% - 80% of thehouses in Baldia has bucket latrines. Theresidents place a gallon oil drum or abattery case in a rectangular channel in whichfaeces is collected.

Another common practice is that the latrinehas a plinth on which defaecatidm i takesplace. This plinth slopes towards a hole, in •the outside wall through which faeces areremoved, and urine and cleaning water runsoff to the road-way or open ground outsidethe plot.

These containers or channels are emptied byself-employed sweepers, who collect theexcreta in bigger tins. Then the house ownerthrows water into the channel, to clean it.The water usually runs through the outsideface of the boundary wall, and stays there.

When the containers of the sweeper are full,he takes them to one of the three maindisposal points, or dumps the contents into anearer drain or vacant land. The condition ofthese latrines get worse when the sweepers donot come for 2 days. Excreta and waste waterflow on the streets. Sometimes a small poolof stagnant sullage and excreta are foundoutside the plot near the latrine.

The occupants of houses without latrines, andalso some children from households withlatrines defecate in open spaces. (For moredetails refer to John Pickford and Bob Reedsreport on Baldia and its sanitation).

2. (a) BACKGROUND OF THE PROJECT:- Accordingto the KMC report more than 1 in 9 babiesborn in the slum areas of Karachi die beforereaching one year of age. Those who survivesuffer from frequent diseases and ill health.The main causes of this high mortality andmorbidity rate are unsanitary methods of humanwaste disposal and a low level of healthconsciousness. Baldia, which is one of the largestslum concentration of Karachi faces theseproblems. The government requested in the early1970's the services of a Dutch AdvisoryMission (DAM) to assist in planning acomprehensive scheme for slum improvement. In-1979 the team recommended the construction of

11"Long Life" pit latrine, as a relevant solutionto reduce child mortality and morbidity rate.UNICEF got interested in the plan as the impactwas on children. Since pit latrines areprivately constructed and maintained byindividual families, they fall outside thescope of government physical improvements. SoUNICEF has discussions with government toidentify suitable governmental or non-governmental organization that can take thisproject. Finally the Karachi University'sSocial Work Department (KUSWD) and Pakistan'sJaycees (PJC) a non-governmental organizationwere contacted to undertake the project on anexperimental basis.

2 (b) AN EXPERIMENT IN CONSTRUCTION OFSQAKPIT LATRINE:- In August 1979, UNICEFbegan supporting these two organizations. Tostart with, Jaycees agreed to construct 30soakpits using UNICEF's funds.

Pakistan Jaycees contacted a local contractorwho is also religious leader in MuslimMujahid Colony (MMC) in Baldia. The pitswere constructed by this contractor withtechnical supervision by the engineers ofJaycees.

Three months later KUSWD had also agreed toconstruct 30 soakpit latrines. By this timeJaycees had already finished its construction.Having no experience in construction, theprofessors and students (I was one of them)of KUSWD visited MMC to orient ourselves onthe design and procedure of construction. Wemet the mason who was trained and involved inthe construction of the pits. We took a roundof the MMC along with the mason and some otheractive workers, who gathered around us toknow what was going on. We observed that MMCwas not a very poor area nor the sanitaryconditions were that bad. From here themason took us to his area that is Turk Colony.He extended his full cooperation to us, andrequested that the pit latrines be constructedin Turk Colony.

2 (c) TURK COLONY (TC) - The People &Community This community is right in themiddle of Baldia Town. It is a compacthomogenous community, who call themselves"Turk Sepoy" because their ancestorsOriginally came from Turkey as soldiers ofMuslim Army who conquered India.

The area was totally inhabited by TurkCommunity in 1958, when Baldia was a largeplace of vacant land, on the outskirts ofKarachi. In 1960 after the fire in the city,in which a large number of huts were burned,the government got them settled in thepresent area. About 250 small houses wereallotted to them. The area now covered bythis community is 70,000 sq feet, with morethan 500 plots, accommodating more than 600families.

The people of TC came from \teraval nearJunagarh State (India) in 1947, at the timeof partition of the sub-continent. Thecommunity is like one big family because ofinter-marriages within their community. Onefinds every family related to the other.Their language is Gujrati but they can speak

Urdu too.

The total population of this colony is about4000 to 6000 people. The family pattern isjoint family system. There is no governmentschool. Illiteracy is high. Eighty percent ofthe women cannot read or write.

Most of the people are skilled and unskilledlabourers e.g. masons, carpenters. Others areshopkeepers, hawkers, paddlers. There are twoschool teachers, a compounder, and a clerk.The average Income is Rs.400 to Rs.1,000 permonth (US$ 40 to 100). Few who work in MiddleEastern countries send home a good amount.Women are also involved in income generatingactivities within or outside their area.

Water is supplied by 6 stand pipes in 8 lanesof the area. These taps receive water everysecond day for 2 hours. There is extremeshortage of water.

2.(d) SANITATION BEFORE THE SOAKPIT PROJECT:-Sanitation in TC is similar to the conditionsexisting in other parts of Baldia. A study hasshown that the community has 80% bucket latrines.The people lack health consciousness and aware-ness of child care. But the presence of localsoakpit shows that the community had initiatedsome efforts to solve this problem. Thesesoakpits which they constructed lacked theproper technology. Thus the pits did notfunction properly, and were of poor quality.

On the whole the community was passive and in-active towards their problems, particularly insanitation. They had no support from thegovernment or from other authorities. Thecouncillor did not pay any attention to them,because they voted against him in elections.The people lacked confidence and determination.But the basic capabilities are present. Theyneeded knowledge and guidance in organizingthemselves and their efforts. The MMC has moreor less the same characteristics as TC the onlydifference is the community of MMC is not homo-geneous. The area and population is largerthan TC, The sanitary condition is better asmost of the houses have local soakpits, becausethe people are better off than the TC people.

3. PEOPLE PARTICIPATION IN THE CONSTRUCTION OFPIT LATRINES IN TURK COLONYThe pit latrines constructed by PJC were givenfree to individual families. The local peopledid not provide any assistance or contribution.The news, therefore, spread that every housewill get a free soakpit.

The KUSWD, on the other hand, wanted to developself reliance in the people. We did not wantto cripple and degrade them further by givingcharity. It was therefore made clear to themason and the people of TC that no soakpit willbe given free. The people must share in thecost and responsibilities of construction.

This created confusion, mistrust, confrontation,agitation and frustration among the residentsof TC because one area got free soakpits whilethey have to share in the cost. I along withthe Professors of SWD had several discussionswith the people. After a month of motivation,the mason and 10 other people agreed to do thedigging of the pit themselves, for which

12materials will be provided by UNICEF, whilethe local mason will do the masonry work.These 10 people and the mason belonged to acricket team in their area. They were con-cerned to clean the place so they can practiceon the streets of TC because there is no otherplace to play.

This group of young community workers starteddigging their own pits. This provided anopportunity for other community people toobserve the new design construction and utilityof pit latrines. Within a month 10 pitlatrines were completed. The pit W/C was10 ft. deep by 7 ft. in diameter was dug bythe people. Thus saving 30 to 40 US $ per pit.Masonry was done by the mason from thecommunity, and the materials were provided byUNICEF, The total cost of each pit was Rs.1,200 to 1,500 (US $ 120 to 150).

Within 2| months, 30 soakpits were completedby this active group of community people. Theprocess :forj?etting the families involved indigging the pit, and then the construction bythis group, gained them confidence andpublicity. Their efforts were acknowledgedand appreciated by the community and projectpeople. The constant visits by UNICEF andgovernment officials gave them recognition.Seeing this, more people joined them. They arenot only a cricket team now but they are lookedupon as community workers. Observing thisdevelopment, we helped them to form an organ-ization and trained more masons and workers.This facilitates the distribution of functionsand responsibilities in the construction ofsoakpit.

The group was organized to assist the projectin motivating the people to construct soakpitsand also guiding them on their proper use.Moreover, this group helped the community inidentifying the poorest, and selecting theplace inside the house for digging. While wewere able to motivate and organize the peoplein Turk Colony, there were also technicaldifficulties in construction such as (1)obtaining cement subsidy permit, (2) use ofcheaper materials e.g. PVC pipes, (3) constantdeviation from the technical design, (4)variable qualtiy of construction materials andpoor quality control, (5) difficulty of fixingthe U trap to W.C. bowl, (6) inadequate depthof pit due to sub-soil water and (7) a cheaperdesign to reduce the cost.

4. EVALUATION OF THE PROJECT:- The projectwas evaluated after the completion of 120soakpits in Turk Colony and Muslim Mujahid.

The PJC constructed good quality soakpits inMMC as they had the technological know-how,but they could not organize the people inbringing social awareness and development.

On the other hand, the KUSWD created a socialwelfare organization through the constructionof soakpits. They also followed it up andtrained the people on how to use them, andassisted on other activities of social organ-ization and development e.g. education forwomen and children. The KUSWD had motivatedthe people of TC but lacked technology so thatpits constructed by them were not of goodquality.

5. THE BALDIA SOAKPIT PILOT PROJECT:- TheUniversity of Karachi SWD has professionalexpertise in community development andorganization to take up the social andmotivational aspects of the project. Whilstthe PJC has professional expertise in manage-ment and technical/construction matters. Thusthese two aspects were collaborated and co-ordinated under Baldia Soakpit Pilot Project.

a) Objectives of the Project

i) To reduce infant and child mortalityand morbidity rate due to waterrelated diseases.

li) To create community wide acceptance ofsoakpits through improved communityorganization, and to later developother social sector improvementsbenefitting children,

b) The Structure

The project has 2 full time workers, a,community organizer from the University ofKarachi, Social Work Department and atechnical adviser from the Pakistan JayceesInternational. The KUSWD and PJC will workin close collaboration. The former will dothe motivational, utilization and follow upevaluation of the soakpits while the latterwill do the construction of the soakpits,and training of masons, and constantlyimproving the design to bring down the costof construction.

6. THE IMPACT OF THE COLLABORATION OF PEOPLE fcTECHNOLOGY ON BALDIA SOAKPIT PILOT PROJECT

By March 1981, more than 200 soakpit latrineshave been constructed by the project with theleadership provided by the Turk Welfare Societyand with assistance from the community organizerand the technical adviser. This time thequality of construction has improved and thetechnical difficulties overcome with the helpfrom the project engineer.

The project not only brought a positive changein the attitude of the people and the environ-ment but the process had multidimensionalachievements, (1) physically, (2) socially, and(3) technically.

- Physical Development:- There is no morebucket latrines in the Turk Colony. Eightypercent of the households have soakpits,either through the project or self made. Thestreets are free from human excreta. Thereis a new water pipe line which has increasedthe water supply. Four more water taps wereadded. The open drains for waste water frombath and kitchen is under construction. Thecolony's roads lights have 12 mercury bulbs.The roads are under construction. The colonyhave a cleaner look. Women now do not throwgarbage on roads. They collect it in a placeand later burn it, for the sweepers from KMCcollect it every third day with supervisionfrom the people of Turk Welfare Society.

- Social and Technical Development:- The bestachievement of the whole process is theemergence, creation and development of TurkColony Welfare Society. It has now 111members with 33 active workers. The societyhas also assisted us in preparing the

motivational and publicity materials lorsanitation and hygiene. It has recentlystarted a community newspaper, where theyexpress their objectives, achievements andlimitations. This paper has served in themotivational, utilization and technicalaspects of soakpits.

The organization has also constructed awater storage tank and supplied water to thecommunity when there is a shortage. It hasmarked houses with soakpits to keep anaccount of the houses assisted by project.It also undertook a census survey of theirarea.

I have also trained a group of women whodemonstrate and teach women and children onusing pit latrines. These women are alsogiven lectures on child care and hygiene bystudents of Social Work. The society hasarranged for a woman to give literacy classto women and children. UNICEF has agreedrecently to provide black boards and booksto this school.

Through the process of construction andmotivation I could reach the women andorganize them, around the project for otheractivities related to education, child careand income-generating.

All the tools and frames for the blocks werebought by the society. Four sets of diggingtools were loaned to families who wanted todig their pits. This accelerated the work.The society people and masons tried forcheaper designs. The mason was involved indesigning when Mr. John Pickford visitedBaldia as technical expert. He wanted tolearn from the technical expert a new designthat would not destroy the existing superstructure of the latrines. He knew that itcosts so much for the residents to firstdemolish the walls of his present latrines,then dig the pit so that the pan could befixed directly on the pit, then again re-construct the walls. Finally, after detaileddiscussion with the mason and Pickford adesign was prepared to satisfy the communitypeople. The mason has already implementedthe other design which was recommended byMr. Pickford.

Presently I have identified 10 womencommunity workers and trained them for thesurvey work on child mortality and morbidity.Identification and training of mid-wives inthe community is also one of the programmes.I also visit houses with soakpits that areconstructed by project's assistance andinspect the pan, if the excreta is there Itrain them of flushing the water so theexcreta can go in.

In addition to these activities of the organ-ization there are a number of examples whichillustrate the effect of this project ondeveloping peoples participation and confidence.

One example when they invited the Mayor ofKarachi and their councillor on completion ofthe soakpits, they organized a reception, gavea detailed written description of theirefforts in developing their area and at thesame time expressed their problems of water,

13street lights, open drains and roads. Allthese demands were presented to the Mayor,who was impressed by the community's efforts.Later, after constant follow-up they couldmanage to get what they asked from theauthorities. The councillor is also verycooperative now. The garbage collection isregular from KMC and is done under the super-vision of the society's worker.The project and its personnel now enjoy thetrust and confidence of the people. Theorganization, through its active president hashelped introduce me to new areas.

A house of 3 rooms has been offered to theproject as an office for the communityorganizer and technical adviser and also asstorage for construction materials. The placeis managed by the Turk Society on a voluntarybasis. They have constructed tables and chairsfor the office, for which only materialsexpenses were given.

The mason trained four more masons in theconstruction of the soakpits. The Turk Societymade blocks themselves under the supervisionof technical adviser. These blocks were goodin quality and were sold on no profit no lossbasis for the soakpits.

Here I would like to relate an example of achange in attitude towards sanitation andhygiene practice. A child had excreted on thestreet, which is a usual practice in this area.But I saw that 8 or 10 women were quarrellingwith the mother of this child. They weretelling her that she must train her child touse the latrine. Finally the mother waspersuaded to clean the mess right then andthere. I was able to set another example ofhelping the poorest by the poor from within thecommunity. There was a lady with 6 childrenand a mentally sick husband. Her condition wasextremely poor and the bucket latrine wasfilthy as she could not afford the sweeperdaily. Another lady from within the arearequested us to construct her a pit. She wasquite well-off with 4 sons all earning and herliving standard was satisfactory. Her ownsoakpit was full. She needed a soakpit becauseshe has a large family. They dug their ownpit. I motivated them to pay for the materials.I told her that with this money she can helpthe other poor lady to have a pit latrine.Finally after strong motivation she paid forthe digging of the pit for the poor woman with6 children. Thus, soakpit latrines were con-structed for both families.

7. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION:- Soakpitsare not new to the people of Baldia and TurkColony. They had constructed soakpits bythemselves before the project, but they lackedthe technology for design and quality ofconstruction. They could afford to constructthe soakpits, but still did not know how tomaintain and use it properly and effectively.They lacked social training and knowledge ofhealth and sanitation. Thus, Baldia SoakpitPilot Project provides the opportunity tocombine the technical and the social approachesto sanitation. The working mechanism appliedwas that, first, I as a community organizerwould identify the poorest Mahalla with the

filthiest sanitary condition and select thosefamilies with large number of children andmotivate them to have a soakpit, by sharingin the cost of construction.

Once the Mahalla have been identified accordingto the above criteria then the technical adviserselects the site and design of the pit,according to the soil condition. He examinesthe size of the pit when it is dug, and super-vises it, when it is constructed. When thesoakpit is completed, I train the residents oncorrect use and maintenance of the pit latrine.My experience in Baldia convinces me thattechnology and social work must be co-ordinatedto have a positive and long lasting result inprograms of slum improvements.

Models on people's participation should bedemonstrated to the people. The interestedcommunities should be organized, and technicalsupervision and assistance should be giventhrough community organization. The peopleof underdeveloped areas are often under-estimated of their capabilities and potent-ialities and considered as a burden on societyand authorities. It is the greatest mistakeon their part.

My experience proves that people of backwardareas only need technical and social guidanceto develop and strengthen their capabilities.Through their organized efforts they participatein shaping their society and influence decisionmakers of their countries. Sponsoring agenciescommit a mistake by giving free assistance tothe people. This not only creates dependancyin the community, but cripples them for ages.The contributions should be made on teachingand training, demonstration of successfulcommunity improvement models that has maximumpeople participation. Funds and externalresources should be used in training thepeople socially and technically at the grassroot level.

The improvement and development of an areashould be the impact of community organization.

15

Session 1Chairman: Brian Grieveson

Principal Engineering AdviserOverseas Development Administration

DiscussionQuratul AinPeople's participation inslum upgradingMrs AIN explained that her paper was based onpersonal experience gained on the project fromAugust 1979 on. The most significant factorto arise from her work was that technology andsociology in isolation had limitations andwere not as effective as when they wereapplied together. The impact of the twotogether was multi-dimensional. It was notjust a case of constructing the soak-pits andthen leaving the area, or of just organisingthe people and handing over to the techniciansfor construction. The Jaycees and the KUSWDworked on the problem together and both hada different approach to it.

2. Soak-pits were not new in the area, butbefore the project began the construction wasof poor quality and drainage was either verybad or non-existant. The people knew theimportance of good sanitation and were eagerto be involved in projects, but they lackedthe technology.

3. Mrs AIN then outlined other ways in whichthe community had been involved in self-helpprojects once they were organised. A news-paper had been started which was eventuallyused as a means of lobbying the government oncommunity matters. A water storage tank hadbeen built. Community schools were started,and here no outside aid was needed. Thepeople found their own teacher from within thecommunity who was trained on the spot. In thisway five adult literacy centres and childrensschools had been started. Publicity materialhad been produced by the University andwas distributed all over Baldia to encouragepeople to become involved in the soak-pitproject. Mrs AIN herself had been concernedwith training "community girls" who wouldlecture on health and child care to mothers.These girls also helped with the surveyscarried out by the University.

4. Slides were shown which illustrated thepoor state of the lanes in the area before theproject began. The housing was seen to be ofgood quality but there was no proper drainageand the lanes were littered with waste. Aslide was also shown of the sweeper who waspaid by the householders to empty the bucketlatrines.

5. Illustrations were then given of thevarious stages in the project, from theinitial meetings with community leaders, whowere often mistrustful of the motives of theUniversity people, through training of themason and digging the pits to the latercollection of data by girls trained by thespeaker. The schools and adult literacyclasses were also shown. The final slidesshowed in contrast the lanes after completionof the project. They were seen to be cleanand dry.

6. Mr GRIEVESON thanked Mrs Ain for herpresentation which he said had emphasisedonce again that it was the people who weremost important in a project.7. Dr MITWALLY confirmed the importance ofcommunity involvement. There was a greatneed for environmental education indeveloping countries, apart from the obviousneed for money.

8. He gave an example from Egypt of a womanwho had been provided with a latrine by theauthorities. When they returned to checkthat she was maintaining it properly, theyfound it clean and tidy but completely unused!When asked why she had not used the latrinethe woman replied that she could not use itas it did not belong to her - it belonged tothem! If the woman had been involved rightfrom the start in contributing financially tothe scheme and then had been taught properlyhow to use and maintain the latrine thissituation would not have arisen.

9. Mr BATTACHARYA said that he wasinterested to read in her paper that Mrs Ainhad succeeded in motivating a richer woman tohelp pay for the latrine of her poorerneighbour. He thought this a hearteningexample that showed that fellow-feeling stillexisted in this materialistic world. It wasnecessary to encourage this sort of feelingon an international level.

10. From his own experience in Calcutta andfrom Mrs Ain's experience in Karachi, he feltthat the evidence showed that upgrading ofslum areas was preferable to bulldozing them.

11. He asked Mrs Ain whether any follow-upinvestigation of infant mortality andmorbidity had been made after the completionof the soak-pit project, and taking intoaccount the other improvements which hadfollowed. He also wanted to know about thestandard of the water supply in the area,since this hadn't been mentioned in the paper,and the benefits brought by the new latrineswould be greatly reduced if the water supplywas not adequate.

12. Mrs AIN replied that statistics onmortality and morbidity were collected beforethe start of the project, and furtherinvestigations would take place two yearsafter the completion of the project. This was

16due to take place in 1982.

13. The problems of water supply had not yetbeen completely solved. However, as a resultof the new organisation in the community thewater storage tank had been built and thepeople lobbied the authorities for a newwater pipeline which increased the number ofstandpipes available. Improvements werecontinuing all the time and it was probablytoo soon to collect useful data on this aspect.

14. Mr CREE wanted to know how many full-timestaff were employed on the project.

15. Mrs AIN replied that she was the only oneemployed from outside the area and employedfull-time. She did not want any more outsidestaff; all her workers were chosen from thecommunity and paid by the project. She didnot even have transport and went everywhere onfoot. She was of the opinion that a largerstaff working in an office all day presented abarrier to the people. The only time she wasin her office was when someone had made anappointment to see her there; otherwise shewas to be found out in the community where thepeople had access to her.

16. Mr HAFNER asked how this type of projectcould be applied to squatters in urban areaswhere there would be no social structure ororganisation. He also wished to know whetherthere were political factors involved in theorganisation. Were the workers who initiallymotivated and organised the people sent bypolitical factions, from the city or elsewhere?

17. Mrs AIN felt that people in squatter areaswere in fact already well organised to resistthe government, and this initial strongorganisation had to be taken advantage of rightfrom the start, before it was dispersed, sothat improvements could be started.

18. From her experience in Turk Colony, shefelt that the people who had initiated thecommunity organisation had had vested interests.They were usually the religious leaders whowere already centres of the community and werethus used by the politicians to approach thepeople.

19. Mr LLOYD asked whether any local agenciesor government departments were Involved in thepassage of funds from UNICEF to the project,and how much disappeared before it reached thebeneficiaries.

20. Mrs AIN said that only the University andUNICEF were Involved. The money was providedin small amounts when needed, and it camedirectly to the University. In this way therewas no intermediary and the project receivedexactly what UNICEF sent.

21. Mr RUKOIJO asked what Mrs Ain's hours ofwork were.

22. Mrs AIN had no specific working hours.She had to be available when the community

needed her, which could be at any time.Usually she worked most in the evenings andearly mornings when the people were at home.

23. Mr MSIMBE asked whether the governmenthad taken any initiative in the training ofpeople like Mrs Ain who could then be sentto other areas of the country to be involvedin similar projects.

24. Mrs AIN replied that in the past therehad been no such involvement by thegovernment, but it was felt that they werestarting to get involved, probably for thewrong reasons.

25. Mr PRESTON expressed admiration for thework of Mrs Ain, and asked her to what extentshe was able or wanted to be involved in theformulation by governments and agencies ofthe terms of reference for outside consultants.He felt that her experience and that of peoplelike her could make a great contribution inthis important matter.

26. Mrs AIN replied that she believed allthose involved in a project, including trainedpeople, grass-roots workers and local peopleshould be consulted when such things asconsultants' briefs were being decided on.She had examples of the success of dialoguemeetings between locals and governmentofficials. The key to the whole issue was theself-respect of the people, which they wouldwork very hard to maintain.

27. Mr GRIEVESON then asked for commentsand questions to be directed to Dr Bourne,with reference to his opening address.

28. Mr OBADINA cited examples in Nigeria tohighlight the necessity for monitoring ofwater and sanitation programmes in order toadvise governments on implementation. Heasked what provision was being made for themonitoring of such projects during the Decade.

29. Dr BOURNE replied that there was muchpressure on the UN to improve monitoring ofprogrammes. The biggest difficulty was thatthey were the servants of all the governmentsof the world and often individual countrieswould be eager for monitoring in general, butnot so keen when they were the subject of themonitoring. Also the UN could not interferein the internal politics of countries. Sothere were problems but they did their best.

30. Mr OTIENO asked whether his co-ordinatingcommittee had considered approaching thegovernments of developing countries directlyfor funds, instead of the present system ofchannelling funds through the United Nationscentral fund, which was being used for manyprogrammes not just the Decade.

31. Dr BOURNE explained that 50% of his timewas spent in trying to encourage bilateralagencies to invest in Water Decade projects.There had been two major meetings of

17representatives of all the agencies to outlinefuture projects and encourage theirparticipation in them. There bad also been ameeting in Paris related to identifying theneeds of the 31 least-developed countries.There water was considered to be a majorpriority, and the need now was to convinceagencies to invest in this sector.

32. Mr WILLIS believed that if the Decade wasto be successful, the participation ofcommunities was vital. Governments must learnto set the right climate for thisparticipation and encourage and foster it.They must also learn to limit theirinterference in projects. Governments allover the world had to learn these lessons, indeveloped as well as developing countries.

33. Dr BOURNE agreed that it was vital to getgovernments involved. As Mrs Ain had pointedout, it was not possible to separate communityparticipation from politics, either small-scale local politics or large scale nationalpolitics; it was all enmeshed together. Whatcould be done in any area depended entirely onthe political situation, and in some areasprojects would have support from thegovernment while in other areas the governmentwould be against development of this kind. Inthis field UNICEF had been particularlysuccessful in getting governments toco-operate in projects.

34. Mr PULTON gave an example from his ownexperience recently in Ethiopia. There agreat problem existed of communication betweencentral government and the individual regions.There had been much criticism of centralgovernment by local people, as a result ofwhich the Supreme Planning Council now wantedsuggestions for improvements and projects tocome from the regions. Obviously more ideaswould be put forward than could be paid for,but it was plain to the government thatsomething of this nature had to be set up.

35. Local community committees were beingformed which would decide what each area mostneeded. He was pleased to report that thescheme had been well-received by the centralgovernment, and he agreed with other speakersthat local people should be given theopportunity to decide for themselves, givenproper advice, rather than having unwantedschemes imposed upon them.

36. Mr LLOYD commented that many of thefunding agencies were dealing withadministrators rather than with people in thefield. This meant that when consultants werebrought in they were often asked to produce ascheme which the administrators thought wasneeded but which was inappropriate for theneeds of the people,

37. He also wished to comment on a point madeby Dr Bourne, that charities, especially inEurope, were making more money available than

many of the international funding agencies.In the light of this, would it not be betterfor governments to let charities have themoney for water projects rather thanchannelling it through the funding agencies?

38. Dr BOURNE said that no specific datawas available as to whether charities weregiving more money to projects, but it washis opinion that this was likely to be so inmost European countries. The Reagonadministration in the United States was nowformulating policies along the lines of thosesuggested by Mr Lloyd, The success of thistype of policy again depended greatly onpolitical structures involved.

39. Mr BASHAM made the point that oftenwater and sanitation schemes were put intooperation without first considering the timefactor. Materials were used which would failafter a short period of time, whereas theyshould be lasting for many years. To uselong-lasting materials now would be aninvestment for the future; otherwise projectswould be self-defeating if money was notavailable later for maintenance.

40. Dr BOURNE felt that there was a dilemmahere between the need for quality and longlife, and the tendency to want an impressiveresult quickly. In general, somethingavailable immediately, even if not of thebest materials, was better than making peoplewait until more money was available.

41. Mr GRIEVESON thanked participants for aninteresting session and summed up by sayingthat governments alone could not achieve theDecade targets; they needed the help of thepeople and organisations involved as well.Equally, self-help and voluntary organisationsalone would not be successful; they needed thegovernments. The problem of lack ofcommunication was not peculiar to developingcountries, and it had to be improved in orderto have any chance of achieving the Decadeaims.

18

Conference.- Wafer people and waste in developing countries; 7987

INCREMENTAL UTILITIES PROVISION AND AFFORDABILITY

DAVID B ALLENFORBES W DAVIDSONALISTAIR C BLUNT

Partner, Clifford Culpin and PartnersClifford Culpin and PartnersClifford Culpin and Partners

BACKGROUND

With the cessation of hostilities and the re-opening of the Suez Canal the Egyptian Govern-ment initiated a policy to reinforce anddevelop the potential of the Canal Zone.

Clifford Culpin and Partners has been assist-ing the Egyptian Government implement thispolicy, as it relates to the Ismailia Govern-orate and in particular the City of Ismailia,since 1974.

The Ismailia Master Plan Study recommendedguidelines for future development in allsectors. An important finding of the Studyquestioned the efficacy of Government policywith respect to housing provision. The MasterPlan advocates a change from one of directhousing provision towards a more flexiblesystem of aid and support for agencies whichencourgges greater involvement of the privatesector and individuals and is affordable.Work on the Master Plan was followed by ademonstration project which developed indetail the Master Plan recommendations forhousing and industry. Since October 1978, thefirm has provided a team of technical advisorsto assist the Governorate in the establishmentof two land development agencies and in imple-menting the first low-income land sub-division(sites and services) and settlement upgradingproject to be initiated in Egypt.

This paper concentrates on the Hai el SalaraProject, the first of two projects currentlybeing implemented in Ismailia. Hai el Salam(formerly El Hekr) is an area of uncontrolled,unplanned settlement north of the city. At thetime work started on the project the popul-ation of the area was in the order of 37,000.Proposals for Hai el Salam cover an area of226 hectares, within this area approximately132 hectares were settled. The projectedpopulation to the year 2000, on the basis ofnew development and consolidation of the Proj-ect site, is 90,000.

The implementation of the Hai el Salam projectbegan in 1978, with the establishment of alocally staffed Project Agency responsible toits own Board comprising representatives ofrelevant departments within the Governorateand the City. The Project Agency currentlyemploys 40 staff comprising engineers, survey-ors, accountants, senior administrators and

ancillary staff members. The majority of thestaff are seconded from Governorate or Citydepartments. Although the nature of the workwas new to all staff they rapidly developed thenecessary skills and an appreciation of the aimsof the project through working with the expat-riate technical advisors. The staff are pro-gressively taking over responsibility for allday to day decisions affecting development.

The utility provision within the existing un-planned area, the area subject to proposals forupgrading, consisted of a few stand pipes in thesouthern part of the Project site supplied froman existing water main running east/west alongthe southern boundary. There was no seweragenetwork in the Project site, though one existedsouth of the southern boundary serving an areaof public housing. This main was in a poorstate of repair and had no spare capacity. Themajority of the dwellings in the Project sitehad either pit latrines or single chamber semi-sealed septic tanks. The City Council ran anemptying service but this was not sufficient toadequately cover the whole area.

The density of the existing settlement was about280 persons per hectare gross or about 50 house-holds. Density levels varied over the Projectsite from the more densely populated and con-solidated southern area to the northern fringeswhere single storey mud-brick shelters on largeplots predominate.

Neither the physical and geological conditionsfound in the Project site nor the existingsettlement pattern present insuperable problemsfor the'physical upgrading of the existing un-planned area or for the provision of servicesto new plots on vacant desert land to the northof the Project site.

From social surveys and detailed case studies itwas evident that finance would be a major con-straint and proposals would require massive sub-sidy if existing housing policies were followedand subsequently implemented. Based on thesefindings the Master Plan recommended that pol-icies should encourage the target populationto meet their own housing needs by providingthem with the right conditions in terms of landtenure, affordable services and other technicalassistance.

THEORY

The objectives of the Project included thatproposals must be relevant to low-income groups,be affordable and capable of implementation withminimal subsidy. These objectives imposed crit-ical constraints and made the assessment ofaffordability extremely important. In this res-pect the Consultants were conscious of thecorrelation between affordable development andappropriate standards and that these standardsare often difficult to achieve because of pre-vailing political attitudes and aspirations,unrealistically high existing government healthstandards and building and other statutory reg-ulations.

For the project design it was therefore essent-ial to know how much could be afforded and whatcould be achieved with the finances available.Socio-economic sample surveys together with in-depth case studies were therefore undertakenand the conclusions drawn from these studiesformed the basis of the assumptions used indeveloping the proposals, including incrementalutilities provision. The most critical assump-tions are summarised below:

• The proportion of total family income spenton shelter was taken as 20%;

• The proportion of this income allocated toinfrastructure differed for upgrading areas andnew sub-division areas. For upgrading areas theproportion was 65%, or 13% of total income, fornew settlers the proportion was 50% or 10% oftotal income;

• What could be paid for, from the sum calc-culated as affordable, was based on amortisationat 7% over 20 years;

• Incomes and inflation would increase at thesame rate over time;

• No external subsidy would be available.

The socio-economic surveys also indicated thata household's 'propensity to spend on housing'seemed to be tied to opportunities of buildingincrementally , perceptions of future securityand secondary income, and other factors whichhave little to do with current income. Never-theless a calculation of 'ability to pay' forshelter, as a percentage of total income, wasapplied to the household income distribution ofthe target population.

It is necessary to make a distinction betweenexisting and new settlers; the former alreadyare occupying a shelter and, if owner-occupiers,are allocating their assumed 20% of income forshelter to only improvements, utility connectionsto plots and secure land tenure. New settlershowever must also pay for or build some formof shelter. In both cases the important quest-ion is the amount of income (or that fractionof the assumed 20% devoted to shelter) that willbe allocated to infrastructure and plot connec-tions.

Various proposals were examined which took

TABLE 1

HOUSEHOLD ABILITY TO PAY FOR SHELTER UNDERVARYING ASSUMPTIONS (1977 LE) (LE = £0.7STERLING (1980)).

19

Annualincomeranges:limits& mid-points

150

180

240

300

390

480

660

840

% Incomeforshelter

152025152025152025152025152025152025152025152025

Monthly(LE)

1.92.53.12.33.03.83.04.05.03.85.06.34.86.48.05.97.89.88.311.013.810.413.8,17,3.

Annual(LE)

22.530.037.527.036.045.036.048.060.045.060.075.057.877.096.370.594.0117.599.0132.0165.0124.5166.0207.5

Totalavailableassumingamortisationat 7% over20 years

238318397286381476381508635476635794609

. 81510207479951244104913981805131817582197

account of existing and preferred plot sizes anduses, the lack of facilities and the desired andminimal levels of infrastructure provision nec-essary to ensure improved chances of health.These alternatives were costed. Based on thefindings, reported on Table 1, an assessment wasmade of the amounts which might be available forinfrastructure.

TABLE 2

ASSESSMENT OF CAPITAL AVAILABLE FOR INFRASTRUC-TURE. (LE 1977)

Income Existingsettlers

Newsettlers

20th percentile household 273

Medium 400

80th percentile household 624

210

310

480

This assessment gives a rough indication of theorder of magnitude of funds which existing andnew settlers might be able to mobilize or becharged for infrastructure. However the issueis not straightforward : first, an infrastruc-ture package includes land under secure tenure,and this represents an 'asset' which should becosted, especially if the future settlers cansell this 'asset' at market rates. Secondly,the use of 20% of income, as the proportion

20affordable for shelter is arbitary, and itshould be recognised that there is frequentlya large, if non-quantifiable, gap between'ability' and 'willingness' to pay for shelter.Thirdly, there is nothing magical about amort-ising payments for shelter at 7% for 20 years.

Using the above assessment as a guide to theamount of finance available it was possible tocompare the cost of various levels of infrast-ructure provision assuming a certain distrib-ution of plot sizes. For the existing unplann-ed area the distribution of plot sizes wasknown, so it was possible, using existing in-come levels to postulate what levels of serviceprovision were affordable. For new settlers,in new sub-division areas, plot charges wereassumed to vary directly with plot size. Levelsof affordability (ability to pay) indicatedthat not all households could afford similarlevels of infrastructure provision. This wasnot surprising for, as indicated earlier,existing settlers allocate a smaller proportionof their total income to shelter than thosesettlers in the new sub-division areas (7%and 10% respectively).

Table 3 shows that there was a high proportionof families able to afford payment for Level 1(infrastructure only in the case of the mostbasic provision) with freedom to choose plotsize.

To enable affordable payments, at the low in-come levels, covering a higher standard ofinfrastructure provision (Level III), plotpricing, of plots in the new sub-division areaand for new plots in the existing unplanned

TABLE 3

area, was varied - higher prices being chargedfor good commercial locations and open marketprices being charged for a number of concessionplots in key locations. This allowed internalcross-subsidy of the low priced plots, some60% of the total, thus increasing the level ofprovision affordable.

It should also be appreciated that in Egyptthere is little opportunity for authorities torecover capital development costs except throughland charges as there is no equivalent to theBritish 'rates system1 on property and no recov-ery for the operating costs of water-borne sew-(age disposal, while water rates are also inad-equate. The only directly recoverable cost is,therefore, the connection charge. CentralGovernment directives laid down guidelines forthe distribution of costs for sewage disposaland water. In this respect the relevantauthorities are responsible for financing thecost of off-site works and the main on-sitetrunk lines. Plot allottees are expected to paythe cost of the local reticulation network andconnection charges.

Table 3 identified broadly the levels of infra-structure provision affordable.

In the Hai el Salam project the amount of incomeavailable to be spent on infrastructure wastherefore a minimum and as a consequence thelevel of infrastructure provision selected forthe initial phases did not include individualconnections for either water or sewerage. Itwas assumed that the costs of water bornesewerage and of water to each plot would, inthe future, be financed, at least partially, by

LEVELS OF INFRASTRUCTURE AND ABILITY TO PAY FOR TARGET POPULATION FAMILIES IN EXISTING AREAS AND NEWSUB-DIVISION AREAS. (NOTE THAT LAND COSTS ARE INITIALLY ZERO, BEING ORIGINALLY GOVERNMENT LAND).

Level of infrastructure provision Percentage of target population households affordingeach level

Existing Settlers

83m2 123m2 176m2

plots plots plots

New Settlers

72m2 108m2 135m2

plots plots plots

Level I (administration, pit latrines,stand-pipes, basic local roads)

Level II (level I + electricity and land-scaping)

Level III (level II + district andimproved local roads)

Level IV (administration, water connectionsto plot sewerage network and connections +electricity)

Level V (as level IV + improved roads)

Level VI (as level V and trunk water-sewers and paved access roads)

Level VII (level VI + service core)

100

100

100

100

100

87

100

100

69

96

87

79

81

72

87

78

66

48

38

24

na

33

23

14

na

17

13

5

na

41

35

17

10

30

21

11

4

23

15

6

1

21external subsidies. Further building regulat-ions and planning standards in Egypt, as inmany countries, are theoretically high, andmetting these standards makes a project un-necessarily expensive. These issues wereaddressed by preparing detailed proposals forthe full provision of urban utilities as along term goal, which could be reached incre-mentally over time consistent with the target.This proposal avoided problems of politicaland social acceptability while ensuring thatproject costs, and thus compulsory payments,could be kept to a minimum. A further ad-vantage of this approach is that implementationcan be effected early with minimal subsidy.

The implications of this strategy were examined.The estimated total costs of full water andsewerage system for the Hai el Salam projectare given in Table 4.

TABLE 4

ESTIMATED 1977 COSTS OF FULL WATER ANDSEWERAGE PROVISION HAI EL SALAM. (LE 1977)

Infrastructure Water Sewerage Total

Connections

ReticulationNetworks* (localmains)

On-site trunklines

573105 884865 1457970

612234 1109287 1721521

370000* 510000 880000

TOTAL 1555339 2504152 4059491

* excluding system costs of standpipes.

Using the same affordability assumptions re-ferred to earlier the ability of inhabitantsto pay a proportion of income towards fullinfrastructure provision was tested. It wasfound that 63% of existing households, and55% of new households could reasonably affordto pay for water and sewerage connections,assuming finance for the full service provisionwas available. It was also estimated that theProject Agency could, if necessary contributefunds under a sharing arrangement with extern-al funding sources and, subject to the effectsof inflation, the future market values of con-cession plots and the possibility of communallabour contributions, the Project Agency couldoffer to meet between 30 to 55% of the futurecosts of the water and sewerage system.

The Consultants were well aware that by plann-ing for staged future provision of water,sewerage (and roads) certain cost elements ofinitial stages would be written off. Thesecosts were calculated for Hai el Salam to beon a plot basis, and are shown on Table 5.

These extra costs could not be avoided forPhase 1, which includes all existing settlersand 1000 new plots. For subsequent phases thesituation is being carefully monitored

TABLE 5

THE COST/PLOT OF 'WRITING OFF' CERTAIN INITIALDEVELOPMENT COSTS. (LE 1977)

Existing Newsettler settlerplot plot

Water-borne sewerage; (thecost of pit latrine iswritten off)

Piped water; (a smallportion of the cost of thestandpipe system is writtenoff)

Stage 2 roads; (a portionof the cost of Stage 1 roadis written off)

0.9

14.0

105.0

0.9

. 12.0

THE PROPOSALS

The proposed water distribution network consistsof a primary ringmain feeding four secondaryringmains each supplying water to approximately24,000 inhabitants by the year 2000. Detailedproposals were also prepared for the futuresewerage system.

In view of the users' ability to pay, the prac-tical limitations imposed by existing major net-works and the financial capabilities of theexecuting authorities, close attention was paidto the implications of staged provision.

The first level, as defined in terms of minimumpublic health benefits, is the provision of pot-able water in both new and existing areas bysome 75 communal public standpipes on a 150 metregrid, supplied from the south of the Projectsite by a limited number of connections to theexisting network.

The second level of provision is on-plot conn-ections to a single tap and/or shower. Theintroduction of this level of provision in theinitial stages is experimental, as it is con-strained by the present difficulty of disposingof waste water and the insufficient capacity ofcity mains. The final level of provision is theinstallation of multi-tap metered water connect-ions to each plot, which must be associated witha water borne sewerage system.

Proposals for waste water disposal are alsostaged. As a minimum level of provision pitlatrines, regularly emptied by suction tankers,are proposed, as are septic tanks for publicbuildings requiring full water provision in ad-vance of the sewerage system. The viability ofdisposing of sullage from on-plot water connect-ions, without the installation of network drain-age facilities, will also be tested experiment-ally. The final level of provision for wastewater disposal is the installation of a fullwater-borne sewerage system.

It is proposed that a daily collection servicefor domestic refuse be provided on a house-to-house basis and be subsidised if necessary.

22THE REALITY

The Hai el Salam project was started in 1978and at the time of writing May 1981, some 1,700new plots had been allocated and 2,000 existingplots rationalised and title to the land soldto the occupants. At the end of the secondyear 25 standpipes had been provided and curr-ently work has begun on the installation ofthree 6" lines which, when completed, willallow the Project Agency to provide a fullstandpipe service throughout the new sub-division areas. The Agency is also advisingplot allottees on the design and constructionof short-life seepage pit latrines.

In 1980 following the Consultants work on theDemonstration Projects, the Egyptian Governmentcommissioned the Ismailia Water and WastewaterMaster Plan Study, funded by USAID. Thefindings of this report, although subject tofinal approval by Government, have influencedthe implementation of the Agency's utilitiesprogramme, particularly as it relates to humanwaste disposal.

One of the problems posed by this Study was thecritical issue of timing and although the Haiel Salam Project area was identified as apriority area for design and. development anumber of issues affecting the immediate short-term were raised :

• How can the Agency's ongoing and extensionprogramme be integrated, in the immediate short-term, with a completely new system proposed bythe USAID programme?

• What are the immediate technical and finan-cial consequences of the USAID programme on theAgency's intermediate solution for waste dis-posal?

• The USAID study recommends proposals for'cost recovery' that, in part, contradictcurrent accepted Egyptian practice. If theUSAID proposals are adopted will the Agency'sprogramme still be relevant and/or affordable?

Although the Consultants took cognizance of thefinancial consequences pertaining to an incre-mental approach, the problem experienced by theAgency, was one of timing and phasing. Further,unless the USAID programme was designed and .implemented in full, the Agency's proposalsfor the Hai el Salam project, could prejudicethe city-wide programme as a whole. It wastherefore necessary for the Project Agency, inproposing intermediate short-term solutions, tore-examine standards of provision. Short-lifepit latrines are a possible solution. The BEE/UK is currently advising the Agency for a pilotpit latrine programme and the cost implicationsof this programme as it affects individual plotholders, is being carefully monitored.

The USAID proposals for 'cost recovery' arethrough user charges for both water and sewagedisposal. These proposals assume that runningcosts, the capital servicing and replacementcost and repayment costs must be borne by theuser. As stated earlier this is contrary tocurrent policy. If implemented it raises the

question of whether plot beneficiaries shouldbe expected to pay twice for a service whichis received free by other local public housingtenants.

It raises other questions which also needsresolving. For example, if 'cost recovery' isthrough user charges it assumes that all poten-tial uses will be connected to the network atthe time of installation. This paper hasillustrated that very few plot allottees, ifany, are able to afford the cost of individualconnections and use, although a proportioncould reasonable afford to pay for water andsewerage connections, assuming that the cost ofthe service was borne by others.

The Agency's experience in implementing theDemonstration Project recommendations hastherefore not been straight forward, particular-ly as it relates to human waste disposal. Theprogramme has been affected by the need toexamine the cheapest and most effective way ofmoving from the pour-flush latrine with semi-scaled septic tank or soakaway to a full sewer-age system, within a very short time scale.This has meant that the Agency has given prior-ity to minimizing costs.

Several lessons have been learned by theConsultants from the Hai el Salam experience:

• Intermediate solutions require more maintain-ance and is a factor that is often overlooked;

• Without very tight control and supervision itis impossible to connect a soakaway pit into amain system;

• Careful coordination between the authorityand/or their consultants, responsible for plann-ing and developing a new mains system, and theAgency responsible for the initial improvementprogramme is essential;

• An incremental approach to utilities provisionassumes some options are left to the user. Thismay not be possible if the USAID programme isimplemented as it assumes that all potentialusers will make connections at the time the net-work is installed;

• The phasing of other related developments andthe upgrading of services must take cognizanceof likely damage caused by the laying of waterand sewer mains;

• The 'write off cost of temporary solutionsbecomes a very important consideration. Even ifthe cost incurred is minimal and spread overseveral years, experience suggests that plotallottees would prefer a more expensive solutionif it is seen as a once and for all payment;

• Cognizance of possible changes in officialpolicy and/or attitudes should be allowed forin designing intermediate solutions.

Starting from the premise that development pro-posals must be affordable the Hai el Salam pro-ject is a success. The initial political res-ervations for the concept have largely been over-come by emphasising the end-product and that

staged provision is a means to an end, anddemonstrating that the process i s not dis-similar to that adopted by most developedcountries at a similar stage of development.The project nan also demonstrated that i t ispossible to implement a major programme, withina very short time of proposals being approved,without massive Government or other subsidy andto give the target population, namely the poor,access to reasonable levels of shelter andservices that can be afforded.

The Consultants recognise that incrementaland intermediate approaches, while makingsense in broad financial terms, do poseproblems with respect to local expectationsand practices. I t is therefore incumbent uponconsultants and advisors to be sensitive ofprevailing atti tudes, customs and constraintsand be ready to respond positively and object-ively and not be too dogmatic as to what canbe achieved.

HA1 EL SALAM PROJECT• Rationalization of existing area. 132ha• Sub-division of new area. 94ha

• Standpipe provision at end 2nd Year

Project AreaExisting SettlementNew Sub-division AreaConcession PlotsStandpipes

Conference: Wafer people and waste in developing countries: 7987

PLANNING FOR COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN WATER SUPPLY AND SANITATION-ACCOUNTING FOR VARIABILITY IN COMMUNITY CHARACTERISTICS

RAYMOND B ISELY Associate Director, Water and Sanitation for HealthProject, USA.

INTRODUCTION

Planners of community-based sanitation ser-vices at both national and local levels arefaced with a paucity of meaningful data onthe characteristics of the communities forwhich services are designed. Frequently thedata available provide a global view of theproblem, but little to describe aspects ofpotential solutions (Ref. 1). Data on pro-portions of the population, peri-urban orrural, with or without reasonable access topotable water or adequate sanitation, conveyin fact only partially the multiple factorsthat must be considered in evaluating pro-gress. White (Ref. 1), suggests that otheralternative national-level statistics mightinclude estimates of:

1) The proportion of the population in ur-ban squatter settlements invloved inself-help projects of any kind.

2) The proportion of the rural populationinvolved in some form of self-help com-munity development.

3) The extent to which the user is involvedin the choice of water supply servicelevel, technology, and managementpolicy.

Estimates of the distribution of these waterand sanitation-related factors must dependupon systematic collection of data from atleast a representative sample of peri-urbanand rural population groups, preferably on anongoing regional basis. Essential to thistask is the development of instruments forthe generation of data. The data could beused for national aggregate analysis andsubsequent planning for allocation of budgetand personnel to water and sanitationprograms. Aside from their use in nationalplanning, a primary benefit of such datawould be the provision to field workers(assistant sanitarians, public health exten-sion workers, agricultural extension workers)of information that they can use to decideupon the appropriateness of various technicaland organizational approaches to water andsanitation improvement.

Needs for data and opportunities for usingthem exist, therefore, at both the nationaland local levels; but the means for col-lecting, processing, and aggregating findingsdo not exist in most developing countries.

The probable result is not only an incompleteand mistaken diagnosis of the problem of wa-ter supply and sanitation in its ramifica-tions and dimensions, but also a failure toIdentify community level resources that couldbe mobilized in the solution of problems.

Whatever the data collected, by whomever theyare collected, to whatever use they are putin the exectution of water supply and sanita-tion programs, one must take account of atremendous variability in almost every re-spect from community to community, even inthe same country or region. Variability amongrural communities is in fact a cardinal prin-ciple of community development work (Ref.2).Because communities vary, differing solutionswill be appropriate in each instance.

A key question in community water supply andsanitation work is that of the the degree ofreadiness or preparedness of a given commu-nity to undertake all that is implied by par-ticipation in the installation, maintenance,and repair of facilities. Any data collec-tion effort by field workers that is usefulin guiding their interventions or for thatmatter in guiding national-level allocationof resources must address this question. Theproblem then is to capture in a data collec-tion instrument and interpretative schemethose elements essential to a definition ofreadiness for participation. Several caseexamples ar« helpful in tracing the outlinesof what should be included.

VARYING DEGREES OF READINESS FOR COM-MUNITY PARTICIPATION: CASE EXAMPLES

Case examples are drawn from the experiencesof the author in African countries. Severalare derived from the work of the Universityof Pittsburgh/OCEAC Regional Public HealthTraining Project in the Cameroon (1972-76).This project emphasized the organization ofvillage health committees as a means of pro-moting self-help health projects in villagesof the Mefou Department of the South CentralCameroon. The operation of the project isdescribed elsewhere (Refs. 3-8). One caseexample is form the Zaire. Material is drawnfrom a paper by Cooper (Ref. 9) and, fromcorrespondence with community leaders. Stillanother case, where the material is derivedmainly from correspondence with communityleaders is from Ghana.

Levels of readiness are presented as means ofanalyzing the data available from thesecases. The characterization of a given leveldepends on two estimates:

- The initial demographic, health, socio-cultural economic, and ethno-historicalstatus of each village, to the extentthese characteristics are known.

The type of intital repsonse to anyterventions.

in-

As a confirmation of the impression of a de-gree of readiness, data on the concrete real-izations achieved in each village are in-cluded. Of course this data is not availabeto field workers approaching communities forthe first time, but they do help us to roundout the characterization of each case. Com-munities are categorized at four levels:

1. Little readiness for participation, andnone realized, amounting to a profoundresistance to organizing efforts.

2. Some readiness for particpation but re-alization impeded or delayed by seriousorganizational problems.

3. High_Jevel of readiness, but only par-tially realized. ~~

4. High level of readiness, and largely re-al izea\ ~~

Level 1 - Low readiness, low realizationMel en, Cameroon

This village in the South Central Cameroonwith a population of about 400 was one offour pilot villages in which the Universityof Pittsburgh/OCEAC Project initiated itswork in early 1972. At first glance onewould have supposed a high level of readi-ness. There was in existence already a pro-tected, although not well-maintained, spring.There were many latrines, although few wereof adequate construction. Community leaderswere cooperative with the initial survey andorganizing efforts and turned out in largenumbers at the first several meetings of thevillage health committee. The survey re-vealed, however, a strikingly large propor-tion of the population (22%) holding essen-tially pessimistic attitudes toward the pre-iventablility of disease in general and low'level understanding of the water and excreta-related origins of gastrointestinalinfections.

Other indicators of unpreparedness were inretrospect more subtle. For. example, theprotected spring, it was learned, had been aproject of the local Catholic mission. It hadbeen constructed to serve the needs of themission elementary school. There were noother protected springs and only one latrine.Further, investigation of the social organi-zation revealed a strong dependence upon thechurch for leadership with a consequent dimi-nution of the influence and authority of tra-ditional leaders. The abby, for example, be-came chairman of the health committee. De-spite four years of Project inputs in theform of health education and community orga-nization virtually nothing was accomplishedin terms of water supply and sanitation 1m-

25provements. The diagnosis of a low level ofcommunity readiness which might have resultedfrom an adequate community assessment at thebeginning would thus have been confirmed.

Level 2 - Some readiness, hut serious organinational impediment?

Nkolnguet, Cameroon

Another South Cameroonian village with a pop-ulation of about 250 exhibited much the sameinitial behavior. Community leaders coope-rated well with both the survey and the orga-nizing. A village health committee was read-ily formed. Community leadership was strongin that both the traditional chief and theparty representive* were young literate andenthusiastic. There were several skilled per-sons in the village. Two resident elementaryschool teachers became active members of thecommittee. Several influential women wereidentified.

What was not initially apparent, however,were the deep divisions existing among theclans and subclans making up the population.Like so many Central African populations, theinhabitants of this village traced their ori-gins to hamlets deep in the equatorial for-est. During the colonial era, these dispersedpopulations had been forced to agglomerate invillages along the roads, where tax collec-tion, census-taking, conscription, diseasesurveillance and forced labor could be facil-itated. Not erased, however, were clan andsub-clan identities. At Nkolnguet, in fact,the chief was from one clan and the healthcommittee president from another. At leasttwo other clans were represented. Embeddedin these divisions were historical animosi-ties known to most of the villagers.

It was not surprising then when what had beengood progress on four protected springs andover 25 latrines for over a year, came to anabrupt halt with the outbreak of open hostil-ity between two of the clans. Because boththe chief and the village health committeepresident were involved, the committee itselfwas severely damaged.

Despite many positive signs of readiness forparticipation, therefore, certain factors ofa socio-cultural nature served to severelycompromise realization of this potential.

Okoa, Cameroon

At first, this village (also one of the orig-inal four served by the University of Pitts-burgh/OCEAC Project) seemed an unlikely placefor a significant degree of participation tooccur. Income, education, and manual skillswere the next lowest of the four pilot vil-lages (only 6.7% professional, skilled labor-ers, or businessmen). The proportion of el-derly persons was the highest (25K over 50years). One was struck by the frequency inthe initial survey of anemia, splenomegaly,skin diseases, and childlessness. Subjec-

*Union Nationale Camerounaise

26tively, an atmosphere of depression andlethargy prevailed.

Despite Project imputs during the first year,very little was realized in improved watersupply and sanitation, seemingly bearing outinitial impressions. In the second year,however, a young itinerant health worker wasassigned to this village as well as to sev-eral others in a curcuit. Through patient en-couragement, provision of technical informa-tion, and working side-by-side with the vil-lagers on spring protection and latrine con-struction he was able to elicit a participa-tory response. Three permanent spring boxeswere constructed and over twenty householdsbuilt and used semi-permanent pit latrines.

It became apparent that some communitiesgiving an initial appearance of low readinessto participate should call forth not a de-layed, but a more intense intervention. Thefactor of age in this population proved toportend a favorable rather than an unfavor-able prognosis for participation (Ref. 4).

Level 3 - High readiness, but only partiallyrealized

Kpandu-Dafor, Ghana

The village illustrating this degree of read-iness is in the Volta Region of Ghana. As aresult of the construction of the AkosomboDam and the subsequent formation of the VoltaLake, the residents of several villages alongthe eastern bank of the river were cut offfrom their traditional markets and othersources of goods and services. Particularlyacute became the diminished access to medicalcare. In response to this situation and atthe suggestion of an outside consultant, avillage health committee was formed early1978. The effort drew the support of nearlyevery family head as well as the stoolfathers in each of the five villages of thearea. One woman donated a house to be usedas a clinic; others donated funds from theircocoa and palm wine earnings to equip theclinic and to support the training of twovillage health workers. Several citizens,originally from the village but residing inAccra, pledged their support. The level ofeducation and/or manual skills among thesepeople was unusually high. Women particpatedin large numbers. Plans were laid not onlyto support primary care services but also atransportation link to the local market town,improved food production, and improved watersupply and sanitation.

Despite this high level of readiness andseeming good start, water and sanitation ob-jectives have not as yet been reached. Lackof appropriate technical assistance appearsto be a key bottleneck in this failure toreach these objectives, but one cannot over-look the fact that the provision of primarymedical care was a first priority.

Djalu, Ziare

A similar situation prevails in this commu-nity in the highlands of the central plateau.

Readiness for participation in water and san-itation is at a high level. The very exis-tence of the community created as it was outof the confusion of the years 1959-61, at-tests to a certain level of commitment byevery community member. School, churches,and clinics have been built, started,equipped, and maintained. An airstripexists, and enough rice is produced forexport to the rest of the country. Income isrelatively high, as is literacy.

Yet, water is still drawn from a nearbyriver; and in the dry season, from one far-ther away. Citizens sensitive to the problemhave asked for technical assistance. Willing-ness to share in the cost and the labor seemto pose no difficulty.

Level 4 - Hijjh readiness, and largelyreal fzed ~

Ekali I, Cameroon

This case is illustrative of the principlethat in community development work one fre-quently reaps results where another hassowed. Ekali I had been the site of intensivework by Canadian missionaries for nearly fouryears. This work, aimed at resolving thelong-standing estrangement of the older andyounger generations that had led to a size-able out-migration of youth, had contributedto a coalescence of purpose among the inhabi-tants, a wide degree of participation acrossage and sex categories, and a vigorous cadreof leaders.

Counting a number of dependent hamlets, EkaliI numbers about 1500 inhabitants, the centralhamlet having just over 400. This villagegave by far the most positive response to theeducational and community organization ef-forts of the Pittsburgh/OCEAC Project. Notonly did the health committee organize eas-ily, but soon took on the intitiative forplanning successive local projects: threespringboxes in the central hamlet, one eachin two of the peripheral hamlets, over sixtyhouseholds with well-constructed well usedlatrines, and a functioning village pharmacyfor simple drugs and supplies (Ref. 10).

By 1978, two years after the end of the Pro-ject, the committee was planning the con-struction of a water tower with a pump andgravity distribution to a central standpipe.Additional springboxes in peripheral hamletswere also in the plans. Clearly, the healthcommittee had taken on a life of its own andwas functioning as a community planningmechanism.

Communities do vary then in their ability toparticipate in the planning, installation,maintenance and repair of water and sanita-tion facilities. As the foregoing cases at-test even the categories of factors responsi-ble for the variance in each case may be dif-ferent, It may, nonetheless, be possible todevelop a means of both collecting data rela-tive to readiness to participate and to clas-sify and interpret this data in such a v/ay asto guide both technical and organizational

interventions.

TOWARD A SYSTEMATIC AND CONTINUOUSASSESSMENT OF COMMUNITY READINESS FORPARTICIPATION IN WATER AND SANITATIONPROJECTS.

The purpose of any assessment of this type istwo-fold: to provide a basis for a rationalallocation of national resources, and toguide field workers in appropriate interven-tions of both a technical and organizationalnature (Ref. 11).

The first can be discussed very briefly. Na-tional planners of both urban and rural waterand sanitation services need to know how bestto distribute the limited financial, materialand personnel resources at their disposal, nomatter what Ministry in fact houses watersupply, or sanitation services or both. Know-ledge of the needs of communities, aggregatedby region and by district and subdistrict,taking account not only of the need for fi-nancing, equipment and technical support, butalso for assistance in strengthening theirability to manage water and sanitation facil-ities, would enable planners to provide forproper training of personnel as well as thepurchase of appropriate equipment and mate-rial and the development of useful fieldguides and other instructional material. Ina word, areas of the country with thegreatest needs could receive priority atten-tion while those whose needs are less couldsimply be monitored.

At the periphery the use of the informationcould be more immediate. By means of a sim-ple data collection instrument containing keyquestions such as those suggested by the casematerial above, the agent could achieve animpression of community readiness that wouldenable him to intervene appropriately. Theuse of some sort of algorithmic decision-making scheme might be appropriate.

In order to avoid some of the pitfalls re-counted in the cases the agent would have tobe armed with additional questions to pose asthe community intervention proceeds. Suchquestions would relate particularly to ethno-historical data, details of inter-personalinter-clan relationships, and more detaileddescriptions of economic factors, all ofwhich are sensitive issues not readilyexplored, yet which have a profound influenceon the success of participation. In anycase, the process must not be perceived asending with an initial data gathering effort,even if 70% of needed information could beobtained, but rather as an iterative processrequiring a continued sensitivity to socio-cultural nuances.

What variables should be included in an in-strument developed for use in the initialcommunity assessment? The following wouldappear as a group to be the minimum toaddress without limiting the informationalvalue of an instrument to field workers:

Physical Characteristics- Topography- Types of soil- Water table- Types and locations of water sources- Meteorologic and climatic variations- Availability of natural resources

27

excreta-related

Biologic Characteristics- Water quality- Common disease vectors- Prevalent water anddiseases

Economic Characterstics- Assets- Liabilities- Economic infrastructure

Demographic Characteristics- Distributions- Ethnic composition

Socio-cultural Characteristics- Beliefs about water and excreta- Water use- Excretion patterns- Local skills- Existing Local organizations- Leadership patterns- Communication patterns- Decision making patterns

The case material suggests, however, thatthe most needed information should be mostlyof a socio-cultrual nature. Even where tech-nical skills and abundant natural resourcesexist in a community, such factors as inter-clan dissension or the absence of decisiveleadership may interfere significantly withthe realizaton of participatory objectives.As a first example, the dependent relation-ship involving mission and community atMelen, or the Mission-initiated mobilizingactivities of Ekali I indicate the need forbecoming aware of the types of interventionscommunities have experienced in the past andespecially the kinds of relationships thatwere established between community and theintervening agency.

As a result of this assessment, a fieldworker might adopt organizing efforts to pro-mote self reliance, where dependence exists;but where a population is already mobilized,efforts to capitalize on existing self-reliance. Thus at Melen a painstaking step-by-step process of demonstrating what thevillage could do by itself to improve itswater supply and sanitation facilities wouldhave been necessary. At Ekali I or at Djalu,existing self-reliance could be built upon.The implication is for more community organi-zation resources for populations like Melenthan for populations like Ekali I and Djalu.

A second set of socio-cultral considerationsseem to revolve around the ethnic history ofthe population in question. A village likeNkolnguet, for instance, where segments ofthe population have differing historic iden-tities may require the formation of severalstructures, each corresponding to a segment,

28to look after water and sanitation improve-ments, rather than an unwieldy dissension-prone health committee organized at the levelof the entire village. Localities such asKpandu-Dafor on the other hand, with a well-defined series of mutually dependent chiefsand stool-fathers, can tolerate a committeecovering several villages. The essence is totailor the organizational approach to histor-ical social structures.

Lastly, the case material suggests that thefactor of the age of a population, in and ofitself, is not necessarily unfavorable tocommunity participation. At Okoa for example,the aged population responded readily tocarefully applied organizational efforts, incontrast to previously held impressions ofpopulation-wide depression and lethargy. Agein fact correlated rather highly with partic-ipation in household based survey carriedout in this community (Ref. 4).

CONCLUSION

Community assessment must therefore be bothsystematic and continuous. Systematic assess-ment includes an intial screen suggested bythe list of characteristics given earlier. Asimple assessment tool built around thesecharacteristics should be designed for use byfield workers. From applying it these samefield workers should be able to design moreeffective organizational and technical ap-proaches to water and sanitationimprovements.

On a continous basis, however, the cases re-counted suggest a series of more restrictedbut more penetrating questions of a socio-cultural nature to be asked in order to avoidpitfalls. These questions pertain to

- the history of self-reliance vs. depen-dence in the population

- the historic social sturctures of thepopulation

- the age structure of the population

As the cases illustrate, a history of self-reliant behavior bodes a favorable prognosisfor participation, whereas a history of de-pendent relations with intervening agenciesindicates a need for carefully planned or-ganizational inputs. Organization of struc-tures for overseeing water and sanitationimprovements must be cognizant of theexisting organization of the population.Rather than risking the breakup of a village-level health committee in a population withseveral ethnic subunits, it would be betterto organize a committee for each subunit.Lastly, relatively aged populations may havea better rather than a worse participatoryoutcome under conditions of adequate commu-nity organization inputs.

In these ways some account can be taking ofthe wide variability in community character-isitics in planning for community partici-pation in water and supply and sanitation.

REFERENCES

1. White, Gilbert, domestic water supply inthe third world, Progress in Water Tech-nology, 11(1/2): 13-19. 1575

2. Coombs, Philip, Meeting the Needs of theRural Poor, Pergamon, New York. f9"80

3. Isely, R. and J.F. Martin, The villagehealth committee: starting point forrural development, WHO Chronicle,31:307-315. 1977

4. Isely, R. and Mvele, P., "line evaluationdu pronostic d'un comite de sante vil-lageois au Cameroun: resultats d'uneetude economique et attitudinale." Paperpresented at the meeting of the WFPHAHalifax. May, 1978.

5. Isely, R., "A community organisation ap-proach to clean water and waste disposalin Cameroonian villages," Progress in Wa-ter Technology, 11(1/2): 109-116. I W

6. Isely, R., "Assainissement des sourcesd'eau par des moyens locaux" Annales dela Societe Beige de la MedecineTropicale, 58: 149-155. 197?T

7. Isely, R., "Reflexions on an experiencein community participation," Annales dela Societe Beige de la MedecineTropicale,'" 59 (Suppl.) 103-115. 1979

8. Isely, R., J.F. Martin, and L.L.Sanwogou, "Community organisation as anapproach to health education in ruralAfrica" International Journal of HealthEducation, 22(3) Suppl. 1-19. 1375

9. Cooper, L., New Town in the Highlands: acommunity study of Ndjalo, Congo-Kinshasa(mimeo). 1968

10. Sanwogou, L.L. and Etoundi, N., "Lespharmacies familiales villageoises,"Afrique Medical. 142:493-496. 1976

11. Imboden, N., "Planning and design ofrural drinking water projects,"Experiences in Rural Development.Occasional Paper No. 2, OF.CD, Paris.1972

29

7th (Jj Conference: Water people and waste in developing countries-. 1981

COMMUNITY REQUIREMENTS IN THE DESIGN OF APPROPRIATE WATER SUPPLY SYSTEMS

DR ALAN REW Head of Social Assessment, Atkins Research and DevelopmentF R DELAUZUN Environmental Consultant, Atkins Research and Development

Woodcote Grove, Ashley Road, Epsom, Surrey.

1. Introduction

It is sometimes worth stating the obvious. Acommunity's satisfaction with the developmentproject designed for it is not an optionalextra. The happiness of community usersdepends on designs which meet social needs.Failure to meet these needs may also increaseproblems of resource development and manage-ment in the longer term or in other parts ofthe economy and society.

Countless surveys show that poorer communitiesput improved access to potable water high ontheir list of priorities, second only to, oreven above,employment and livelihood. Theparticular and varied ways in which theseneeds are linked to other needs and to widersocio-economic and political constraints areof the utmost consequence for the communitiesthemselves. The detail of their requirementsis often lost sight of. It can be argued,even, that senior government officers andnational politicians should attach littleimportance to the detailed requirements ofsmall-scale communities: they ought to beconcerned with broader policy questions,planning targets and setting standards atsector level. This view implies an artificialdistinction between 'planning' and'implementation' in terms of timing, hierarchyand personnel. This paper starts from adifferent assumption: it is that consumersand users of water supplies in the poorercountries of the Third World are concernedwith the actual outcomes of the allocation ofnatural and human resources available for watersupply rather than with planning intentionshowever rational.

The UN water decade has attracted considerableattention through its aim to supply 'cleanwater and adequate sanitation for all by 1990'.The implementation of such a goal suggests abreakdown into planning components: particulartargets to identify who needs water; who needssanitation; in which countries, in which sectorsof each country; budgetary implications;natural and human resources available; and acommitment and ability to manage the relation-ship between specific targets and resources.This approach is eminently rational within itsown terms: it sets aims, breaks these aimsdown into subsidiary targets and relates theachievement of these targets to theavailability of finance, landpower and manage-ment skills.

It is when one examines, from the grass-rootslevel, the actual outcomes of this approachthat one finds that the formal aspects of aplanning rationality have been preserved atthe cost of the substance of rationality.Against this, we would also emphasise that anapproach which only records a grass-rootsperspective and ignores the institutionalframework, engineering and financialconstraints and opportunities is equallydistorted.

There is a third option. It relies on anintegrated technical, social, and financialassessment of the process in which watersupplies are allocated, both by market and non-market means, and the ways in which these canbe realistically improved. The need for thisthird option of an integrated social andtechnical planning of water resources is shownin the following paragraphs.

2. Reasonable access can be unreasonable

The UN water decade attempts to ensurereasonable access to potable water suppliesfor everyone. Many governments will also wishto ensure, for populist reasons, broad equalityin access to water holes, particularly in thearid lands of the Middle East and North Africa.

A regular supply of water brings aboutsignificant changes in the way of life of theBedouin (Marx 1978:48). As more permanentsettlement and increasing numbers of livestockuse the water hole, there is an irreversibleimpact on the pastures which support the live-stock on which the tribesmen are dependent.There are significant impacts on livestockpopulations, the environmental patrimony, onagricultural strategies and even on thepopulations themselves since many Bedouingroups have households associated with them ina client capacity. It is these clients whoare the people first expelled when waterresources are under pressure. The key pointhere is that unless the overall relationshipbetween environment, agriculture and ruralsociety is taken firmly into account inanalysing the way people use their environment,then the result is desertification andpopulation movement.

The inter-relationship of rural water supplieswith agriculture and other aspects of therural society and aconomy is illustrated by

30our study of a commercial project in PapuaNew Guinea. Villagers were so concerned tosecure the supposed benefits of a largescale, commercial agricultural project thatthey were prepared to seriously understatethe dangers of contamination to their springsand streams from intensive livestock usage.They were worried that if they createddifficulties over water supply that theproject would pass them by (Rew 1980). Thesocial response in water planning needscareful analysis.

3. Physical and Social Scarcity

Another aim of the UN water decade is toimprove the quality of water supplied.There is obvious sceptism in the Third Worldabout the attempt to supply minimum services- as if these societies were not worth fullscale services.

Accordingly, when there are changes toimprove the quality of water and its supply,countries usually insist on reticulatedsystems operating at very high standardsrelative to the systems they are replacing.The results from installing such a system canbe quite dramatic. For example, in Algeria,there are marked differences between thosehouseholds with access to individualreticulated water connections and thosehouses with only access to public standpipes.In the case of Algeria, according to 1973 WHOfigures, the consumption from standpipes isfrom less than one-half to only one-sixth ofthat from private water supplies. (1)

The implications of these figures areapparent. We so often think of scarcity as afeature of the natural resource endowment.Scarcity is thought of as a physical concept.A great deal of economic analysis is builtupon Malthusian premises: populationpressures, it is thought, build up againstlimited natural resources with scarcity as aresult. The material we have examinedsuggests that scarcity also should be seen ina social framework: within rather widephysical parameters the experience andmaintenance of scarcity is essentially socialand institutional. If some individuals andgroups have the ability to consume more of aresource while others are forced to consumelass because of the way in which it isdistributed, then we can speak of a socialscarcity. The privileged conditions andquality of supply for some leads to theirdramatically increased consumption over others.The limited endowment of natural resources(physical scarcity) is made presing andurgent because of the underlying relationsof social scarcity established. Waterconservation schemes must take this socialprocess into account and design appropriateinstitutional, technical and financialcontrols into the supply system.

4. Water Bureacracies and achievement

Another danger in attempting to meet thetarget of water for all by 1990 is that over-achievement in trying to reach targets maycreate its own disasters. The headlines

which the UN water decade will create maystimulate certain officials and agencies topress their claims for government finance andresources,

The result may be that aims are setunrealistically high by evangelistic officials.Excessive claims may be made on governmentresources without sufficient regard for theabsorptive capacity of the country. There isanother aspect which is worrying. The attemptto over-achieve is likely to lead to highlypublicised pilot projects which benefit someto a very high standard as well as showing highstandards of engineering. But these pilotprojects are likely to make other peoplerelatively deprived and create expectationswhich cannot be met. Moreover, the publicisa-tion and implementation of these pilot projectswill provide a legitimacy for communitiestrying to achieve the goals of the programme intheir own ways. Expectations are highand lacking other means, ad hoc self-helpefforts will proliferate.Our research has shown that a network ofillegal water connections then develops as doesthe uncontrolled exploitation of ground waterresources with often serious consequences forthe quality of underground water and acquifers(Rew 1978). Lack of social control thusthreatens the physical resources themselvesand leads to unplanned development. A sub-stantial number of unauthorised connectionstogether with unrealistically high expectationsleads to the sabotage of meters and supplylines which then threatens the financialviability of even the controlled pilot part ofthe programme itself (Rew 1979).

There is a further danger. It is that thesekinds of developments create almostirreversible rachet effects in the society.There is no way of making people accept stand-pipes or other low-cost options when they seethe groups which they emulate with regularaccess to high quality supplies. This effectis reinforced where institutional and socialfactors mean that there is scope for solvingwater supply difficulties by independentcommunity action. Because of the socialresponse factor monitoring and evaluation ofwater supply projects should assess thedistribution of water benefits in thepopulation and the inter-penetration of social,financial and technical factors in design,operation and maintenance.

5. Urban programmes for rural contexts

In planning water supply it is easier to settargets and implement projects for urbanpopulations. Density has something to do withthis but only in part. The real differencesbetween urban and rural schemes lie in theway in which home and work are connected inurban settlements and the greater variabilityin the way in which households are related tothe division of labour in rural areas.

Reasonable access to water is a goal for theUN water decade. In order to specify this goalfor urban areas one workshop recommended thata minimum target is for a water source within

200 metres of each house. Urban settlement isvariable but it is variable within a range: asingle minimum standard is therefore feasible.Furthermore, the separation between mosthousehold and employment activities is suchthat the water planner can assess demand forindustrial, commercial and public usage almostindependently of domestic use. Usingaggregated demand and known minimumstandards the planner can then proceed on a'eount, cost and carry' basis. He counts demand,

costs various ways of satisfying this demandand having decided on a particular technicaland financial option then carries it to thepopulation concerned.

This is just not possible in the rural areas.The contextual nature of rural life isincompatible with the idea of universalstandards. The range of settlement types isconsiderable, and the complex inter-relation-ship of domestic, agricultural and non-agricultural activities means that needs forhuman consumption, for irrigation and forlivestock are all intermingled in differentways within each context. Moreover, the database for estimating the scale of the problemand the precise nature of interconnectionsis very often unavailable. The workshopreferred to above was unable to recommend any-thing as specific for rural contexts as itdid for urban schemes.

As Donaldson (1976:5) emphasises, water supplyin this sector in particular 'is more adminis-trative than technical in nature... allaction (technical, administrative andfinancial) must be coordinated at the centrallevel - without forgetting each project alsoneeds strong local participation1. Theattempt to develop and manage coordinatedwater-supply systems using strong localparticipation and institutional controls isnot an easy one. Certainly, minimum waterfor all will not be achieved by unaided self-help. National programmes often call forvarious kinds of self-help and reference ismade to supposedly traditional values - forexample, to t;he spirit of bayanihan in thePhilippines or to gotong royong in Indonesia.But these self-help values will not thrivewithout the appropriate institutional,technical and financial support. This wouldmean placing greater emphasis on technicalassistance for officials at intermediatelevel and a decentralization of the planningprocess. Certain countries -for example,Botswana, Mexico and Indonesia - try to putthe responsibility for detailed allocationof resources as low down the hierarchicscale of administration as possible, leavingto the community the precise choice of howthe resources should be used while pre- Iscribing the broad limits within which prog- "rammes had to remain. This strategy hasconsiderable implications for systems ofstatistical reporting and accounting and forthe balance between recurrent and initialcosts.

6. Mater supply as a social fact

Water supply, as we have seen, is more than a

31question of biological quality andengineering delivery. The social response todesign determines the actual outcomes andcommunity satisfaction. Aesthetics, socialinequalities, conceptions of disease, depen-dence, labour and employment issues are allinvolved.

We should be aware of the many 'after-the-event' social impacts of increasing access towater. Improved access to water throughimproved water supplies has been noted to makelife tougher for the women who, within thetraditional division of labour, are responsi-ble for carrying water. With secure suppliesof water near at hand, women have greatertime available and therefore receive less helpfrom other household members than previously.(Elmendorf and Buckles,1980). Improved accessmay also cut down the time available forwomen to socialise, to increase control overthem and encourage disease through stagnantwater.

If supplies are brought close to clusters ofhouseholds the effect may also be to increaserural inequalities because of the way inwhich better-off households congregate nearerto the roads. 'To even see the houses of thepoor one often has to leave the road' is thecomment of one recent study of three villagesin the low country of Sri Lanka. Anotherresult may be that within a large scale ruralsupply programme water may be routed throughterritories and villages about which peoplefeel considerable scepticism and fear. Anyreading of African sociology, for example,shows the enormous fears associated withwitchcraft and sorcery. (See for example, theanthropological novel written by EleanorBowen and the relationship between choice ofsettlement and fears of witchcraft). Manyriparian rights in rural areas are non-codified but are nonetheless of such astanding that they are equivalent to legalrights. Rural water supply projects whichfail to take these rights into account willincrease rural tensions.

There are also impacts on employment worthconsidering. Experience in the southernPhilippines shows that municipal watersupplies can be used to provide the basicresource for a thriving private sector watersupply industry: urban water is tanked intooutlying areas. The introduction of pipedwater supplies into the rural areas shouldlead to a fall in the price of water forrural consumers since carrying water isexpensive. On the other hand such improve-ments affect levels of employment sincerural people will tend to be employed as thedrivers and carriers. Dunn reports aninteresting case of where donkey drivers,deprived of employment as water carriers bya new scheme, vandalised the new well. Thesolution was to employ them as guardians ofthe well to recompense them for the employ-ment they had lost.

The attempt to develop standardised'community' programmes may well affect the

ability of particular households to solvetheir own problems and to gain their ownoptimum solutions. In one Pacific islandnot noted for its agricultural productivity,the government had funded the provision ofcommunity water tanks made with cement andchicken wire. These were delivered tocentral village locations. The effect wasto make it harder to buy the galvanised tankswhich they were to replace. Indeed this wasone of the aims of the project since therehad been many maintenance problems with thegalvanised tanks. The effect on rural labourwas considerable. People now had to walk toget their water rather than collect it fromtheir own roofs. In a local agriculturaleconomy in which the key constraint onproduction was the relatively low price-responsiveness of farmers this communityimprovement created many social costs.

Finally, the 'aesthetic' aspects of watershould not be ignored. In one Pacific islandwe were told that there was a strongpreference for rainwater collected from theroofs. This was 'sweet water' compared tothe hard water collected from undergroundsources and piped to consumers. Since peoplewill prefer to use sweet water for drinkingpurposes then standards for purity shouldapply to this and be adjusted to localcircumstances rather than to the reticulatedwater system. Elliott (1975) summarises theissue neatly: 'Purity is a relative conceptdepending on the uses to which water is put,the density of the ambient population, thenumber of people using the particular wateroutlet, the drainage available and the healthenvironment... the health hazards associatedwith a given level of purity may be verydifferent in each environment. Standards arevery seldom established locally1.

Conclusion

The UN water decade has laudable aims to helpmeet an important need acknowledged by poorerpeople throughout the world. We see thepossibility, however, of danger in the waythese aims will be translated into action.In the paper we have shown how an over-emphasis on any one aspect of a total systemof water service supply can lead to unfortu-nate results when judged in terms ofhappiness of the people affected. Ourconclusion is that the aims of the UN waterdecade should be implemented throughintegrated water resource management projectsresponsive to the needs of particular regions,countries and communities. If this is notdone the result may be an irreversiblesituation where the implementation of aims

may be considerably delayed. Impatient forresults, many people will feel, however, thatit is important to keep specific recognisabletargets before the eyes of engineers,politicians, etc. We have shown that thisapproach can produce a patchwork of over-achievement and inaction with irreversiblerachet effects on people's aspirations. Theseaspirations prove unrealistic since the aimsin the headlines are achieved unevenly. Anintegrated social, technical and financial

appraisal based on regional resources couldavoid many of these problems.

Footnotes:

(1) Contemporary figures will be availableshortly from Binnie and Partners and W.S.Atkins and Partners combined study of Algierswater supply. Initial print-outs tend tomatch the range of unit consumption figuresfor houaw connections given in the 1973 WHOfigures.

Bibliography

Donaldson, David. 1976Rural Water Supplying Latin America:organisational and financial aspectsLes Carnets de l'Enfance 34 UNICEF

Elmendorf, Mary and Patricia Buckles. 1980Socio-cultural Aspects of Water Supply andExcreta Disposal. Vol 5. AppropriateTechnology for Water Supply and SanitationWorld Bank.

Marx, Emmanuel. 1978The Ecology and Politics of NomadicPastoralists in the Middle East inW. Weissleder (ed) The Nomadic AlternativeMouton, The Hague.

Rew, Alan, 1978Urban Water: Access, Delivery andInstitutional Scarcity IDS Discussion Paper 113Institute of Development Studies, Sussex.

1979Misere urbaine et dependance a 1'egard de l'eauLes Carnets de l'Enfance 45/46 UNICEF

1980A Ranch for Cape Vogel: failure and promise inregional development. Chap. 3,Monograph 14, Institute of Applied Social andEconomic Research, Papua New Guinea.

Session 233

security of tenure.

Chairman: Brian GrievesonPrincipal Engineering AdviserOverseas Development Administration

DiscussionDavid B Allen, Forbes W Davidsonand Alistair C Blunt

Incremental utilities provisionand affordabilityMr ALLEN introduced his paper by explainingthat his firm was one of three British firmsinvolved in the Suez Canal master plan studiesfunded by the UNDP, from 1974 to 1976. Thestudy was followed by a demonstration projectfunded by the ODA/UK from 1977 to 1978, inwhich his firm developed in detail the housingrecommendations. Currently the firm wasproviding technical advisors to assist in theimplementation of the programme.

2. A recommendation of the study was thatgovernment should not be involved with thedirect provision of housing, but that effortsshould be made to encourage communityparticipation, local initiative and self-helpself-financing projects.

3. Slides were used to illustrate the areacovered in the project and the facilitiesavailable there, together with some of theimprovements which had been made.

4. He thought it important to end by sayingthat the project was now self-financing at thelevels of service provision which had beenprovided.

5. Mr RUKOIJO expressed doubts about theincome statistics which were given, especiallythose relating to the squatter settlements.He wanted to know how these figures had beenobtained since squatters would be unlikely towant to disclose this information when much oftheir income was from illegal sources.

6. Mr ALLEN agreed that it was very difficultto find out real incomes even accepting thatsocio-economic and detailed case studies hadbeen carried out. In undertaking programmestargetted at the lowest income groups it washowever important to understand how much couldbe afforded for housing, including infra-structure provision. However he thought itinteresting to note that by the process offormalising tenure of land, people were foundto be drawing on family wealth, from whateversource, and Investing it in permanentstructures. He did not think it would ever beknown where this wealth came from.

8. Mr ALLEN explained that they had triedto formalise an informal process which hadalready existed. One of the benefits to theprogramme was that desert land in Egypt wasfree. In this case executive orders wereissued by the Governor of Ismailia wherebyall the land in the project area wastransferred to the project agency at no cost.Plots of a range of sizes were then sold bya system of deferred freehold at costs whichwere considered affordable to the targetpopulation. After five years, if the holderof the plot wished to sell, he had first togive the project the option to buy back theplot, but It could then be offered on theopen market.

9. Dr MITWALLY asked for details of thesponsorship of the study.

10. Mr ALLEN replied that the consultantfirm and inception)seed capital of £65 000was provided by the British government. Now,after two years at the level of infrastructureprovigitdn provided, the project was self-finaneing. Except for the initial inceptioncapital there had been no massive subsidies.

11. Mr OTIENO commented that from the slidesshown by Mr Allen it appeared that massivestructures were going up and the roads seemedto be well-made. He had the impression thatthe project had been intended for low-incomepopulations and he wondered how feasible itwas for these areas.

12. Mr ALLEN replied that two importantobjectives of the project were that proposalsmust be: i) relevant to low-income groups,

which formed the majority of thepopulation of Ismailia, and

ii) capable of implementation withminimal subsidy.

During the period of implementation of theproposals the consultants' recommendedselection procedure was modified by theProject Agency Board. As a consequence theconsultants had been concerned that thelowest income groups were not readily gainingaccess to the project. However, there werecertain safeguards such as variable prices ofland, basedkon plot size, and costs persquare metre according to location, whichwere designed to ensure that there was anopportunity for self-selection according toincome. Further, the majority of plots werepriced at the lowest price per square metreand easier repayment terms were available tothe poorest plot awardees. Based on recentmonitoring exercises there was evidence thatthe target population was participating inthe programme.

7. Mr DOWNEY asked for an elaboration on the

34

Raymond B Isely

Planning for community participationin water supply and sanitation:accounting for variability incommunity characteristics,Mr GRIEVESON explained that in the absence ofthe author the paper would be presented by MrHafner.

14. Mr HAFNER began by giving some backgroundon the WASH Project. He explained that it wasa committment from USAID to the Water Decade,to provide over a forty month period technicalresources, information, technical transfer andtraining capabilities to the seventy AIDmissions in the developing world. It was madeup of a consortium of five organisations, andconcentrated on rural and periurban sanitationproblems.

15. He explained that Dr Isely had extensiveexperience in Africa especially in Zaire,Senegal and the Cameroons. He had found thatthere were problems in obtaining informationon community readiness for projects. Theplanners lacked data and so often made errorsin their recommendations.

16. A plan had been proposed by Dr Isely forthe collection of data to evaluate the degreeof readiness of a community for particularprojects.

17. Slides were used to illustrate Dr Isely'swork, showing public meetings, basic springprotection and health education classes in thevillage of Ekali.

18. Mr HERBERT asked whether the assumptionwas that before implementing any santationimprovement schemes a village should beencouraged to rise through these levels ofreadiness, or was it that only those villagesalready at a high degree of readiness should beconsidered for schemes.

19. Mr HAFNER believed it would be the latter.A village would be used which had a high degreeof readiness, and then this village with itsnew scheme would be used as an example to showto the other villages and so encourage them.

Dr A w Rew and F R Delauzan

Community requirements in the designof appropriate water supply systems.Dr REW began by explaining that his paper wasnot related to a specific case study, but wasa conceptual paper which asked what was meantby community requirements.

21. "Community" was an elusive word. Withregard to their requirements it should be

remembered that a community was part of asociety, and it was the place of thepopulation in this wider society whichusually determined the success or failure ofa scheme, not parochial community processes.

22. An integrated view and assessment wasconsidered essential for the success of anyproject.

23. The speaker went on to ask the question"what would be the success or failure of awater supply project - how could we measureit?" He thought it could mean one of twothings: either the achievement of particulartargets in terms of pipes supplied,connections made and such like; or theachievement of physical targets in relationto the specific social and economic needs ofthe population concerned. The degree ofsuccess could only be established by anevaluation of the actual needs of thepopulation.

24. An example was used to illustrate thedanger in any failure to place physicaltargets in their social context. If goodsupplies of water were provided for Bedouinpopulations, this would have an impact ontheir means of livelihood, in that permanentwater holes created pressure on the groupsto remain in one place. This began anirreversible process whereby pasturesdeteriorated through overgrazing. Watersupply targets were met but these were not inkeeping with the nomadic population'sunderlying requirements.

25. Emulation could be a factor in thefeasibility of a project. It was difficultto persuade a community to accept a standpostsystem if they could see another communitywith something better. They were almostcertain to want what the other groups had.Thus the community's response to the scheme'sdesign would not be what the engineers orplanners would have expected.

26. Dr REW ended by again stressing thepoint he had made earlier, that localpopulations could not be seen in isolationfrom the wider social and political context.

35

Conference: Wafer people and waste in developing countries: 1981

HUMAN RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT IN WATER SUPPLY AND SANITATION

Dr JOHN H AUSTIN Environmental Engineer USAID Office of HealthDr DENNIS WARNER Acting Project Director WASH ProjectDr MARY ELMENDORF Consultant WASH Project

INTRODUCTION

Human resources development is the heart of theoverall development process. It provides the life-blood to all other forms of development, whetherthey be capital works, agriculture, education, mon-etary reform, or institutional change.

Developing country governments and donor orga-nizations have had a continuing interest in the hu-man resources development and training aspects ofwater supply and sanitation projects over theyears. This was voiced at the Water for Peace Con-ference in Washington, D.C. in the mid-1960's, atthe UN Water Conference at Mar del Plata in 1977,the WHO/ UNICEF "Health for All by the Year 2000"conference in Alma Alta in 1978 and stated stronglyat the opening of the International Water Supplyand Sanitation Decade at the UN in November 1980.Although individual projects have addressed theproblem, efforts on a national, regional, or globalscale have been rare. Today, more so than ever be-fore, developing countries ministries and agenciesconcerned with water and sanitation are recognizingthe need for human resource development and train-ing strategies and programs,

WHO estimates that during the Water Decade(1980-90) the world will have about 2.5 billionpersons who have inadequate water supply and sani-tation. It is generally agreed that 0.5 to 1.5staff persons are required per 1000 people serveddepending upon size and type of facility and pro-gram. This means that somewhere between 1,350,000and 3,750,000 people will be required for all as-pects of these programs. Futhermore, the requirednumbers could be increased because of turnover, newtechnology or other factors. Using an average fig-ure of two million trained persons means thattraining systems must produce on the average200,000 newly trained persons per year, 17,000 permonth, 4,000 per week or 550 per day.

Although the time required to prepare a compe-tent worker in a variety of simple tasks related towater supply and sanitation may be several weeks,much more lead time may be required to prepare com-petent personnel for the roles of engineers, ac-countants, health educators or administrators atthe national level. Only a mechanism which can besustained by the country itself can make it possi-ble to prepare adequate human resources to manage,operate and maintain the water supply and sanita-tion facilities and programs needed to serve the2.5 billion rural and urban people of the devel-oping world. Self-sufficiency in human resources

development and training must be accomplished atthe country, regional and local level to meet WaterDecade goals.

A major obstacle to meeting human resourcesneeds is the current fragmentation characteristicof water supply and sanitation programs. For themost part such programs are supported by interna-tional banking organizations, bilateral organiza-tions, United Nation groups, and private voluntaryorganizations. Each organization often specializesin one aspect of water and sanitation systems suchas village water supply and sanitation, nationalinfrastructure development, peri-urban technicaltraining in water and sanitation and urban watersystems or public health education. As a resultfragmentation within a single country or region ismore common than it should be. Each developingcountry, and, in some cases region, should have acomprehensive strategy to achieve long term goalsin water supply and sanitation. This paper willfocus on a systematic approach to human resourcesdevelopment for water supply and sanitation pro-grams ranging from members of local communities tobe served in such programs through mid-level na-tional and regional officials and technicians togovernment leaders.

THE PLANNING, RESEARCH, EVALUATION AND TRAINING(PRET) MODEL FOR HUMAN RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT

The following assumptions can be made about hu-man resources development for water and sanitation:

• The training and assignment of qualified peoplecan be the major factor in initiating change inthe water supply and sanitation sector;

• Water supply and sanitation services must be in-tegrated into rural and peri-urban development;

• The broad-based foundation for water supply andsanitation services consists of a spectrum ofpersonnel trained to perform services in thecommunity and provide support at the regionaland national levels; and

• The services provided at the comnunity levelmust be coordinated with the levels above to en-sure adequate two-way caimunication and continu-ity.

PRET for Developing Human Resources at the Commu-nity LeveT

Because many water and sanitation projects, es-pecially in rural areas, are dependent upon local

36participation and support for their proper use andmaintenance, local communities, national organiza-tions and donors must work together to solve theproblems of improving water supply and sanitation.Characteristic of such task-oriented planning is aholistic approach to meeting basic needs, with at-tention f i r s t to those problems which are perceivedas the most important by the camunity. This re-quires the following:

Planning stage:

Recognition of active ccmtiunity participation asan essential component;

Flexibi l i ty ,

Continuing vertical and horizontal dialogue;

A multi-sectoral approach; and

A decentralized organization and mode of opera-t ion.

Research and data collection including:

RANKING OF INFORMATION REQUIREMENTS

INFORMATIONREQUIREMENT

UNITS OF TIME TO COLLECT INFORMATION*1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

1. Titles of all personnel working in fields that arerelevant for this particular project, and theirduties;

2. Existing staff patterns in organizations employingsuch people, numbers per category, assignments,evaluation of workers;

3. Listing of master performers in each category,that i s , persons who are considered to carry outal l the tasks and duties of the job category aswell as possible (at least five needed in eachcategory, working under different circumstances,different locations, and different supervisors);

4. Present recruitment methods, interviewing tech-niques, standards of acceptance;

5. Source of recruits both from within the presentwork force and from without;

6. Effect of competition from other sectors on qual-i ty of personnel recruited and retained in system;

7. Turnover rates for each category;

8. Reasons for turnover;

9. Rewards, incentives used to retain personnel;

10. Current methods for addressing unsatisfactoryperformance and future of the performer;

11. Management attitude toward training, time, andmoney allocated;

12. Entry level requirements for each category includ-ing education and experience and how determined;

13. Listing of existing education/training inst i tu-tions, name, location, types of program, f ac i l i -t ies, contact person, l iterature on program, qual-i ty of program, success of program graduates;

14. Listing of needed education/training institutions,name, location, types of program, fac i l i t i es , con-tact person, literature on program, quality ofprogram, success of program graduates;

trainers, voca-technologists,

15. Programs available for trainingt ional t ra iners, instructionaltechnicians, etc.;

16. Availability of personnel to do task analysis, de-velop new methods for on-the-job training, evalu-ate training effectiveness;

17. Already existing reports from government, interna-tional organizations, academic community of train-ing/educational needs.

*Length of time unit wi l l depended on quantity and quality of workforce used to collect information.A unit may be one week or several months.

• Current knowledge, attitudes, and behavior re-lated to water use and excreta disposal in general;

• Attitudes of community members about their pre-sent water supply and excreta disposal systems;

• Community member perceptions of their environ-ment and its relationship to their health;

• Their perceived needs and wishes regarding im-proved water supply and/or sanitation; and

• The incentives and constraints to implementingthem as perceived by all conmunity members.

Evaluation methodologies which include:

• Modifying plans to fit users' needs;• Redesigning when necessary and choosing appro-

priate technologies;• Analyzing individual, community, and outside

contributions; and• Designing socially relevant contracts for in-

side/outside resources through locally organizedinstitutions.Training programs which include:

• A joint effort of planners and conmunity membersin conceiving, planning, developing and imple-menting new programs;

• Developing appropriate new training techniques;• Operating the new facilities and/or programs by

users;• Maintaining new installations and/or programs by

users; and• Applying the training effectively within the

users perspective.

From this process it will be determined who arethe most appropriate people for carrying out spe-cific tasks, who should be trained and how.

PRET for Development Human Resources within theGovernment Hierarchy"

Planning

All too often in the planning and implementat-ion of large schemes human resource development isnot provided for until programs are put into opera-tion. Because of the need for long range and com-prehensive planning selected individuals must beadequately trained in decision-making and have acommitment to the effective implementation of suchprograms.

The complexity of the problems of human re-source development for a project which will affecta large segment of the population makes it impera-tive that proposed solutions be examined for directand indirect effects on other activities. It isequally important to understand the context inwhich a problem exists. Projects must first beviewed within the limits of government obligationsand resources (people time, money), next within thelimits set by project objectives and capabilities,and finally within the larger context of futuregovernment goals. Over and over again, the ques-tions must be asked, "Why do it this way?" and "Why

37do it at all?" In order to arrive at satisfactoryconclusions in the above process, it is necessaryto know who will do what, when, where and how.

In establishing the objective for a plan, thefollowing questions must be kept in mind:

• What is the real problem?• What are the constraints to solutions?• What is the current situation and what are the

assumptions about the future?• How has the problem been addressed in the past?

Is a new approach warranted?• Who should participate in the decision-making

process?• How will project activities interrelate with the

actions of other government agencies, interna-tional organizations, the educational carmunity,the recipient conmunity, and other parts of thesame project?

• What are the consequences to be expected fromactions taken or not taken?

Research

In addition to the research and informationnecessary at the planning stage, research is alsonecessary during implementation, evaluation andtraining in order to fill gaps in knowledge whichare bound to occur in each of these aspects of aprogram. If any of the information called for inplanning is not available (such as present prac-tices and attitudes among recipients of the ser-vices, resource constraints, policy of a particulargroup within government, appropriateness of tech-nologies being considered, etc.) it will be neces-sary to do research.

Evaluation

Once the required information has been assem-bled, it must be evaluated and packaged to supportthe above objectives and the overall objectives ofthe entire effort. The following questions willhave to be answered:

• Is the information relevant to the problem?• How will the information help resolve the prob-

lem or allow the government to meet its respon-sibilities?

• Is it consistent and/or valid? If the validityis questionable, how can this be resolved?

• Must the information be conditioned by assump-tions before it can be applied? If so, are theassumptions reasonable, clearly stated, and gen-erally accepted? Under what conditions mightthey be invalid?

• Can the information be used in other places andcircumstances in the future, thus reducing fu-ture costs of information collection?

After the information has been evaluated thefollowing questions and suggestions should be con-sidered:

• When considering the full range of possible ac-tions - from the most ambitious to the do noth-

38ing - which options appear most reasonable?

• What criteria are appropriate for determiningthe feasibility and/or desirability of alterna-tive actions?

• What are the benefits, costs, and risks plannedas well as secondary, of each alternative?

• Which of the constraints can be influenced bythe attitudes, politics, and other characteris-tics of management, and can they be overcomethrough the use of authority and assertiveness?

• If no clear choice emerges what suitable tech-niques can be employed to clarify and justify adecision?

After having reached a decision, the followingchecks and balances on the choice can be made:

• Have specific contractual, statutory, regulatoryand job-related responsibilities been satisfied?

• Is the choice defensible? Would the same choicebe made a year from now, given the same limitsof knowledge, resources and circumstances?

• Has the decision making process been documented?Did the process lead to a better decision thanwould have been reached without it?

Evaluation, particularly with participation ofusers, during implementation will determine whatchanges are required to make the program more suc-cessful and even whether or not the program shouldcontinue. The stages at which a program is evalu-ated should be synchronized with the stages atwhich critical decisions are made.

The actual evaluation should include:

• Inputs (i.e., people, facilities, financial re-sources, and technological resources);

• Processes (i.e., training, administrative sup-port, and technical support);

• Outputs (i.e., facilities installed, personneltrained, organizations advised and programs ini-tiated); and

• Effects (i.e., reduced mortality, reduced mor-bidity, increased work days/year/person, and ac-ceptance) .Training

Systematic procedures for providing the neededhuman infrastructure will be required to supply thefull range of manpower needs for water supply andsanitation in developing countries as follows:

Manpower Needs Assessment: Determination of thenumbers of personnel needed in each job category,the time when each of these persons must be avail-able for their job, the required canpentence level,and where they will come from is fundamental to anyhuman resource development and training program.

Development of Job Descriptions and Task Analysis:In order to assure that properly prepared personsare placed in positions and/ or that proper train-ing can be provided for positions where competentpersonnel are not available, it is necessary todescribe the skills and knowledge required for eachtask and the tasks that are included in each job.

Determining Resources Available: Wherever possibleuse should be made of existing resources. Existinginstitutions, organizations, materials, human re-sources, trainers, etc. should be identified.

Developing Training Delivery Systems: Because twomillion water supply and sanitation workers overthe next decade will require many kinds of trainingsystems options must be considered which range fromtraditional formal educational systems to innova-tive self-teaching programs using various media andin relevant languages. Country workshops should beheld to train trainers to go back to their areas tocarry out the development of systems for training.

Training of Trainers: The actual training of thetwo mi 11ion people wi 11 be carried out by thousandsof trainers at the village, community, provincialand national level in each developing country.Thus, each workshop in such a program must developtrainers who will return to their home area andtrain others—to train others—to train others.Therefore, all activities, materials and effortsmust be so developed that the transfer of infor-mation and skills can occur.

Developing Personnel and Training Strategies: Inorder to maintain a body of trained personnel andprevent large turnover rates and "brain drain"among water and sanitation professionals, personnelmust know where they fit into their own system andknow of career opportunities and training availableto help them move ahead.

CONCLUSION

With this systematic approach it is believedeffective implementation of a wide variety of pro-grams can be implemented. Constant evaluation,both formative and surmiative, will be necessary toassure that the intended beneficiaries indeed bene-fit.

39

Conference: Wafer people and waste in developing countries: 1981

THE INTERDEPENDENCE OF PUBLIC HEALTH ENGINEERING AND A SYSTEM OF LIFELONG !

EDUCATION

TERRY MURPHY Head of Adult Education Department, CAEES,Ahmadu Bello University, Zarla, Nigeria.

This paper will claim that water and wasteengineers and adult educators must be consciousallies. It will reiterate the importance ofinvolving the people in the planning and imple-mentation of projects. It will suggest thatthe present surge of interest in appropriatetechnology requires appropriate staff and thatthis in turn will require the replacement ofmuch of present education by education for lessprestigious schemes. Finally, it will surveythe role adult education can play.

In northern Nigeria the drive behind masseducation is to raise living standards. Inadult education we see our first task as thatof ensuring that people survive. At greatestrisk are the under-fives whose swingeing deathrate owes much to adults lack of understandingof the relationship between water, waste anddisease. Thus adult educators have to bringabout public awareness of the hazards to healthof dangerous sanitation practices. On the "other hand, it nust be stressed that educationin public health is of minimal value unlessfacilities are adequate. A close (symbiotic?)relationship is thus required between adulteducator and public health engineer. I wouldalso argue that where adults are exposed tohealth education, pressure for authority-pro-vided facilities or the development of self-help schemes are likely to follow.

The developing countries may become thenever-to-be-developed countries unlessthe burden of illness is greatly eased.

This pressure on authorities is much overduefor health expenditure has a low priority* andis heavily skewed towards prestigious urban-based curative services which are makinglittle impression as rural-urban drift intensi-fies urban congestion.

Yet, typically, 80* of the population are ruraldwellers existing in poverty, with its sequelaeof chronic, sygernetically related malnutritionand infectious and parasitic diseases.Research at Ahmadu Bello University indicatesthat the benefits of agricultural extension,

including home economics, leading to improvednutrition, is largely negated by preventabledebilitating diseases.

Project Planning and Implementation

The concept of "growth with trickle down" isbeing displaced by "growth from below" whereinterdisciplinary teams cooperate with theclient population in planning and implementa-tion as it is recognised that technocraticsolutions to problems are incomplete if theylack participation from the planning stage.Each problem raises its own questions and eachhas its own solutions. Discovery of theserequires involvement of the target group. Theparticipatory approach clarifies the responsibi-lities and duties of both clientele and supportagencies, while engineers and other members ofthe interdisciplinary teams learn preferences.This multi-source input, in turn, encouragesoptimal use. In the process the masses becomeeducated in the water, waste and health rela-tionship.

Without this participation, paternalistic provi-sion of projects leads to an "aid mentality".Tanzania provides a warning here where theadministration had seen itself as custodiansof the Ujamaa villages with the result of,".... a predominantly illiterate and long-suffering peasantry whose attitudes had crys-tallized into defeatism and scepticism".2

A participatory approach is required, not onlyfor the feedback and cybernation necessary ifprojects are to serve the interests of themasses, but for the protection of basic biolo-gical systems. Involvement of the masses inthis way also helps to ensure that the inevi-table tensions caused by the interfacing of thetraditional with the new will be productiverather than destructive.*

The appropriate technology which should emergefrom well-informed discussion is likely to in-volve low-cost, and therefore non-prestigious,waste-disposal systems, for example, whichcivil engineers find unpopular with authorities.Participation will develop allies among thepeople.

*The Overseas Development Council estimates$1.2 per capita per year in Nigeria. SeeSocial Science and Medicine, Vol l̂ c 3une1980.

*'See the example of destructive tensions laterin the discussion of Bakolori.

40The nulti-disclplinary, participatory approachis also necessary to minimise the effects ofthe inevitable contradictions.

A frequent consequence of big-dam develop-ment is therefore an increase in theincidence of endemic diseases, especiallymalaria which currently kills over 1million African children every year.3

Fish pools - malaria (seasonal attacks become:-year round); irrigation - bilharzia; biogasreplaces smoky, smelly open fires - more mos-quitoes and wood-boring insects in the rafters;on-site waste disposal - physico-chemical andmicro-biological pollution of ground water;pit-latrines - bioaccumable pollutants (e.g.nitrate*in wells); boiling water - concentra-tion of nitrate; will supply of potable waterencourage bottle-feeding?

Ourrently there is strong political pressurefor more wells and bore-holes in semi-aridnorthern Nigeria - it is to be hoped that amassive public hygiene campaign accompaniesany provision as the wastes of a fast risingpopulation accumulate in the sub-soil andincrease pollution risks.

"Barefoot" Public Health Engineers?

As it is increasingly recognised that presti-gious technologically sophisticated schemes forpublic health are unfitted to the realities ofthe developing world the call comes for techno-logy with simpler to produce, and simpler tooperate, systems. Thus, in considering thetraining of local people there is surely lessneed to consider an "extensive training pro-gramme over a long period of time."A- Tradi-tional training would "overeducate" as far asthe active productive role of the trainee wasconcerned. "Barefoot" civil engineers, sub-professional public health aides, could carryout numerous operations with minimal specifictask training, including simple maintenance,repair and servicing, on-site nitrate testing(especially where chemical fertilizers arebeing used), monitoring filariaiis in soakagepits and record-keeping.

The introduction of this cadre of lower-levelsub-professionals would render more flexiblethe mobilization of scarce skill resources andraise the elasticity of substitution betweenthe highly skilled and less skilled (as thedivision of labour led to the semi-skilledengineering worker who made such a contributionto the Industrial Revolution). This cadrewould also serve as an important link betweenthe masses and the highly trained who are,typically, quickly absorbed and desk-bound by

^"Nitrate reduces to nitrate by entero-bacteriairt the stomach leading to methaemoglob.inanaemiaand carcinogeniais. Methae moglobinanaemia canact sygernistically with other diseases -diarrhoea and anaemea. Methaemoglobinanaemiacan also be transmitted from mother to foetus".

the administration and bureaucracy.

If the semi-professionals were locally re-cruited, as are the medical aides in China, theparticipatory process would not be impeded bycultural and linguistic barriers. This wouldalso aid local production of parts as thiscloseness to the masses would encourage articu-lation of grass-roots ideas. In itself, thislends commitment to the project as Freire e_tal have found in retention of literacy when themasses produce their own materials. Indeed,ProfessCr P.D. Dunn includes Paulo Freire'sliteracy methods in his appropriate technology.5

The recognition of the need for local involve-ment and for education now permeates the lite-rature but the latter seems to be left torather vague references to "health education;".In fact adult education sub-systems provideready-made structures upon, which to build massparticipation and enlightenment in publichealth.

Some Areas Where Adult Education Could AidPublic Health Engineering

First of all, let me lay the myth that adulteducation is synonymous with literacy teaching.It includes adults engaged from post-literacyto higher degree programmes as well as non-formal education. It includes the educationbeing given to adults in management and tradeunion courses, vocational training and re-training, agricultural extension, communitydevelopment and community health activities,workshops and symposia.

In northern Nigeria we embrace the universalityof knowledge and reject the encapsulation ofknowledges and so adopt a multi-disciplinaryapproach. Participants In our courses (who areemployed as organisers of adult education pro-grammes) are encouraged to see themselves as"animateurs", as change-agents working inmulti-agency teams - community development,agricultural extension, community health, etc.

.... now that it is becoming fashionableto criticise the top-to-bottom, centre-to-periphery, unidirectional planning andplan implementation and replace it with aparticipatory approach, adult educationmethodology in itself prepares the massesfor participation .... (it) emphasisesdiscussion techniques; rejecting teacheroriented pedagogy, it encourages partici-pant oriented androgogy where the teacheris, at most, primus inter pares. Recog-nizing that human survival depends ondaily success in problem-solving itsapproach is heuristic. Thus it attemptsto restore the balance between educationand the real world by reintegrating lear->.ning and living.6

Adult education is in the persuasion business,concerned with loosening constraints to develop-ment (cultural, behavioural, attitude, valuesand skills). A very considerable body of res-search findings into adult learning problemsand communication techniques in the transmissionof new ideas has become absorbed in the methods

and techniques in adult education. Learning-by-discussion has been shown to be more likelyto bring attitude change as participants do notsimply retain knowledge, as tends to be aresult of pedagogy, but are more likely tobelieve what they learn.

In opposition to the suggestion in a paperread at the 6th WEDC 1980, health educationneed not, in fact must not, be the exclusivedomain of ministries of health. Much can bedone through all of the agencies involved ineducating adults. Our participants study,among other sources, the W.H.O. manual for pri-mary health workers, concentrating on the pre-vention chapters. In the project work theymust complete, several are surveying the provi-sion of health facilities in local governmentareas thus building up a profile of needs anddrawing out the roles of adult education indevelopment. The Chemical Engineering and Bio-logical Sciences departments of this universityare engaged in a joint project on biogas produc-tion. Some of our participants are carryingout the preliminary surveys for this. Whilemaking their surveys they are, in the process,spreading to the masses the public health andfertilizer by-products of this form of energy.A spin-off we expect from this is an improve-ment in environmental awareness and perhapsa change of attitude towards handling humanexcreta as people become familiar with the useof bio-degraded material for fertilizer. Thetime may be ripe as the Green Revolution intro-duced farmers to, now, prohibitively expensiveartificial fertilizers.

Attitude change of course is crucial to develop-ment. Adult Education could play a crucialrole in bringing the attitude change necessaryfor optimal use of projects. Poor maintenancestandards are not due simply to paucity ofskills but by attitudes to work and property.The participatory approach brings a proprie-tary sense to the group and helps change thepsychonormative pattern as each member recog-nizes his importance in success or failure.

The mass public hygiene campaign mentionedabove in association with the pressure for wellsand bore-holes needs public discussion of whatare functional in the current culture of nor-thern Nigeria; whether these remain survivaloriented or are in danger of becoming patho-logical. An informed participatory public caninitiate political action towards provision ofappropriate technology and press that rhetoricis the prelude to action. As they are in con-tact with the masses, adult education agenciesare valuable links which should be included ininterdisciplinary project planning and imple-mentation.

If a "barefoot" cadre is, along with otherchange agencies, going to take an active rolein educating adults, its training shouldinclude some methodology on communicating withadults. At the same time, if the participatoryapproach is adopted in its own training, theself-discipline required for a minimally super-vised repair and maintenance system is morelikely to be inculcated. If, in turn, thecadre adopts the same techniques in communica-ting, the masses too will be likely to be more

convinced of the need for user discipline. Inorder to improve on the low rate of acceptanceof composting toilets, users must be educatedthat misuse is not only aesthetically unaccep-table but dangerous.

We can "train-the-trainers" in the methods andtechniques in the teaching skills appropriateto adults and for communicating wi th cli entpopulations. For example, we ran three work-shops for extension workers at the Bakolorischeme the 6th WEDC visited in March 1980.Unfortunately, as I pointed out in my 1977report, we should have been brought in muchearlier as an authoritarian tendency had pro-duced a sorry state of relations with the in-tended beneficiaries. Since the 6th WEDC visitmany farmers died in a serious clash with theauthorities. The resettlement village, plannedwithout user participation, nor of the mostelementary of sociological principles, I amtold is a disaster.

Other areas where adult educators can help in-clude the probability that potential "barefoot"engineers can be identified in adult classesand, of course, help in training these couldbe given. Another is that research conductedby adult educators into visual perception canwarn of errors made in communication exercisesusing, to the literate, "obvious" illustrations.Adult education has also amassed expertise onthe use of the mass media, an important channelof non-formal education for adults.

A system of life-long education, with adultsand young learning together helps to ensurethat the acculturation necessary in the develop-ment process will be gained without loss ofenculturation of old and tried ideas, (e.g. oftraditional life-support systems). At thesame time it will reduce the vulnerability ofpeople previously directly involved in theirbio-technical systems, for it must be recog-nized that for a long time yet these latter aregoing to be subject to inevitable, all toofrequent, breakdown.

Although I have argued above that 1L teracy doesnot necessarily prevent non-formal education,it does become a necessary minimum for effectiveimplementation of legislation on dangerous sub-stances, especially where agri-business growsaround projects.

In the longer run, water engineering and pol-luticn problems require international agree-ments. The use of the Niger river, for example,requires agreements among Nigeria, Dahomey,Niger, Mali and Guinea. Informed publicopinion is a prerequisite for both reachingagreements and implementing them.

However, I must conclude by saying that theproblems of civil engineers attempting to movedecision-makers away from prestigious but i n-appropriate projects, ring familiar to theadult educator whose experience is similar.Although, worldwide, lip-service is paid tothe necessity of adult education, funds madeavailable to adult education are the last tobe considered in expansionist economic periodsand the first to be cut in recessions. If its

crucial partnership rdle with public healthengineering is recognized, perhaps politicalaction may follow rhetoric.

REFERENCES:

1. President of the Institute of Medicine ofthe U.S. National Academy of Sciences,New American Policy on InternationalHealth.

2. Charles Lane, review of Von FreyholdMichaela, Ujamaa Villages in Tanzania:Analysis of a Social Experiment in R.R.D.C.Bulletin, University of Reading, October1980.

3. Harris D.R., Continuities and Change inTropical Savannah Environments, CurrentAnthropology, Vol 20, No. 2, June 1979,p.395.

4. R.R. Bannerman, Maintenance of RegionalWater Supplies: The Ghanain Approach, 6thWEDC Conference, March 1980, Water andWaste Engineering in Africa, Ahmadu BelloUniversity, Nigeria.

5. DunnP.D. Appropriate Technology: Techno-logy with a Human Face, London, Macmillan1978.

6. T. Murphy, The Development Constraints ofBoth Change and Capital Absorptive Capa-city: Adult Education's Role in Looseningthese Limitations to Growth, paper to 6thWorld Conference of Economists, HumanResources and Development, Mexico City,*fth - 8th Aug. 1980.

Conference: Water people and waste in developing countries-. 198)

VIETNAM'S SANITATION SYSTEM

Dr Krisno Nimpuno Bouwcentrum International Education

The Vietnamese toilet is of interest forseveral reasons. It is probably the onlysystem which was successfully applied on anational scale in a developing country. Thiswas possible because of its simplicity in useand construction. The system made significantcontribution to the environmental care andagriculture in Vietnam by recycling humanexcreta as fertilizer. Its significance forpublic health care is also very considerable.The Vietnamese method of excreta disposal ismost remarkable since it follows completelydifferent principles of pathogen destructionand mineralisation of organic matter comparedto systems used elsewhere.

The great difficulty in public sanitationencountered throughout the Third Worldcertainly justifies some attention for thesuccessful Vietnamese methods, especially sincethe system is unique in its applicability inflood-prone areas, as well as in placeswithout piped water supply.

The few publications about the VietnameseToilet so far available in the west have beenlimited to short descriptions of theconstruction and use of the toilet but littleinformation has been available about the actualprocess performance. In this article we wouldtherefore like to concentrate on these aspects.

Anaerobic composting

The system is characterized by in situtreatment of excreta, separation of urine andfaeces, anaerobic composting and family sizeunits.

The Vietnamese toilet is a double-vault systemor a discontinuous toilet. There are two tanksone is used as a privy while the other has beenclosed and is used for composting of the faecalmatter.

The Vietnamese Toilet requires that faeces andurine are deposited in different containers.After each use of the toilet some ash or limeis thrown on the fresh excreta to absorbhumidity and to eliminate the smell. Toiletpare can be dropped into the vault. The lid iscarefully replaced on the opening after eachuse. When the tank is full the material islevelled off with a stick and all is coveredwith an extra layer of ash. The opening isthen sealed hermetically with mortar and markedwith the date to assure a sufficient treatment

time. In the Vietnamese Toilet organicmatter decomposes in two phases: as long asthe toilet is in use there is ample oxygenavailable. Since the faeces are alwayscovered with ashes the pile remains porousand aerated and the process is aerobic.After the ault is closed the oxygen israpidly exhausted and the process becomesanaerobic. The Institute of Hygeine andEpidemiology in Hanoi monitored thedevelopment regularly and analysed thevarious processes involved in this type oftoilet. Since food tradition and livingconditions vary and there are differentconstruction methods in the various regions,the Institute established a number of fieldstations for such analyses.

The process

The Vietnamese Toilet has been developed as apart of the National Institute of Hygeine andEpidemiology. The Institute started in 1956to study old and new methods for thecollection, transport and treatment of humanexcreta and its use in agriculture. Dataabout the qualities and composition of humanexcreta were collected:

TABLE 1Human excreta composition

Annual excreta quantities per person: ca 500KgContaining: 1.07% N

5.7% Organic matter1.3% Inorganic matter0.26% P 00.22% K2O

It was noted that human excreta is rich inorganic matter in comparison with excreta ofdomestic animals. Treatment should thereforenot only be useful from the health point ofview that is effective in pathogen destructionbut also for agricultural reasons: achievinga satisfactory mineralization and conservationof the valuable organic matter. One of thefirst methods propogated in Vietnam wasaerobic composting of human excreta withagricultural waste in windrows on a floor oframmed earth or concrete. The windrows werecovered with a thatch and mud layer of ca 20cmTemperatures of 70°C could thus be reached andthe process was completed after three weeks.But all the known disadvantages of windrowcomposting were experienced: transport andhandling of fresh excreta, fly breeding and

very disturbing odours. It was therefore soondecided to try anaerobic composting methods.An interesting development at this stage wasthe research on the antibiotic effect ofcarbon-rich material added to the excreta.Household refuse, agricultural waste and leaveswere studied. Two types of leaves, Rhizo-horamicronata and Aegiceras were chosen because oftheir iodine content, while the leaves of theMelia Azadarach were tested because of theirantibiotic properties. The results wereencouraging and in later developed compostingmethods these leaves were used. The firstexperiments with anaerobic composting wereexecuted in pits of 150-200cm depth, wherealternating layers of excreta and carbon-richmaterial were buried under a cover of strawand mud. It was found that after four weeksa satisfactory level of pathogen destructioncould be reached. It was also found that a10% additive of lime or superphosphate wouldredUce this time to ten days. The positiveresults of nitrification and pathogendestruction in anaerobic composting encouragedthe Institute to attempt composting directlyin the toilets in order to avoid the handlingof fresh excreta. A multi-disciplinary teamin the Institute under Dr Nguyen Dang Due thenset out to develop the Vietnamese Toilet. Thefirst publications about their work appearedin the series Vietnamese Studies. The toiletswere first called "Double Septic Tanks". Laterthe name "Double Septic Bin" was used. In thisarticle we shall simply use the name "VietnameseToilet", A major question was whethercomposting of very small quantities of faecessuch as produced by one family would be feasiblein view of the problem of odours and of heatloss which retards the composting and changesthe character of the process. It took time tosolve these problems. An interesting additionalrequirement was to develop a toilet which wouldsatisfy the peasants' timing for applyingfertiliser to the fields. The use of humanexcreta in agriculture is so general in Vietnamthat farmers often proved unwilling to wait forthe treatment if it would interrupt theagricultural cycle. The decisive factors fordetermining the dimensions of the toilet weretherefore the minimum composting time possibleand the volume of excreta produced during thesame time by an average family.

These two factors would assure the peasant theshortest possible cycle to make a safe compostavaialble. The attention of the Instituteturned therefore to the choice of suitablecarbon-rich material to shorten the cycle. Thefinal product is determined by the compositionof the excreta itself and it was noticed thatthe composting process developed better with adry rather than a humid mixture. It isessential to avoid flooding of the vault, butit is not easy in a hot climate. Moisturecontent should either be reduced by addingmoisture-absorbing materials or by separatingurine from the mixture. This last step proved

to be effective. It was also found that flycontrol would be easier in a dry mixture.Seperate urine treatment was not consideredvery risky from the health point of view.For the volume of the vault it would mean areduction by 90%. The seperation of urinefrom faeces has much effect on the compostingprocess. Firstly great quantities of waterare avoided: urine has a moisture of 93-96%(see Gotaas 2). In this way the faeces canbe composted without arrangements fordrainage or ventilation. The quantities ofnitrogen and potassium (as K 0) are approxim-ately equal in faeces and urine as excretedper person per day. The quantity of calcium(as CaO), phosphorus (as p2°5>

a n d carbon inurine are respectively only 50%, 25% and 10%of those discharged in the faeces. It isworthwhile to recover these materials as well.

TABLE 2

Excreta composition (calculated from Gotaas'figures)

Dry weight in grams per person per day

NFf(P2°5>

Potassium (as KJCarbonCalcium (as CaO)

Urine handling

Faeces6.75-16.94.05-14.581.35-10.7554.00-148,55.40-14.5

Urine7.5-13.31.25-3.51.5-3,155.5-11.92.25-4.2

Urine is seperated from the main treatmenttank to simplify the composting process, Thelarge quantities of fluids are handledseperately and the acidity and nitrogen contentin the composting pile is reduced significantlyConsequently much smaller amounts of carbon-rich material are needed to reach the C/N ratiorequired for composting. But what are thehealth aspects of it? The higher temperaturenow reached in the composting vault promotesthe pasteurisation effect of the compostingprocess and makes it therefore more efficient.The urine itself however has to be treated aswell. The original method is simply to drainthe urine into a water-filled jar outside thetoilet building. The one-to-four dilutionreduces the smell and the mixture is used towater the garden. In later designs a specialreceptacle filled with lime and ashes receivesall the urine. In this arrangement no fliesor odours are detectable even if the receptaclelacks a cover. There are few diseases whichare transmitted through urine: bilharzia,typhoid and leptospirosis.*15 It can thereforebe argued that the health risks related tourine are insignificant compared to thosecaused by faeces. The Vietnamese hold thaturine, after absorbtion and retention in limeor ashes can be safely used as fertiliser.There are however no data available to supportthis claim.

Further experiments were thus based on urine

seperation and on the studies of effects ofcarbon additives. Since the aim was todevelop a toilet with composting in situ Itwas necessary to know the effects of theadditives both during the time the toilet wasused and during the composting period.Household refuse, powdered earth, leaves andstraw were examined. Although the resultswere encouraging, a shorter composting timethan two months could not be achieved withthese and the search for better additivescontinued. Powdered lime, quick lime andkitchen ashes were found to give good results.These additives would increase the compostingtemperature, improve fly control and reduceodours in the toilet. The general availabilityof kitchen ashes to rural households was animportant consideration: it would increase theacceptibility of the toilet.

Since only faeces would require a lengthytreatment process the reduction of quantitiesmade a great difference. Dr Nguyen Dang Duecalculates that the annual quantities offaeces per person amount to 48Kg whereas thefigure for urine is 438Kg. In other wordsonly 10% of the excreta has to be composted.The treatment of the other 90% is much easier.

In comparison with the 48Kg which have to betreated per person annually by the Vietnamesemethod it is interesting to note that theannual quantity of waste water per person inNorth America is 800 times as much: 40 OOOKg.The five gallon flush multiplies the treatmentenormously.

The Vietnamese emphasise that adding ashes isessential for the process. Gotaas argues,while discussing aerobic composting, thatgreat quantities of ashes should be avoidedduring the composting to prevent the loss ofnitrogen. The Vietnamese on the other handhold that anaerobic composting in closedcontainers retains many of the gases which arelost in an open process. Ammonia for exampledissolves in the water suspended in the pileand is useful as a fertilizer as NH CL,(NH )S04 and <

NH4)3P04- Ashes do absorb manyof the aromatic gases. The concentrations of

Key to additives:

NH and SHO measured in the vault were only0.007 mg/l"respectively. After three weekscomposting no traces of these gases could befound. The effect of ashes and other additiveson pathogen destruction was tested in relationto Shigella, Salmonella, Vibro cholera, ascarsisand many other pathogens.

TABLE 3

Additives and pathogen destruction for anaerobiccomposting - destruction in days

Pathogens 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

E Coli 62 60 35 56 20 0.34 21Sh Shigae 12 10 10 9 8 0.7 7S Typhi Vi 24 15 12 12 12 0.4 14Vibri Choi 9 8 3 7 7 0 . 2 4 1

1 = excreta only2 = powdered earth3 = Melia Azadarach4 = Household refuse5 = powdered lime6 = quick lime7 = kitchen ashes

The effect of the additives is noticable.Kitchen ashes show about the same values aspowder lime and are available everywhere inthe rural areas. Ashes also have a markedreducing effect on the occurrence of flies.The temperatures in the vault during theaerobic period are a few degrees higher thanin the toilet room itself. The humidity isalso slightly higher in the vault. Afterclosing the vault hermetically the temperaturerises dramatically: in five days from 30°C to45°C peking after twenty days at 52-60°C andthen slowly dropping off after 45 days to theoriginal temperature again. The method usedto measure temperatures is to mount water-filled glass tubes through the constructioninto the pile. During the composting periodthermometers are introduced into the tubes totake the temperature of the surroundingmaterial.

The Ministry of Public Works16 informed usabout the test results concerning pathogensurvival and gave some details on bacteria andparasites. Salmonella, Salmonella typhi,Para A and B, Shigella, Flexner and Sonneiwere absent from the compost. Special attentionwas given to Escherichia Coli, a very resistentpathogen.

TABLE 4

Survival of E Coli

Total before compostingAfter one weekAfter four weeksAfter 6-7 weeks

11 110 000 un.1 110 000 un.

100 un.traces

Of the common parasites, ascaris was studiedcarefully because of its high resistance. Theeffect of the composting process on thesurvival of intestinal parasites is of greatimportance since about 70% of the populationwere reported in 1958 to be carriers ofLumbricoides Ascaris, 35% were carriers ofDuodenalis Ankylestema. Samples from thethird and fourth composting weeks showed ahigh occurence of Ankylestema larvae and a35% reduction of the eggs. The larvae do notsurvive the seventh and eighth weeks. Of theremaining eggs 50% can no longer develop intolarvae. The Vietnamese sources conclude thata total of 85% of the parasite eggs aredestroyed after an eight week compostingperiod. The destruction of parasite eggs isclosely related to the type of additive usedfor the composting. If lime, phosphate orkitchen ashes are used 50% of the AscarisLumbricoides eggs - the most resistant

parasite - degenerate, while all the larvaeare destroyed,

Dr Nguyen Dang Due informed us that thegeneral application of the Vietnames Toiletmust be credited with the sharp reduction inthe occurrence of intestinal diseases asdemonstrated in the table below.

anaerobic: C4H OH + H20 = 3CH4 + CO + H O

(CH./CO.ratio =1:1)

total: 3CH. :•+ 3C0o + 2Ho0 + 8500 Kcal/Nm.

2. Proteinaerobic: C0(NH)o + CHoNHoC00H = C0 o + NH, +

TABLE 5

Incidence of intestinal diseases

Bacteria and parasites

Shigella disentrySalmonellaColi GEIAscaris LumbricoidesTrichocephalusAnkylostoma Duodenalis

1264.604020

Incidence(%)1958- 13

- 75-12- 80- 45- 25

19781.2 - 10.1 - 01.2 - 115 - 3510 - 1210 - 15

.7

.6

.8

Mineralisation of organic material can bedetermined in different ways and is used toindicate the stabilisation of the decayedexcreta. The different methods do not givecompatible results and there are no generalmethods to compare mineralisation of compostingand water-borne excreta treatments. In thelast disposal method Biological Oxygen Demand(BOD) is used to indicate the remaining decayactivity. In composting volatile soil testsindicate the same. In Vietnam the mineral-isation of the organic material is measuredby determining the protein and nitrate content.Measuring biological activity can also be doneby determining C0 2 production. We wereallowed to take a sample from one of theVietnamese Toilets, which one week later inBangkok was analysed by Dr Thanh of the AsianInstitute of Technology. A part of the samplewas dissolved in water and then the BOD wasdetermined to be 4364 mg/1. The rest of thesample was used in a volatile soil test andthe residue content was found to be 10.5%.The Institute of Hygeine reported thefollowing results:

TABLE 6

Proteins and nitrates in the compost

BeforeAfterAfter

composting4 hours8 hours

Proteinsgr/lOOgr1.1020.3950.020

Nitratesgr/lOOgr0.0110.2100.446

The nitrification is reportedly most effectiveduring the fourth week of composting and a sixweek composting period is recommended in viewof the agricultural use as a minimum period.

The Institute of Hygeine gives the followingchemical processes to describe the compostingin the Vietnamese Toilet.

CO(NH 2) 2 + H20 = C0 2 +

anaerobic: 4CH2NH2COOH + 2H2O =

3CH4 + 6375 Kcal/Nm

( CH./C0o ratio =3:1)

3. Lipidsaerobic: c HCCH„(«!„),eCOOH + 3Ho0 =

+ 4NH3 +

anaerobic: 44C,H_(0H), + 2Ho0 = 7CH. + CO.

20C0252

1. Glucoseaerobic: C = C4HgOH + 2C02

total: 59CH4 + 25C02 + 5970 Kcal/Nm

(CH4/CO2 ratio = 2.36:1)

The implementation of the sanitation system

The Ministry of Health of Vietnam is throughits Institute for Hygeine and Epidlmiologyresponsible for the implementation of itsrural sanitation system. The Institute worksthrough its network of provincial stationsand through the health centres of the Ministryof Health in the villages.

The sanitation programme was launched as partof a broader public health programmepromoting the establishment of a protectedwell, a bathroom and improved latrine for eachhousehold. The programme has developed intoone of the most successful public healthefforts anywhere and deserves internationalattention. The health centres are wellorganised and work with careful planningmethods. The health centre always has a mapof the village with each house indicated andnumbered. The number corresponds with thenumber of the health file of the family,which contains medical records as well as theenvironmental health conditions of the houseand plot. The construction and condition ofwells, bathrooms and toilets are carefullyrecorded here. A typical health centre isstaffed by an assistant physician (medicalassistant), a nurse, a midwife, a pharmacyassistant, two home visitors and twotraditional medical practitioners. Thesehealth workers live in the village and areresponsible for the development of the villagepublic health programme. The plans aredrafted at the district level and supervisedfrom there.

The programmes include the construction ofsanitary facilities, the cultivation and

processing of medical herbs for drugs, healtheducation, family planning, preventive healthcare, inclusive vaccination programmes andcurative outpatient services.

The district aythorities train the healthcentre staff and provide them with informationand propaganda material such as posters,demonstration models and leaflets. Much of thepropaganda work is brought in the form oftheatre performances. There are annualcompetitions between the health centres atthe provincial and national level concerningperformance and implementation of the publichealth programme. The health centreorganises the population through its RedCross Society which has a family healthworker in each household17. It is a veryfinely developed mobilisation network whichhighly promotes the contact possibilitieswith the population. The family healthwokers receive regular health information andhave some rudimentary health education. Theyact as family nurse and are trained to enlistmore qualified health workers as soon as theproblem cannot be safely handled by them.The family health worker sends all thefamily members to the centre for vaccination,constructs and maintains the well, bathroomand toilet and tends the family medical herbgarden and holds the first aid box.

The Vietnamese public health system is basedon a successful mobilisation of thepopulation and on a careful definition of theroles which the various actors in the publichealth delivery system have to play from thenational and provincial institutes to thefamily health worker. The very rapidimplementation of the national healthprogrammes tectifies to the effectiveness ofthe Vietnamese public health system and itsremarkable successes can serve as aninstructive example to other countries.

The construction

The Vietnamese Toilet is in its present designand construction a low-cost solution. Thetoilet was developed as a part of the ruralhealth work and the whole effort was thereforegeared towards bringing sanitation withinreach of the poorest peasants. In the villagesthere is no problem to site the toiletbuilding, as is the case in the urban andsuburban areas. The construction is thereforean independent building.

The construction material varies from place toplace according to the local building traditionand the availability of materials. Mostcommon are burned brick constructions with thefloors made of concrete. Plastered adobeconstructions are used in some areas, whereaseven plastered bamboo constructions can befound.

Many areas in Vietnam have a very high groundwater table and inundations are there very

common. It is in such areas necessary tobuild the whole toilet construction wellabove the surrounding ground. The floor ofthe vaults should be at least 20cm aboveground level. The vaults measure 70cm by70cm with a height of 60-70cm. There aretherefore three or four steps leading up tothe toilet door. The vaults each have a25cm by 30cm opening to extract the compostlocated in the back or front wall. These areclosed with bricks and mortar after emptyingthe vault. The vaults are not ventilated,since ashes deposited on the excretasufficiently absorb odours. The slab over thetwo vaults forms the squatting plate and thefloor of the toilet and has two openings withfoot supports of which one has been sealed andthe other has a lid. A urine drain in the slableads to a tank. In many areas Health Centreworkshops prefabricate and distribute latrineslabs.

To summarise, the advantages of the VietnameseToilet are simplicity, efficient pathogendestruction, good mineralisation of organicmatter, safe use and handling, absence ofodours and pollution, low costs, rich yield offertiliser and applicability in flood-proneareas. The system can still be perfected,especially in its treatment of urine, but byand large all performance criteria for wastedisposal systems are satisfied by it. TheVietnamese Toilet can be applied underdifficult circumstances where other sanitationsystems fail.

References1. NGUYEN DANG DUC. Double Septic Bins.Hanoi, 1979.2. VU VAN CAN. Public Health Work in theSocialist Republic of Vietnam in 1978. Hanoi,1978.3. HOANG DINH CAU. Grassroots of Rural HealthServices in Vietnam. Hanoi, 1977.4. NGUYEN VAN TIN. Mass prophylaxis on anational scale. Vietnamese Studies No 25.5. HOANG THUY NGUYEN. Preventive medicine inthe DRVN. Vietnamese Studies No 34.6. KERSTI BERGGREN. Et al Vietnamesisk by.University of Lund, 1977.7. J K McMICHAEL. Health in the Third World,Studies from Vietnam. Nottingham 1976.8. HAROLS B GOTAAS. Composting. WHO MonographNo 31, Geneva, 1956.9. E G WAGNER & J N LANOIX. Excreta disposalfor rural areas and small communities. WHOMonograph No39, Geneva, 1958.10. KRISNO NIMPUNO. Sewage system: a seriousbottleneck in planning. Daily News, Dar esSalaam, 1974.11. CURRY KAI LINDAHL. Ecological considerationsfor fertilisers. UNEP, Nairobi, 1976.12. KRISNO NIMPUNO. Sewage disposal in develop-ing countries. Gothenberg 1976.13. RYBSZYNSKI, POLPRASERT & McGARRY. Low costtechnology options for sanitation. IDRC ReportOttawa, 1978.

14. ALEXANDER KIRA. The Bathroom. CornellUniversity, New York 1966.15. DR RICHARD FEACHEM. The Ross Institute,personal communication.16. BUI VAN CAC. Vice Minister of Public Works,personal communication.17. NGUYEN DANG DUC. National Institute ofHygeine and Epidimiology. Personal communication

Session 3Chairman: B i l l Moffat

WE DC Group member

DiscussionDr John H Austin, Dr Dennis Warnerand Dr Mary Elmendorf

Human resources development inwater supply and sanitationMr MOFFAT introduced Mr Hafner who wouldpresent the paper in the absence of theauthors.

2. Mr HAFNER explained that the authors werepart of a nine-person team which went to SriLanka in 1980 to develop a national plan forthe Water Decade. Their part of the study wasto look at the human resources developmentfactor.

3. He then went on to outline the main ideasas set out in the paper.

4, Mr DAVIS pointed out that traditionaleducational institutions tended to train foroccupations but with little practical training.He agreed with Mr Hafner that more practicaltraining in the field was needed and askedwhat changes could be made in theseinstitutions to extend the resources available.

5, Mr HAFNER thought that there was a moveaway from institutional training to field work.There was more stimulus now to trainers to goout and train in the field, with as fewoutside resources as possible.

6. Mr CREE asked whether an element oftraining in the field was to train only to dothe job required, and whether this might helpto counteract the tendency for trained peopleto move to more prosperous areas to work.

7. Mr HAFNER agreed that this was certainlya factor to be considered. The narrower thetraining given, the less likely it was thatworkers would then be lost to other areas.This was of particular importance during theDecade since a large number of people wouldhave to be trained in the ten years,

8. Ms VINCENT asked how low were theeducational achievements of the people beingtrained and whether it had been possible totrain illiterates.

9. Mr HAFNER replied that in the ruralvillages the trainees were Peace Corpsvolunteers and their counterparts. Most ofthese could read and write. He had noexperience of training illiterates; in all thetraining in which he had been involved, thelowest level was with students who had not

49gone on to secondary school. He pointed outthat the training of illiterates wasextremely difficult, since it posed problemswith such things as basic mathematicalskills for example measuring.

10. Mr HERBERT commented that the sort oflimited training which had been proposedpresupposed that it was possible to definethe jobs for which training was to be given.It was very obvious from papers presented sofar that this was not possible. Situationswould arise for which the worker was notadequately trained and so would not becompetent to deal with.

11. Mr HAFNER felt that there was a needfor on-going in-service commitment totraining. He gave an example of an area inwhich he had worked where the public healthinspectors had been working for ten years andhad been given only a single one-week coursein all that time. There was also a need forincreased training in basic organisationalskills, so that people were able to makedecisions and implement plans.

Terry Murphy

The interdependence of public healthengineering and a system oflifelong education.Mr MURPHY began by saying that most of whathe had intended to say had already been saidby other speakers, and he had been surprisedand pleased to find that civil engineers wereon the same wavelength as himself,

13. When he first went out to Nigeria he hadfound that from 1962 on the standard of adulteducation had deteriorated until it hadbecome simply a case of teaching reading andwriting. Illiteracy was a great problem inNigeria. At Ahmadhu Bello University-arecent survey of employees had shown that1500 of them could not read or write, and thiswas the largest University in black Africa.This was a scandalous state of affairs.

14. In considering what could be done aboutthe problem he had concluded that the adulteducation being provided was too narrow. Inan attempt to broaden it he began with thevery high death rate of children in thecountry. This he believed, was caused becauseadults did not connect water and waste withdisease. As a follow-on from this healtheducation classes should be started. Thiswould lead to pressure from the people formore and better facilities, which would beappropriate because the local communities wereinvolved.

15. Health expenditure had a very lowpriority in Nigeria and was concentrated inthe urban areas, so that it was important tomotivate the people in rural areas to try to

50improve conditions. There was therefore ashift from mere literacy teaching to take incommunity development and health courses.

16, He placed emphasis on what other speakershad said, that there should be lessimportance placed on degree programmes andeducation for high level jobs. Much more sub-professional training was needed. In this wayit was possible to avoid the problems broughtabout when people were too highly educated andtrained to be available for the simple tasks.

17. He ended by saying that by getting thepeople involved he thought that civilengineers and adult educators could be alliesin the future,

18• Mr OBADINA thought that Mr Murphy's viewof Nigeria was not balanced. He had givenonly a very poor impression of the country byhis concentration on a certain area. In factthere were cities and towns in Nigeria whichcompared favourably with any city in the world.

19. Dr BASU wanted to know whether there wasdata available to prove that the introductionof biogas plants led to the spread of malaria.

20. Mr MURPHY was convinced that when abiogas plant was introduced so that smoky firesno longer kept down the insect population, thenthere would be a subsequent increase in theincidence of malaria. He had used this-as anexample to help show that contradictions dooccur when all sides of a problem were notfully explored,

•D.r Krisno Nimpuno

Vietnam's sanitation system.Dr NIMPUNO began by explaining that his paperwas the result of visits and co-operation withthe Ministry of Health in Vietnam. He hadincluded much technical data in the paperbecause so little was known about the systemin the West. There had been no otherpublication with technical details on thesubject.

22. The sanitation programme had a goodrecord of pathogen destruction, recycling thehuman waste to produce excellent compost. Thetoilets were pleasant to use, having no smells,and were cheap to build. But the mostinteresting fact to note was that in NorthVietnam there was now over 95% coverage inrural areas with this system.

23. Slides were used to illustrate parts ofthe programme which was built up by theInstitute of Hygiene in Hanoi and instituted bythe local health centres. In these healthcentres an integrated health programme wasbased on self-reliance. An example of this wasthat 80% of the drugs were produced in ruralareas. Herbs were grown at the health centresand also in the small gardens of eachhousehold. The herbs were collected, dried and

processed into drugs locally.

24. Also illustrated was a brick kiln,which most villages had. The majority ofhouses in the villages were built of brickand the standard of rural housing was farhigher than in Hanoi or any other large town.Also found in the villages were kindergartensand if possible some protected water forswimming pools.

25. The three major elements of the nationalhealth programme were shown: a protected well,a bathroom and the Vietnamese toilet.

26. Organisation was very important in thehealth centres with extensive records ofhouseholds together with medical records.Adult education was fundamental to the wholescheme. Demonstration models were used tohelp the people understand how the toiletsworked. Teams of actors gave performances inwhich local names and incidents were relatedto health education in order to help teachthe people. Local health centres hadworkshops where slabs and other componentswere made.

27. Most important had been the setting upof village Red Cross Societies. Eachhousehold had a member of the Society whowas trained in basic health care and wasgiven a first aid box. These people keptchecks on vaccinations, sent people whennecessary to the health centre for treatmentand looked after the household well, bathroomand toilet. In this way responsibility wasbrought down to the level of the people, andalso the central Institute of Hygiene waskept up-to-date on the working of the systemby regular reports.

28. The design and construction of the toiletwas shown as a double-vault built above groundlevel, so the system was especially good forareas prone to flooding. The first box wasused until full and then sealed up forcomposting while the second box was filling.After some time the first box was opened andthe material removed and used as fertiliser.

A normal human produced around one kilogrammeof excreta every day, but only 20% of thiswas faeces the other 80% being urine. Of thefifty diseases transmitted in excreta onlythree were transmitted by urine, so it wasconsidered reasonably safe to channel urineaway from the vaults. This greatly reducedthe volume of material to be stored. Theurine was collected separatley and sprinkledon the garden.

29. Dr NIMPUNO summarised by saying that thiswas an example of a very successful ruralprogramme which involved the whole communityin a simple low-cost solution.

30. Mr JACKSON commented that the systemseemed to be very similar to the one whichwas commonly in use in the buildings in NorthYemen, many of which were centuries old. He

51asked whether there would be an applicationof the system in urban areas.

91. Dr NIMPUNO replied that the system couldonly be introduced into periurban areas.This had nothing to do with the qualities ofthe system but was a direct result ofbureaucratic intervention. Rural health wasin the hands of a different Ministry from thatin charge of urban areas and there was littleor no contact between them. However, attemptswere being made to try to change the situation.

32• Dr BOURNE thought that the system seemedto be similar to the Chinese double-vaultsystem. He also commented that in many placesin the world the need for water was very clearand it was easy to motivate the people inwater programmes. However it was not the samewith sanitation. It was usual to provide thetwo services in sequence, water first and thenlater trying for sanitation. He asked howthis was tackled in Vietnam: was the waterprovided first or was sanitation included inthe same programme?

33. Dr NIMPUNO said that there were manycomposting systems used in China, but to hisknowledge they were not the same as that usedin Vietnam.

34. The programme was called the "three stepsin one" programme, to include the well,bathroom and toilet as an integrated system.In Vietnam the key to the problem ofmotivation toward sanitation was theagricultural use of nightsoil. The toilet hada short cycle producing compost every two tothree months at the times when it was neededon the land. So the motivation for this typeof sanitation system to be developed alongwith the water supply was high.

35. Mr PRESTON asked about the method of handand anal cleansing used. He also wanted toknow what happened to sullage and otherhousehold waste, and how the compost wasremoved and used.

36. Dr NIMPUNO replied that leaves andsometimes paper were used for cleansing. Insome systems in India where urine was notseparated water was used, and this wasimportant in Moslem areas. Greywater wasusually infiltrated, but in Vietnam this wasstill a poorly developed part of ruralsanitation. Some soak-pits had been dug butthey were small and the high groundwater levelmeant that they did not work well. The compostwas shovelled out. It had the appearance ofsoil and was odourless.

37. Mr OBADINA asked whether perhaps oldpeople and some others may be unhappy aboutclimbing the steps to the toilet,

38. Dr NIMPUNO felt that education wasimportant in this matter. The people wereaware of the flood situation and the dangers ofblackwater flooding the streets. They accepted

that the toilets had to be built in this wayabove ground level. Also because of theseparation of urine the boxes were only smalland so the flight of steps was shallow.

39. Mr GRIEVESON knew of double-vault systemsin use in Egypt and Botswana. He wonderedwhether they were the same as the Vietnamesetoilet.

40. Dr NIMPUNO explained that there were manydouble-vault systems in use in differentplaces but they were not the same as that usedin Vietnam. The separation of urine and theuse of anaerobic decomposition made theVietnamese toilet unique. Most pathogens werekilled by the high temperatures which could bereached, up to 72°C in some cases.

41. Mr HERBERT asked whether the society wasalready organised and receptive to theprogramme, or whther this was something whichgrew with the development of the programme.He also wished to know how long it had takento achieve the 95% coverage.

42. Dr NIMPUNO said that the revolution andorganisation of society had come first. Thesystem had taken between eight and ten yearsto perfect and a further eight years afterthat to implement and bring to 95% coverage.Since 1974 attempts had been made to bringthe system to South Vietnam and there had beenmoderate success there already.

52

7th ( 3 3 3 ? Conference: Water people and waste in developing countries-. 7987

WHAT ROLE FOR THE CONSULTING ENGINEER

DAVID 0 LIOYP Managing Director, Halcrow-Balfour Ltd.

SUMMARY

Thia paper discusses the fundamen-tal changes that have, and are taking place,in the role and uses of environmental andpublic health consulting engineers to helpprovide services for the benefit ofrecipient communities. Reference is madeto the shortcomings of some of the presentprocedures, and comments are presented onthe changes which could lead to overallbenefits to users.

INTRODUCTION

The requirements for the provisionof adequate water and waste servicesthroughout the world remain undiminishedand undiminishing. The aspirations ofpeople for the acquisition of these benefitsrightly ever increases, all too often beyondthe capability of local, regional or centralgovernment financial and technical resources;the capacity of international agencies; orthe willingness of donor countries.

Detailed dissertation on theexisting situation in the world is in-appropriate in this paper but Table Iindicates the overall magnitude of 60% ofthe 2,300 million people living in thedeveloping world being without any adequateor safe drinking water and rather more withno sanitation at all. The investment neededfor the correction of this situation wasoriginally quoted at about £60,000 million.This is approximately 120 years of capitalexpenditure at the current UK rate or 70%of the replacement value of the present UKassets of similar services.

CONSULTING ENGINEERING

It is perhaps a reflection on theprofession that many people have no clearidea of what Chartered Engineers do, and evenless what Consulting Engineers are. TheBritish Association's definition of aConsulting Engineer is

"A person possessing the necessary qualifi-cations to practise in one or more of thevarious branches of engineering who devoteshimself to advising the public on engineeringmatters or to the designing and supervisingthe construction of engineering works, andfor such purposes occupies and employs his

own office and staff, and is not directly orindirectly concerned or interested incommercial or manufacturing interests such aswould tend to influence his exercise of inde-pendent professional judgement in the mattersupon which he advises."

The field of engineering is so widethat consulting engineers are bound tospecialise to a greater or lesser degree.

Consultancies exist in almost everyprofessional discipline; from economics toengineering; chemistry to combustion; andmanagement to marketing; to name but a few.They are generally active in two broad fieldsof service. They can provide authoritativeand unbiased advice based on their knowledgeand experience purely in an advisory capacity.In addition, they can act as design, executingand supervising agencies for specific projects.

In the former role they are probablyacting in the 'purest' possible professionalway, and the roles of consultants, as weknow them today grew from these specialistbeginnings. In the latter role, the con-sultant acts within prescribed and specifiedlimits, and it could be construed that theymerely operate as an extension of theexisting establishment of the clients adminis-tration. The edges between these twodistinct functions, tend to become blurred,and most commissions contain an element ofeach role.

THE ROLE OF THE CONSULTING ENGINEER

Conventional

The conventional role of theConsulting Engineer normally results in theprovision of a series of defined steps linkedto the "Project Cycle" as used by many fundingagencies. (See Appendix). These include(i) Pre-feasibility study, (ii) FeasibilityStudy, (iii) Design, (iv) Tender DocumentPreparation, (v) Supervision of Construction.Although rare project examples exist of adifferent consultant being retained for eachstage, normally at least 2 firms will sharethe project work and commonly 3. Thissituation may have arisen because more con-sulting engineers are available, but a morelikely reason is that the increasing involve-

53ment of more countries with internationalfunding agencies has led to greater pressureto "spread the work around".

Is such division of consulting en-gineering project involvement efficient inman power and financial resources? It canbe argued that the use of different firmsproduces better designs but on close ex-amination this argument regularly fails. Al-most inevitably a multiplicity of firms,results in design services being duplicated;overheads increased; and mobilisation pay-ments being incurred more than once. Eachfirm, at each stage, will wish to reassurethemselves that the overall project conceptand design is correct (indeed their terms ofreference will probably require them to doso) all at additional cost to the client.

The current pattern of the "ProjectCycle" can also lead to inflexibility to theclients disadvantage. A project may takemany years to come to the fruition of detaileddesign and construction supervision, by whichtime the Feasibility Report can be out ofdate. Anticipated development may not havehappened, or even be planned any longer,- butthe provision of infrastructure services hasalready been embodied in miles of bureaucraticreports at all administrative levels ofgovernment and funding agency. A consultingengineer would be failing in his duty if hedid not propose changes, but would probablymake administrative enemies (to his disad-vantage) even though the final project wouldbenefit more needy people.

Current practices could result inConsulting Engineers becoming mere designagents on many projects to the detriment ofboth themselves and their clients. Areturn towards greater mutual client/Agency/Consulting Engineer trust; Wider involvementat all project stages; and less division ofservices between separate firms would reducemany project overall execution times andcosts.

Less Conventional

The more traditional role of theconsulting engineer as referred to previouslyhas widened in recent years by providingservices to clients in differing ways. Therelationship between Client and ConsultingEngineer must be clearly understood, howevermany other parties may be involved in any"package", so that the personal andprofessional integrity of the latter ispreserved for the benefit of all.

Recent examples of less conventionalroles for consulting engineers include:-

(a) A pilot study including the inspection,cleaning, renovation and recommendationof remedial measures for the seweragesystem of a large Indian City under

World Bank finance.The Client, a Metropolitan DevelopmentAuthority engaged an Indian Contractortogether with the services of a BritishConsulting Engineer, who in turn employeda British Water Authority and a Britishspecialist contractor as sub-consultants/contractors,

(b) The design of water supply schemes; theprocurement and transportation ofmaterials; the direct employment of locallabour and plant for construction; thesupervision of plant installation; andproject commissioning in a West AfricanState.The project financiers (UK Overseas Deve-lopment Administration) approved a "turn-key operation" by the Consulting Engineersbecause the low level of commercial anddevelopment activity within the countrymade the employment of civil engineeringcontracting companies entirely uneconomic.

(c) The secondment of individual engineeringstaff at all levels to recipient Govern-ment Departments overseas with theretention of individual pension rightsand limited financial recognition of thesupport afforded them by head office.

(d) The assessment, study and site trial in anumber of less developed countries ofsolar powered low head pumping instal-lations, under direct World Bank financing.

(e) The establishment of joint formal legalentities by groups of consulting engineersand/or other consultants to offer clientsand funding agencies one "contractor"in contrast with the rather loose, illdefined consortium, joint ventures etcof the past which could give rise tofeelings of impermanence and lack ofresources. A recent water resourcesproject in a Middle Eastern country en-compassed engineers, systems analysts,chemists, agriculturalists, economists,hydrologists and hydrogeologists allengaged within the confines of one con-sulting engineering company.

Fees

Good advice demands fair reward. Remune-ration for consulting engineering servicescan be based on many formulas, including;lump sum, percentage, man month rates, etc.Whatever method of payment is adopted dueallowance must be made by Clients for thehidden assets that lie behind the directlyvisible staff employed on the project work.The full experience available within anylarger firm and that readily available tomost smaller organisations has to be paidfor, as do overheads etc. If margins arecut too much in project fee negotiationson a continuous basis, standards of serviceand design will inevitably fall.

CONCLUSION

This paper is by conferenceorganisation direction - short. Theoutline ideas expressed can be developedduring discussion. Suffice it to say thatthere is a continuing need for consultingengineers who can provide professional skills,

realising that their mission is to serve theworlds needs and not to remake it in theirown mold. It is to be hoped that they cancontinue their work in an atmosphere ofincreasing mutual trust and decreasingbureaucracy.

T A B L E

Numbers of people in the developing world (excluding China) without cleanwater and sanitation in 1980 (Comprehensive Report on the Decade for theUN General Assembly)

Population(million)

Without reasonable accessto clean water

Without adequate disposalfacilities

Urban 703

Rural 1612

Total 2315

177 (25%)

1143 (71%)

1320 (57%)

331 (47%)

1399 (87%)

1730 (75%)

APPENDIX

Abstract from "The World BankProject Cycle" by Warren C. Baun, Financeand Development, December 1978.

"Bank lending has become increasinglydevelopment-oriented in terms of borrowingcountries, development strategy, sectors oflending, and project design.

In terms of countries, lending has beendirected increasingly toward the poor andless developed countries in Asia, Africa,and Latin America.

In terms of development strategy, the so-called trickle-down theory, which assumedthat the benefits of growth would even-tually reach the masses of the poor, hasbeen replaced by a more balanced approach,combining accelerated growth with a directattack on poverty through programs to raisethe productivity and living standards of therural and urban poor.

In terms of sectors, the emphasis has shiftedfrom basic infrastructure (roads, railways,power) and industry to a mote comprehensiveprogram aimed at growth, provision of basicservices, and better income distribution.While infrastructure continues to beimportant, lending for agriculture andrural development, urban sites and services,water supply and sanitation, education,population, and nutrition has been intro-duced or expanded greatly.

In terms of project design, greaterattention is given in all sectors, bothnew and traditional, to income distributionand employment, impact on the environ-ment, development of local resources andinstitutions, training of local personnel,and overcoming social and culturalconstraints".

THE PROJECT CYCLE

1. IDENTIFICATION

Selection by Bank and borrowers of suit-able projects that support nationaland sectoral development strategies andare feasible according to Bank standards.These projects are then incorporated intothe lending program of the Bank for aparticular country.

2. PREPARATION

Borrowing country or agency examinestechnical, institutional, economic andfinancial aspects of proposed project.Bank provides guidance, and makesfinancial assistance available for pre-paration, or helps borrower obtainassistance from other sources (one totwo years).

3. APPRAISAL

Bank staff review comprehensively and

55systematically all aspects of the project.This may take three to five weeks in thefield and covers four major aspects:technical, institutional, economic, andfinancial. An appraisal report is pre-pared on the return of Banfc staff toheadquarters and is reviewed extensively.This report serves as the basis fornegotiations with the borrower.

4. NEGOTIATIONS

This stage involves discussions with theborrower on the measures needed to ensuresuccess for the project. The agreementsreached are embodied in loan documents.The project is then presented to theExecutive Directors of the Bank forapproval. After approval the loan agree-ment is signed.

5. IMPLEMENTATION AND SUPERVISION

The borrower is responsible for implemen-tation of the project that has beenagreed with the Bank. The Bank is res-ponsible for supervising that implemen-tation, through progress reports from theborrowers and periodic field visits. Anannual review of Bank supervisionexperience on all projects underway servesto continually improve policies andprocedures. Procurement of goods andworks for the project must followofficial Bank guidelines for efficiencyand economy.

6. EVALUATION

This is the last stage. It follows thefinal disbursement of Bank funds for theproject. An independent department ofthe Bank, the Operations EvaluationDepartment, reviews the completion reportof the Bank's Projects staff, and preparesits own audit of the project often byreviewing materials at headquarters,though field trips are made where needed.This ex post evaluation provides lessonsof experience which are built into sub-sequent identification, preparation orappraisal work.

SB

(sh 7th aniJi Conference: Wafer people and waste in developing countries:

URBAN SANITATION AND PLANNING

Jack RRichard

PrestonP Cree

IN KHARTOUM AND OMDURMAN

Partner, WatsonSenior Engineer,

HawksleyWatson Hawksley

198?

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 The Project

In 1980 sewerage studies were commissioned bythe Sudanese Ministry of Public Works toinitiate improvements in sanitation for thecities of Khartoum and Omdurman, Theassignment contained the familiar elements ofmaster planning, preliminary engineering andfeasibility studies and required considerationof low-cost sanitation alternatives tosewerage,

First phase sewerage implementation designswere also to be prepared in the 12 month studyperiod to support applications for funds.

Some conclusions reached by the project andthe factors which led to these conclusions aresummarised for reference when objectives arebeing established for similar commissions.

2. BACKGROUND

2.1 Location

Khartoum and Omdurman are two towns in thethree town capital conurbation of Sudan atthe confluence of the White and Blue Nileriver, 1200 km from the delta (Fig.l).

Figure 1. Project location

Sudan has an area of close to a million squaremiles and a population of 20 million. Thecapital is Isolated and communication with theoutside world relies on air transport and on a1200 km road and 800 km railway line to theRed Sea at Port Sudan.

2.2 Economy and development

The country is poor: its natural mineral

resources are thought to be considerable butare virtually unexploited. Its agroeconomyis based on cotton in which production hasflagged and on sugar, the potential of whichis only just being realised.

The harsh climate, the economic situation andthe enormous problems of infrastructure,particularly communication, present unusualand severe difficulties which besetaspirations to improve and develop.

In these circumstances, the allocation ofresources to plan and provide sanitationranks low on the list of urgent needs in thecountry. But the population of the capitalis a million persons and rising fast, despiteawareness of the need to limit, and effortsto prevent, rural to urban migration.

2.3 Physical development

Khartoum has developed as a rectangular gridon the flat alluvial plain between the Whiteand Blue Nile rivers. It extends over anarea of about 10km square.

Omdurman's street pattern is much moreirregular, affected by the relativelypronounced topographical features based onfour main wadis. The town is founded onvarying thicknesses of consolidated alluvialcover over sandstone and basalt, whichoutcrops at the surface to the south and east,

Figure 2 shows the two towns In relation tothe third, called Khartoum North. The centreof Khartoum is a mixture of low rise andmoderately high government and commercialbuildings but the bulk of development is ofsimple single-storey compound houses to thesouth, with higher class residentialdevelopment closer to the centre and also tothe east which Is rapidly developing.

Omdurman is similar in its development pattern.The commercial area is centred on the Suqwhere the streets are characteristicallynarrow and congested. The old town has manyirregular winding streets but newer areas areset out on a grid pattern, similar to thenewer towns of Khartoum.

An area about 5km square at the centre ofKhartoum was provided with modern sanitarysewers and sewage treatment twenty years ago,and the Industrial quarter of North Khartoummore recently. No more than 100 000 persons

are served by these means. Some of thebalance have septic tanks, but most have pitlatrines of varying standards or nothing.

5 km

Figure 2. The three towns.

2.4 Population

Demographic statistics are dated, incompleteand varying in reliability. The main sourcesof information are in a development masterplan dated 1975, a water supply master planproduced in 1979, a partial population censuscarried out in 1972, and relatively sparsecontemporary planning and economic data.Figure 3 shows predicted population curves forKhartoum, from three sources.

BOO-

MO-

MO-

2 0 0 -

HOUSING\STUDY N

>

/ 750 000

> S / , ^ - ~ - W A T E R SUPPLY

•** ^ DEVELOPMENT

PLAN

(TOTALS ADJUSTED FOR COMMON BOUNDARIES)

1975 1985

YEAR

199S

Figure 3. Conflicting population datafor Khartoum.

Considered comparison of these sourcesconcluded that the existing populations are450 000 in Khartoum and 430 000 in Omdurman,rising to 790 000 and 780 000 respectively bythe end of the century.

3. PLANNING CRITERIA

3.1 The client's requirements

The principal responsibility of the clientgovernment department was the design andconstruction of conventional sewerage systemsand he expected the consultant to plan anddesign conventional sewerage and to propose

57means of resolving the problems of theexisting system. In Khartoum the PlanningAuthorities are actively trying to encourageprestige development and required extensionsto the sewerage system to contribute to thisend.3.2 The consumer's needs and wants

It became clear that the most urgent problemswere in the existing Khartoum seweragesystem, which frequently overflowed into thestreets; in liquid waste disposal fromcommercial and industrial areas in Omdurman;and in the absence of sanitation in theunplanned, largely squatter areas. Dlarrhoealdiseases are already a major health problemand the risk of transmission in public placesis high.

Present Indications are that the proportion ofthe population with no satisfactorysanitation will increase. The relativeattractions of urban living have caused alarge rise in the squatter population. Theauthorities fear that the provision ofservices will encourage even higher numbers,creating a further drain on resources.General policy therefore is not to providesuch services to squatters, but this is anexpedience rather than a solution.

At the other end of the scale, although thenational economic position is poor, there issubstantial private activity, and considerablepressure from the more affluent for water andsewerage services to be extended. There isadequate water in the Nile to meet the formerdemand and the latter is partly a consequenceof increasing usage linked with the high costof building the deep soakaways necessary forthe effective disposal of septic tankeffluent.

3.3 Availability of capital funds

The consultants were told that capital fundsshould not be a problem and yet greatdifficulty was being experienced in findingfunds for urgent water supply extensionproposals, recently formulated. The dilemmais evident.

3.4 Public health administration,education and control

The Ministry of Health and the Municipalitieshave well established administrative systems,but many of the professional and artisanmembers of the community have taken betterpaid employment abroad and despite the effortsof the hard working remainder, the level ofachievement clearly suffers. This poses aplanning constraint which is difficult toaccomodate realistically. Development projectsrarely concentrate on programmes of education,training and control, for these are complicatedby the interaction of many more social factorsthan are Capital Works construction programmes.

583,5 Selection of technical solutions

The most appropriate sanitation solution isthat which is technically satisfactory at apurchase and maintenance cost the consumer iswilling to pay.

The importance of lower cost solutions isbecoming increasingly recognised and reportedbut long-term experience of successful,planned and engineered schemes is limited incomparison to experience of conventionalsewerage. Social factors and education assumeoverriding significance. The problem ofimplementation and funding of the constructionin such schemes Is administrativelycomplicated as the construction takes placeentirely on the private property of individualhouseholders.

The planning team have to select and design areliable, long term system which willaccomodate increasing flows of water as livingstandards rise. The design must be safe inall soils ( a serious problem in Khartoum)and accomodate variations of constructionmethods or quality. Low cost systems requirelocal trials and development and organisationalchanges before large scale implementation canbe successful, which necessitates a longer termdesign commitment than a brief, close ended,planning and design project.

The critical questions which then arise are onthe appropriate limiting capacities of eachaspect of the system, the measures to be takenfor each section of the community and how thescheme should ultimately be paid for. Thereare many ways in which country-wide tax payerseffectively subsidise amenities for residentsof the capital. These issues are highlycomplex and their resolution needs adequatedata and a clear policy on resource allocation.

4. CHOICES

4.1 Conventional sewers

For both cities, sewers, pumps and pipelinesoffer the most reliable long term solution forlarge flows of liquid wastes from thecommercial and industrial areas. The mostinteresting technical problem was set by thetwenty year old sewerage system, constructedwith asbestos cement pipes. A combination offavourable circumstances has minimisedsulphide attack but it was decided that, asthese may not last indefinately, non-corrodiblepipes should be used in vulnerable areas offuture construction.

The greatest planning problems arose from theconsiderable lack of consistent, comprehensiveplanning data or policies. Best estimates hadto be made. The final proposals for thesequence of sewerage of residential areas wasa sensitive issue. Social and politicalaspects had to be balanced with technicallybased factors.

4.2 Treatment and disposal

Anti-pollution laws prohibit the discharge ofeffluent Into the river Nile. There ishowever a strong requirement for theirrigation of eucalyptus trees for amenityand timber production.

For Khartoum it was confirmed thatstabilisation ponds, such as those beingconstructed by the client, will provide themost appropriate form of additional treatmentfacilities where required, but that theexisting resource of sound treatment worksstructures would be best used by refurbishmentof the mechanical plant.

For Omdurman, ponds were designed to treat thebulk of the sewage, but special facilities areneeded for oil mill wastes which are to beexcluded from the public sewers and treatmentworks,

4.3 Operation

It became evident that problems withimmobilisation of existing plant are not somuch attributable to a lack of skills ofmechanical and electrical fitters but to asevere shortage of parts and materials.

Designs and documents for new sewerage workaim to reduce maintenance requirements. Forexample, higher sewer velocities, submersiblepumps and backup and by-pass facilitiesshould reduce surcharging and blockages.Circuits and controls are kept simple andclear. The problems of organisation andresources are however not so amenable to"solution by specification".

4.4 Organisations

Responsibility for the existing system issplit between Municipal and Health authorities,Khartoum North sewerage is operated separately.In contrast, power and water services areadministered by a public corporationresponsible for revenue collection as well asfor providing a service for all three towns.The study concluded that some of theoperational problems would be relieved by theformation of a single sewerage operationauthority and ultimately by a publiccorporation responsible for both water andsewerage services. The design and constructionof new sewerage works would however remain asan indepedant service. Detailed proposalswere submitted for manning levels and tasks,such as those of maintenance terms, so thatfuture operation and maintenanceesponsibilities would be clearer and easierto control.

4.5 Non-sewered options

The first study reports (Master Plans) showedthat conventional sewerage is unlikely toreach large areas of the residentialdevelopment In the foreseeable future (Fig.4).

59Non-sewered alternatives were brieflyexamined showing the suitability ofcontinued development of pit latrines andseptic tanks. It was recognised that theintended sequence of planning reports wereinadequate and so an additional report:'Sanitation for Non-Sewereid Areas', wasproduced.

BOOH 780 000

1980

Figure 4. Projected total and seweredpopulations: Omdurman.

This report reviewed sanitation requirementsincluding the need to improve septic tanksand soakaway design and their economicconstruction. The possible advantages ofcommunal septic tanks were noted.

The report showed the need to provide economicsafe pit latrines in the local social context,where for example men and women requireseperated facilities. For implementation, itwas considered necessary to strengthen andbuild on the established expereince of thepublic health officers; making changesgradually rather than immediately imposingnew, locally untried, design and constructiondetails.

A long-term programme of public education,advice and inspection was therefore proposedand costed in detail.

This programme would be preceded by a threeyear implementation project carrying outtrials and training. After the first twoyears of the full-scale programme progresswould be reviewed.

A preliminary draft was discussed in Khartoumwith Public Health Education officers andlocal representatives of WHO and UNDP.

While every effort would be made to useSudanese staff (at a salary level greater thangovernment levels but far less than ofexpatriates) some imported expertise would berequired. The initial three yearimplementation project is costed at LS 814 000at 1980 prices. (The cost of minor seweragefor 28 hectares of a high class housing areawith 144 plots.) (£1 = LS 1.9)

It was hoped that the long-term programmewould serve up to 60 000 households at a

running cost of some LS 2 per household.The programme would not pay for latrineconstruction, householders would still haveto provide their own. However theimplementation project would confirm designsfor appropriate latrine substructures inaffordable price ranges. Local builders andsuppliers would be trained in the improvedtechniques and designs.

4.6 Project feasibility

The question of project feasibility isliable to highly contentious and 'political'interpretation. It embraces the questionsof can, will and should a project becommissioned and paid for, and by whom?

The planning team can only state a limitednumber of possible actions and their likelyfinancial implications for the nation, thesanitation authority or the consumer: othershave to take the appropriate decisions.

In Khartoum there are a large number ofconsumers using a sewerage system for noeffective charge and so there is, in theory,a large reservoir of potential usefulrevenue.

If all consumers including government officescommerce and industry pay a charge based onabout 3% of household income; if this revenuecan be collected and properly used; if aidagencies could be found to fund the projecton low interest terms; and if the projectedcosts in local and foreign exchange proveaccurate; then the master plan conventialsewerage proposals for the two towns areprobably feasible. Value judgements on thedesirability of this are left to others.

5. CONCLUSIONS

5.1 Alternative priorities

The final emphasis of the project was onconventional sewerage; with low-costtechniques, stressing public health educationas a supplement. An alternative approach tostress low-cost solutions with only essentialconventional sewerage would have to have beendecided before the Terms of Reference wereprepared. Such a decision could still havebeen implemented by consultant engineers.

The resulting priorities would probably havebeen more difficult to satisfy and would haveneeded close co-operation between manydifferent authorities. A longer study periodmight also have been required.

5.2 Role of the consulting engineer

At present while there is considerableemphasis on lower cost sanitation systems, themain body of established knowledge andexperience of large scale sanitation is ofconventional systems. This applies toengineers in both private and public sectors.Sanitation planning will increasingly demand

60a multi-disciplinary approach. The futurewill show whether "engineers" have thetraining and ability to lead such projects.Firms of "consultant engineers" should havethe necessary experience of using wideranging expertise outside the resources of asingle urban (or sometimes national)authority. Their experience of differentproblems and solutions should lead to a more

efficient use of resources. By recognisingthe critical factors which in practiceinfluence the results of planning projectssuitable directions can be taken incommissioning new planning and designprojects. The most valuable work will arisefrom long-term co-operation betweeninternational expertise and local knowledge,and not from short-term studies.

SIMPLIFIED DATA RESUME

POPULATION PROJECTIONS

KHARTOUM (Principal Area)OMDURMANKHARTOUM (Southern Area)

1973

300 000280 000

1990

707 000630 000

ADDITIONAL ILLEGAL POPULATION MAY BE EXPECTED

2000

790 000780 000535 000

2 105 000

(400 000?)

AREAS

KHARTOUM (Principal)OMDURMAN

POPULATION DENSITIES

RANGE (Gross)

PERSONS PER HOUSEHOLD

1973 (Census)2000 (Estimate)

ESTIMATED INCOME DISTRIBUTION

% OF POPULATION

EARNING LESS THAN: LS PER YEAR

PROJECTED CHARGING BASIS

2.5% TO 3.5% INCOME

SEWAGE FLOWS: RESIDENTIAL AREAS

DOMESTICALLOWANCE FOR LOCAL INSTITUTIONSALLOWANCE FOR FUTURE INCREASETOTALMASTER PLAN TO YEAR 2001

KHARTOUM AND CENTRAL OMDURMANKHARTOUM AND FULL OMDURMAN

SANITATION PROJECT AND PROGRAMME

IMPLEMENTATION PROJECTPROGRAMMEREVIEW

STUDY TEAM

110105

km2

km2

55 PERSONS/HA

6.28.2

2 7300 600

TO 160

301200

PERSONS/HA

50 751800 3000

125 LITRES/HD/DAY15 " " "10%154 L/H/D

CAPITAL WORKSCOSTS LS X 106

240400

VEMENT; EDUCATION; SUPPORT

DURATION

3 YEARSINDEFINITE3 MONTHS

POPULATION

610 0001 200 000

COST

LS 814 000LS 135 000 PER YEARLS 60 000

11 STAFF IN KHARTOUM FOR 8.5 MONTHS + LOCAL SUPPORT + VISITS + UK WORK

61

Conference-. Water people and waste in developing countries: 1981

LOCAL INFLUENCES AND THEIR EFFECT ON THE CONCEPT ANDDESIGN OF SANITATION PROJECTS

R B Harris Principal Engineer, Howard Humphreys and Partners

J F Jackson Associate, Howard Humphreys and Partners

INTRODUCTION

This paper considers the provision of improvedsanitation facilities to major urbanpopulation centres in developing countries andendeavours to demonstrate the significanteffect that local circumstances and influenceshave upon the concept and design of theprojects entrusted to consulting engineers.

The first stage in any sanitation projectcomprises a review of the existing sanitationarrangements, technical controlling factors,demographic data, cost and availability ofwater, institutional arrangements, publichealth status and cultural/ethnic aspects.This review would be followed by an appraisalof development and economic planning withinthe project planning period and aclarification of the client's brief and theproject's particular objectives. The conceptand design of the sanitation scheme will bedeveloped from this basic groundwork but itmust be noted that the depth and scale of thiswork will be limited by the programme andmonetary constraints imposed by the client.

Different technical, institutional, economicand cultural constraints are encountered ineach major urban centre and there can be nosingle sanitation system or scheme which issuited for universal application.

In formulating the appropriate sanitationprogramme for a particular urban area, theconsulting engineer may be severelyconstrained by local influences and thesuccess of his project will depend upon hisresponse to them.

This paper examines two projects in differentlocations and shows how the localcircumstances and influences were reflectedin the formulation of the particular project.

Case Study A demonstrates the role of theconsultant where the circumstances, aspirationsand resources of the population allow theconsultant to pursue a conventional seweragescheme through the traditional course ofproject report, detail design and preparationof contract documents.

Case Study B demonstrates the consultant'srole when his task is to meet the objectivesof the Drinking Water and Sanitation Decadewhich are to provide as many people as possible

with an adequate and hygienic form ofsanitation within the limiting constraintsimposed by local resources and theavailability of funds.

CASE A: SANA'A SEWERAGE AND SEWAGE TREATMENTPROJECT, YEMEN ARAB REPUBLIC

Project Area

The Yemen Arab Republic is a Muslim countrywhich lies at the south west corner of theArabian peninsula. Sana'a, the capital ofthe Yemen Arab Republic is an ancient citysituated in the central mountainous regionof the Yemen at an altitude of some 2250m.

The city has expanded greatly over recentyears. The ancient part of the city has beendescribed as "a living archaeology" andfeatures multi-storey buildings built instone and brick, and with narrow streetsmostly unpaved.

Recent development features multi-storeyoffices and commercial buildings built withmodern techniques, and residential areaswhere the buildings are either single ormulti-storey. The architecture of the recentdevelopment has been blended with the ancientbuildings, and there is a complete absence ofsquatter or shanty style dwelling places.

The population is currently estimated atabout 200 000 and is expected to rise toabout 500 000 by the end of the century,

w

Existing water supply

The traditional source of water for thepeople of Sana'a was from shallow hand-dugwells situated within the curtilage ofproperties. From about 1965 onwards, somewells to serve localised communities wereconstructed to a depth of about 150m usingcable tool rigs. The supply from these wellswas distributed by a limited pipework systemor by tankers. The water consumption perhead of population from the traditionalsource was put at about 20 litres.

The first stage of a new water supply projectwas inaugurated in 1978. This schemefeatured the development of well fields tothe north of Sana'a and included transmission,head works, distribution and house connections.The second stage is currently underconstruction.

62Existing waste disposal

At the present time the city of Sana's has nopublic sewerage system. Within the confinesof the Old City, where in the past the waterconsumption per head has been low, the oldbuildings incorporate a form of internallatrine consisting of a chamber at streetlevel, above which there are squatting areas.Urine and other waste waters are channelledto the outside wall of the building, and thento the street. Modern buildings, outside theOld City area usually enjoy a more plentifulsupply of water and deep cesspool or septictank sanitation.

Health conditions

In the absence of statistical documentationthe only evaluation available in 1976, whenproposals for sanitary improvements wereformulated, was of a qualitative kind withoutan economic justification. Quoting from areport by Dr Lantini, who was a member of theItalian Medical Mission to Sana'a, the mostcommonly occurring diseases were:(1) Parasitic, including amoebic dysentry,

ascariasis etc.(2) Dysentry, in all its forms and in all

seasons was extremely frequent, and theconsumption of antibiotics to combat itwas enormous.

(3) Viral hepatitis was common in theexpatriate community. Milder formsaffecting the local community wereprobably not brought to the attentionof a doctor.

(4) Trachoma affected between 60 - 70% ofthe school population.

The report concluded that the high incidenceof diseases was attributable to the insanitaryconditions prevailing.

Circumstances in Yemen Arab Republic

Though still a relatively poor country ineconomic terms, the Yemen Arab Republic hasbeen able to attract much of the fundingnecessary to finance the development andsocial improvements to which her peopleaspired.

Public health projects, such as the WaterSupply and Sewerage of Sana'a, were high inthe order of priorities, and in 1973 agovernment body known as the National Waterand Sewerage Authority was set up to administerthe implementation of such projects.

A Preliminary Engineering and FeasibilityStudy, under the sponsorship of the WorldHealth Organisation, was commissioned in 1974and submitted in 1975. This report, preparedby Italconsult, had as its principal objectivesthe study, definition and planning of worksrequired to effect a change from therudimentary and inadequate sanitary methodswith attendant health hazhards, to a modernsystem for collection, treatment and disposal

to meet the socio-economic demands of arapidly growing population.

The report concluded with the recommendationfor a comprehensive water-borne seweragesysyem and treatment.

These recommendations were adopted andvarious tariff studies have been carried outwith the intention that the project shouldbe self-supporting with revenue generated bythe metered sale of water.

Procedure for implementation -consultants' role

The appointment of Howard Humphries and Sonsas consulting engineers to the National Waterand Sewerage Authority for the Sna'a SewerageProject, was made in May 1976 followingselection from proposals submitted incompetition with other consulting engineers.

Funding for the project study and designstage of the project was provided partly frominternal resources and partly from a creditfrom the International DevelopmentAssociation.

The duties of the consultant under the Termsof Reference of the Consultancy Agreement maybe summarised as:

The preparation of a Project Reportincorporating the following main features:

(i) A review of the PreliminaryEngineering and Feasibility Studydrawn up by Italconsult under thesponsorship of WHO.

(ii) Projected water demands anddetermination of expected per capitasewage flows, peak flows and pollutionloads.

(iii) Definition of drainage areas, locationof area pumping stations and thesewage treatment works.

(iv) Selection of sewage treatment methodsand disposal of the final effluent andsludge.

(v) Preparation of outline designs andcost estimates.

(vi) Investigation of local stormwaterflooding and proposals for remedialaction.

(vii) Investigation of intermediatearrangements for the improvement ofsanitary facilities in the areas ofSana'a not served by the initial stagesof the sewerage project.

The preparation of detail designs and tenderdocuments in accordance with the scope ofworks agreed by the Authority from therecommendations made in the Project Report.

Contract Works - Stage 1

The implementation of the construction stage

63of the sanitation element of the project wasconceived under three separate contracts.

Contract 1 - Supply of materials

Contract 2 - Civil engineering works

Contract 3 - Mechanical and electrical works

Contract 1 provided for the manufacture anddelivery of the major offshore materials ofconstruction such as manhole covers, pipesand steel reinforcement in advance ofconstruction, thus taking advantage ofavailable funding, and the avoidance of costincreases due to escalation.

Contract 2 provided for the construction ofthe civil engineering works associated withthe sewerage system and treatment works.

Contract 3 provided for the procurement,delivery and installation of all the variousitems of works machinery and equipment undera single contract.

Tenders for all three contracts were invitedfrom selected Contractors.

The funding of the capital cost of Stage 1 ofthe Sana'a Sewerage Project is providedjointly by the International DevelopmentAssociation and the Saudi Fund for Developmentwith a contribution from internal sources.

The Stage 1 works will cater for some 50% ofthe present population where priority has beengiven to sewering the densely populated areasof the Old City. A further 50% of thepresent population , representing recentdevelopment, will be served under the Stage 2works as soon as administratively convenient.

The project envisages a third stage in thedevelopment of the sewerage scheme as theCity continues to expand. Pending theextensions of the sewerage system, drainagewill be effected by septic tanks.

CASE B: PAR ES SALAAM

General background

Tanzania is a poor country, the gross domesticproduct (GDP) in 1977 being approximatelyShs.1500 per capita (Shs.19 = £Stg 1).Between 1967 lnd 1977 it grew at an averagerate of 4.5% per annum in real terms, howeversince the country's population increased byabout 3.7% annually during the same period,real per capita growth in GDP increased byless than 1% a year.

Agriculture is still the dominant economicactivity in Tanzania, accounting for almost40% of GDP in 1977. However the gradualdecline in its relative importance has beencounteracted in recent years more by a growingsignificance in public administration andservices rather than by growth in the directproductive sectors of the economy.

The city of Dar es Salaam is of relatively

recent origin, having been founded in 1862.It is the commercial centre, largest cityand main sea port of Tanzania. The relativelymodern city centre has several multi-storeybuildings and is surrounded by suburbs oftraditional permanent housing. The rapidexpansion of the city over the past twodecades has been largely due to migrationinto the city from the rural areas ofTanzania and has resulted in the establishmentof extensive squatter housing zones in theperiurban areas.

The existing urban area and suburbs of Dar esSalaam are mostly situated on a gentlyseaward sloping plain dissected by oldincised and filled valleys. The surface layeris of poorly graded sand and overliesmaterials of variable permeability creatinga complex hydrological situation. The annualaverage rainfall in the area is 1100mm ofwhich 50% occurs in the March-May period ofthe S E monsoon.

Population

Tanzania is a multi-tribal country and in thecoastal region the population are understoodto be Muslims. Within the regional boundaryof Dar es Salaam the total population iscurrently in the order of 930 000 of whichover 80% are African and the majority of theremainder are Asian. Some 10% of the totalpopulation resides in the rural areas on thefringe of the city. Population growth inDar es Salaam has been at an average rate of8.5% over the past 15 years which is overtwice the national average rate for theperiod. The trend towards urbanisation inTanzania is, however, still less intense thanin many other African countries, and continuedpressures on urban areas, and in Dar es Salaamin particular are expected to continue. TheSewerage and Sanitation Master Plan byHoward Humphreys and Partners prepared forDar es Salaam was divided into four stages asfollows:

Stage I 1980 to 1984 inclusiveStage II 1985 to 1989 inclusiveStage III 1990 to 1999 inclusiveStage IV 2000 to 2010

The projected population distribution inconjunction with these planning stages areshown in Table 1. (see over).

Water supply and consumption

A major influence in the selection ofappropriate sanitation facilities is theavailability, use and cost of potable water.In Dar es Salaam there is an adequate quantityof water available from river resources andit is not foreseen in the project planningperiod that groundwater resources within thecity boundary would need to be drawn upon.There is also a relatively good reticulationsystem and the majority of the population hasready access to a potable water supply point

64TABLE 1 Urban population projections (thousands)

ExistingResidential

- Planned

- Unplanned(squatter)

NevRes icential

Institutional

TOTAL

1979

Pop

79A

(316)

(478)

-

55

849

Z

93

(37)

(.56)

-

100

1984Stage

Pop

888

(371)

(517)

208

B7

1183

1

I

75

(31)

(44)

18

7

100

1989Stage

Pop

958

(412)

(546)

461

127

1546

II

•

62

(27)

(35)

30

8

100

1999Stage

Pop

1005

(.440)

C56S)

1187

177

2369

III

I

43

(19)

(24)

50

7

100

2010Stage

Pop

1028

(453)

(575)

21 BO

212

3420

1

IV

I

30

(13)

(17)

64

6

100

which for the lowest level of servicecomprises a standpipe serving a group ofdwellings.

Four different levels of consumption for

TABLE 2 Per capita domestic water consumption (litres/day)

residential areas were determined in theSewerage and Sanitation Master Plan Study forexisting and future development areas and areset out in Table 2.

The above water consumption levels wereapplied to each existing or proposeddevelopment area of the city on the basis ofthe general residential character and incomepattern of the area.

Existing sanitation

More than 80% of the population of Dar esSalaam is currently served by on-sitesanitation systems. Pit latrines are the typemost commonly employed and considerable designimprovements can be made to provide a morehygienic, efficient and economic unit. Themajority of latrines are of the standard typebut mound latrines have been constructed insome of the areas where high water tables areexperienced.

The small proportion of the population servedby foul sewerage systems (approximately 12%)comprises the city centre where flows aredischarged via a sea outfall. There are alsoa number of outlying areas where flows areconveyed to waste stabilisation ponds fortreatment. The city centre system wasconstructed some 25 years ago but all othersystems are of much more recent origin.Almost without exception the systems are in apoor state of repair and require urgentrehabilitation.

Less than 5% of the population of Dar es Salaamwas found to have no sanitation facilities atall.

Public health aspects

A major benefit sought from any proposedsewerage and sanitation scheme is a reductionof disease levels in the community. Thereare three main groups of diseases which canbe affected by improved sanitation: faecal-oral infections, mosquito borne diseases andschistosomiasis.

Faecal-oral diseases such as diarrhoealdiseases, infectious hepeatitis and most ofthe intestinal parasitic worm infections,notably roundworm (Ascaris) and hookworm areall experienced in Dar es Salaam. These arethe classic diseases of the poorer and morecrowded sections of a community andparticularly of children in all hot countries.The chain of transmission starts with poorexcreta disposal, and is compounded by poorpersonal and environmental hygiene and crowdedliving conditions.

The two mosquito-borne diseases of majorimportance in Dar es Salaam are malaria andfilariasis. The vector of filariasis inDar es Salaam is Culex quinquefasciatus whichprefers breeding in polluted waters, especiallywhen these are enclosed. Wet pit latrines,septic tanks and stormwater drains areparticularly important sites as are poorsullage disposal practices.

Schistosomiasis, though a major problem withinTanzania, is predominantly a disease of rural

areas and as such does not greatly affectDar es Salaam.

The scale of the problem of sanitation relateddiseases in Dar es Salaam is indicated byinfant and child mortality (15% of childrendie before they are 1). Life expectancy atbirth is less than 45 years. It was foundthat water-borne and water-related diseasesin the study area affected up to a quarter ofthe population at least annually and thatdespite treatment the incidence of thesediseases was increasing. There is always thedanger of typhoid and cholera outbreaks asevidenced by the 1978 cholera epidemic.

Sanitation system selection

Criteria based on water consumption andpopulation density were established in orderto determine those areas of the city wherefoul sewerage was a practical system toinstal. However, financial limitations andeconomic projections indicated that for themajority of the population the only feasibleform of improved sanitation in the planningperiod would be a pit latrine of improveddesign. In order to determine the appropriatetype and form that improved latrines shouldtake a household survey was executed, based onten representative areas of the city whichwere selected with the help of governmentpublic health officials. By this meanssociological preferences could be determinedand scope for construction improvementsidentified bearing in mind local constructiontechniques. A great deal of thought was givento the format of the questionnaire used in thesurvey. It was so arranged that householdersmerely had to answer yes or no or give anumber or a date. In this way a large amountof information could be recorded in arelatively short time. The object of thequestions was to provide information on thetype of housing, method of excreta disposal,details of usage, emptying services, age oflatrine, type of construction, personalpreferences and dislikes.

It is important that local help be recruitedfor the execution of such a household surveyand such help should be trained for the job.Teams should comprise personnel with publichealth and sociological experience. In Dares Salaam we were fortunate to be assisted inthe preparation of the questionnaire and theexecution of the household survey by the LowCost Sanitation Unit of the Ministry of Lands,Housing and Urban Development.

The survey results were analysed and producedsome interesting and useful findings. Themajor local preferences and thereforeinfluences on design were found to be:

(i) Each property to have its own latrine.

(ii) Latrine facilities to incorporateseperate units for male and female use.

65(iii) Latrine superstructure to be large

enough to permit washing or showeringtherein.

<iv) Water to be used for anal cleansing.

These factors and other minor ones derivedfrom the analyses of the survey results weretaken into account in the formulation of thedesigns of improved pit latrines.

Since the water supply in Dar es Salaam isfrom an external location it proved feasibleto adopt a design of pit latrine from whichthe liquid contents could be permitted toleach into the surrounding soil with nodetriment to the water supply and thereforeto the public health of the community.

A key factor which influences the selectionand design of a sanitation system is theability of the local community to afford andmaintain a selected system. In Dar es Salaamit was clear that great difficulty was beingexperienced in adequately maintaining theexisting foul sewerage system, although thiswas partly due to past administrative problemsand this clearly had to be taken into accountin formulating any new proposals. In selectingthe appropriate combination of sanitationsystems great emphasis was therefore placedupon the need for extensive strengthening ofthe existing institutional structure and theengineering proposals were of the moststraightforward form in order to both simplifymaintenance procedures and to minimise costs.

In addition to working within the abovementioned constraints dictated by localinfluences it is necessary to consider theeffects of future social changes as well asgovernment policies such as those related tohousing. The selected scheme must be flexiblein order to allow for the upgrading of thesanitation project from its initiallyconceived form. Future economic developmentsare difficult to predict accurately and it isimportant in terms of optimising design andeconomising on initial construction costs thatthe design data adopted is reliable. Thistask could be assisted by the application ofrisk analysis as discussed in the paper ofLumbers and Harris (Ref 1).

Project implementation strategy

In Dar es Salaam the occurrence of diseaseswhich improved sewerage and sanitation can beexpected to reduce are the faecal-oral diseasesand filariasis. In both cases healthimprovements will be small unless the improvedenvironmental sanitation reaches all sectionsof the community. Three major tasks wererecommended for implementation as the firststage of the phased Master Plan programme inorder to obtain the maximum improvement topublic health, namely:

- rehabilitation of existing sewerage systemsand sewage treatment works.

66- development of manpower and institutional

capabilities to support present and futureactivities (including education) in thesector.

- installation of new sanitation systems.

For maximum impact these tasks had to bedirected at works which would produce resultsin the shortest time and to the area of thecity with the greatest health hazards.

Specific activities considered necessary inassociation with these tasks ranked inpriority are as follows:

A - implementation of community healtheducation campaigns.

- rehabilitation of the pit latrine emptyingservice, and expansion to meet demand.

- rehabilitation of existing seweragesystems and sewage treatment works.

B - installation of improved pit latrines inhouses without any excreta disposalfacility, or with poorly constructedtraditional pit latrines.

- installation of improved pit latrines insquatter upgrading areas.

- installation of improved pit latrines inareas of high water table.

C - installation of improved sullage disposalsystems in those areas served by pitlatrines.

D - campaigns/assistance to promote theconnection of houses with suitable watersupplies to existing sewers.

E - installation of foul sewerage in areasalready developed where problems existwith other forms of sanitation because ofadverse ground conditions and whereadequate flows can be attained to ensureself cleansing sewer operation.

F - expansion of existing foul sewer systemsand pre-development installation of newsystems to serve appropriate sections ofnew development areas.

Proposals are currently in hand to implementtasks A-E and the role of the consultingengineer is being finalised.

CONCLUSION

Each major urban centre in the world imposesits own highly individual constraints on theconsulting engineer designing a sanitationproject to meet its future planned needs. Inaddition to technical and monetary constraints,major influences on the selection of theappropriate scheme are made by the localfactors attributed to the social and culturalbackground of the people.

Water borne sewerage remains a practical andeconomically viable solution to some particularcircumstances but for the poorer and themajority of countries low-cost sanitationsystems such as pit latrines offer a

considerably cheaper but at the same timeeffective alternative to improving publichealth for the benefit of the majority of thepeople.

In the latter circumstances the role of theconsulting engineer will undergo change. Thecircumstances of such schemes require theinvolvement of institutional support andproject management staff accompanied byspecialist advice from sociologists and healtheducationalists.

REFERENCES

1. J.P.LUMBERS and R.B.HARRIS - Risk anduncertainty in the master planning of sewerageand sanitation in developing countries.Paper presented to the Institution of PublicHealth Engineers, January 1981.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors wish to thank the Partners ofHoward Humphreys, the Ministry of Lands,Housing and Urban Development, Tanzania, andthe National Water and Sewerage Authority,Yemen Arab Republic for their permission topresent this paper.

Session 4Chairman: Bill Moffat

WEDC Group member

DiscussionDavid 0 Lloyd

What role for theconsulting engineer?Mr LLOYD introduced his paper by saying thathis prime aim was to promote some discussionon the role of the consulting engineer. Thisrole was changing or wideningwithin a fieldthat was so wide that specialisation wasbound to occur.

2. Consulting engineers were generallyactive in two fields: giving advice based ontheir own experience; and the design,execution and supervision,of projects. Mostcommissions tended to contain an element ofeach.

3. Seven years ago UK consulting engineerswere responsible for overseas projectstotalling £5000 million in value. Last yearthe figure was £39 000 million and the feesearned were £425 million. The public healthsector accounted for between one fifth and onesixth of these totals.

4. Two issues arose from the definition ofthe consulting engineers' role as set out inthe paper. The first related to the tendencyfor division of consultants' involvementbetween a number of firms on any single projectand whether this was efficient in terms ofmanpower and financial resources. He did notthink so. He believed that the multiplicityof firms involved led to duplication of designservices and mobilisation payments, and anincrease in overheads.

5. The second question was whetherfeasibility studies were always necessary. Anexample was given of a feasibility studyundertaken for two towns in a central Africanstate, which had been substantially destroyed.The study had gone ahead and would no doubt beproduced as a glossy document. But the realneed in those towns was for a few experiencedengineers, mechanics and a plane-load ofspares. Then the water and sanitationproblems would be put right.

6. The solution was partly a need for areturn to greater trust between the fundingagents, clients and advisers/consultants.

7. The less conventional roles and projectswere outlined as set out in the paper, andsome pit-falls were pointed out.

678. With regard to the funding of projects,the speaker was puzzled as to why certainpractices took place. He cited the exampleof a project which was internationally funded.The money was loaned to the federalgovernment concerned at 1% interest. Thefederal government then loaned the money tothe provincial government at 10%, and finallythey loaned the money to the executing agencyat 16%. On top of this customs duty waslevied on all the plant brought into thecountry. The people who suffered from allthese increases In costs were the low-Incomeconsumers who could least afford it.

9. A further example was given of thesituation in another country where funds forconsulting engineering services were taxed,so the consultants were in fact paid 68% morethan the agreed fee so that the tax could belevied.

10. Mr LLOYD ended by saying that hebelieved that consulting engineers in generaldid realise that their role was to serve theneeds of the world and not to remake it intheir own mould.

11. Ms VINCENT agreed with the speaker'scriticisms of feasibility and pre-feasibilitystudies. However they were not unnecessaryand neither should they be reduced. Anotherproblem was the frequent involvement ofpeople who were not familiar with the countryor area. In this case feasibility studieswere useful in that they gave the consultantsthe opportunity to get to know the problems.

12. Mr LLOYD believed that consultingengineers who did not have knowledge of thearea involved in a project should not beemployed on it. The whole object of usingadvisers was that they could bring a wideexperience not otherwise available to theproject, so there was no point in usingsomeone not familiar with the area. Thiswould be a waste of money. Unfortunately thechoice of people was often based on thelowest quoted price. Also he wondered whetherfeasibility studies were not often used bypoliticians as delaying tactics.

13. Mr DOWNEY wondered whether there shouldperhaps be a change of emphasis, whensomething went wrong with a project, away fromblaming the consulting engineer involved, asso often happened.

14. Mr LLOYD agreed that he would like to seethis change of emphasis. Often it was astring of circumstances which led to thefailure of a project. This meant that greatertrust was needed with more communicationbetween parties involved. The presenttendency was for compartmentalising of tasksin a project, a spin-off from the legalisticworld in which we found ourselves. He wouldlike to see the edges become more blurred andbetter mutual trust arise.

6815. Mr BUKY pointed out that the World Bankhad been working on a Project PreparationHandbook in which it was hoped to set out auniform system of requirements and standardsfor the use of all the agencies involved inprojects of this sort. He commented on thepoints raised by Mr Lloyd on the variousInterest rates charged on loans to countries.It was the policy of the World Bank and mostother major funding banks that money was lentat concessionary rates to the country as awhole and not to individual executing agencies.These agencies had to be sufficientlyfinancially viable to be able to borrow fromtheir governments at the current commercialrate. The only hope for reaching the Decadetargets was to recover the costs from theconsumers. He also pointed out that none ofthe major funding banks employed consultants.The countries concerned did their ownselection. The World Bank might reserve theright to review the qualifications ofconsultants proposed and if not satisfied as

to their competence might withdraw the funds,but ultimately countries were responsible fortheir own choice of consultants.

16. Mr SSENTAMU was concerned that possiblyconsultants would not wish to be involved withsmall projects which could not afford to payas much as a larger more prestigious project,and so it might be difficult to getexperienced people to advise for these smallprojects.

17. Mr LLOYD said that no project would beoverlooked, provided that the service could begiven at a reasonable cost, and the firm hadthe experience and expertise required by theproject.

Jack R Preston and Richard P Cree

Urban sanitation and planning inKhartoum and Omdurman.Mr PRESTON began by showing a series of slidesto illustrate the great contrasts in Khartoumbetween the rich and poor areas of the city.The main streets were seen to be in poorcondition, dirty and pot-holed. Power supplieswere unreliable with long cuts common,especially after the rainy season. Shortagesof basic foodstuffs occurred frequently andand luxury goods were almost non-existant.

19. For a long time it had been the custom inthe area for the people to provide their ownsanitation according to their means.

20. Mr CREE described slides showing theseptic tanks used in better-off areas. Insome cases several houses would share acentral very deep soak pit. Soak pits were upto 30m deep.

21. In the poorer areas pit latrines were dugby outside contractors, and these pits could

also be very deep.

22. Mr PRESTON showed that sullagecollection was basic and risky. Even in thebetter-off areas standards were poor, and theincidence of diarrhoea was high.

23. The established custom of self-help hadled to many of the local professionalsleaving the area to make their fortuneselsewhere, only to return later to establishbetter positions for themselves at home.This was evident in the expensive and lavishprivate development going on in the newsuburbs. Pressure had come from these peoplefor the extension of the sewerage system,rather than the provision of basicimprovements to give sanitation to all. Thisled to the setting up of the projectdescribed in the paper.

24. Mr CREE showed slides of the newstabilisation ponds being constructed forKhartoum. These ponds were less than 1.4km2

in area.

25. Mr PRESTON said that ideas of alternativesanitation had been injected into the terms ofreference for the project, probably influencedby bodies such as WHO, however these carriedlittle weight since those who could afford topay wanted improvement for themeselves.Public funds for low-revenue projects wereseverely limited.

26. The consultant in this sort of situationwas faced with a dilemma. The only solutionto the problem was to try to put into goodorder that which existed, and to providesimple immediate benefit to the maximum numberof households. Plans could be made for morecostly improvements for construction whengeneral prosperity rose.

27. These decisions had to be backed byfinancial initiative and this could only comefrom the consultant's client, or from specificrequirements in the terms of the fundingagents.

28. Professor MITWALLY asked whether therewas any evacuation of the septic tanksoakaway pits.

29. Mr CREE did not have any records of thisbut the pits were so deep that decompositiontook place in them, extending their lifeconsiderably. However with increasingpopulation and greater use of the septic tanksit would become necessary to give more thoughtand consideration to the improved use ofseptic tanks with smaller soakaways.

30. Mr PRESTON added that in fact the pitsdid not have to be as deep as they were fortechnical reasons. It was simply theestablished custom to dig them down to'flowing water1, and it might not be possibleto convince people not to do this.

31. Dr NIMPUNO added that ten years ago he

69knew that it bad been a bye-law In Khartoumthat pits must penetrate groundwater. Hedid not know if this bye-law still existed.

32. Mr CREE established that this did notstill exist as a bye-law. The minimum depthrequired was 8m, but the usual advice givenwas to dig into the water table. This was avery strong local custom and the peoplepreferred to dig down this far because theyknew that there was a greater rate ofdecomposition under the water. Groundwaterflowed from the Nile, and did not return toit until a considerable distance downstream.So the amount of pollutant entering the watertable compared with the massive amount ofwater flowing through it was small.

33. Mr PRESTON pointed out that they hadfelt that although the cost of digging suchdeep pits was fairly high, it did give thehouseholder many years without problems. Pitsmight last forty years or more so he did nothave the problem of digging another in hissmall compound within a few years.

34. Mr HUTTON pointed out that there was agreat fear amongst groundwater experts thatdirect flushing of excreta into groundwatershould be avoided. After all someone furtherdownstream might have a deep well and bepumping this polluted water out. This mustbe considered.

35. Mr CREE said that the authorities didtake microbial samples, and sometimes closedboreholes where pollution was found to occur.However he agreed that not enough care wastaken in some cases.

36. Dr NIMPUNO belived that not far outsideKhartoum people were using wells for drinkingwater and so must have been taking pollutedwater. This pollution was not only bacterialbut also contained nitrates.

37. Mr PRESTON answered that the majority ofpeople in Khartoum had access to piped water,either through individual supplies or throughpublic standposts. Most groundwater was takenfrom the main boreholes and it had alreadybeen said that these were controlled.

38. Mr CREE said the reports tried to make itclear to the authorities that more controlswere necessary, and had suggested usingShallower pits. But the present system workedwell and was easily enforced and controlled.It would be difficult to change to a systemwhich might not be so easily controlled. Theconsultants were aware of the problems of thesystem but it was necessary to see them in thecorrect context.

39. Dr BASU wondered whether the largestabilisation ponds seen under construction inthe slides would be conventional ponds orwhether aquatic weeds would be used to speedup the process. He gave the example of thewater hyacinth which grew very successfully in

such conditions.

40. Mr PRESTON explained that theconsultants had not built new ponds but hadadapted existing ones by altering the inletsand rearranging the ponds into primary,secondary and maturation modes. There hadbeen no consideration of the water hyacinth.It was difficult to carry out experimentson these techniques as the only large amountof wastewater available for testing was inthe north of the city and was to oily to besuitable.

41. Dr BASU thought that the techniqueshould be given consideration in this case,as it could be very cost-effective. With aconventional pond it was not usual to getmore than 70% stabilisation within threeweeks, but when water hyacinth were used therate was raised to 80% in one week.

42. Mr HUTTON asked what was the averagecost of connection to the sewerage system.He also asked whether there were any plans tore-design the intake structures to work moreefficiently as the load on the pondsincreased.

43. Mr PRESTON said that the emphasis hadbeen on rehabilitation of the existing systemtogether with staging to take the minimum ofsewage at first, for financial reasons. Withregard to the cost of connection, it wasdifficult to estimate this, but was probablybetween £3000 and £5000 (Sudanese) perhousehold, which was very high compared withabout £1000 (Sudanese) for alternativesanitation.

44. Mr HUTTON wondered who would be expectedto pay these huge costs.

45. Mr PRESTON again pointed out that themoney was available, as was apparent in thenew housing developments. The people wantedthe sewerage system and were prepared to payfor it.

R B Harris and J F Jackson

Local influences and their effect onthe concept and design ofsanitation projects.Mr JACKSON explained that he would deal withhis work which had been concentrated in thecity of Sana'a, a very old and economicallypoor area which attracted funding from itsrich neighbours and elsewhere. His colleaguewould talk about Dar-es-Salaam, also very poorbut not in such a fortunate position.

47. He described the geographical, social andpolitical position of Sana'a. In 1974-75 afeasibility study was carried out, sponsoredby WHO, to look at the existing water supplyand waste disposal facilities and to suggest

70Improvements. The result of the study wasthe proposal for a completely new watersupply for the city. Previously the waterhad been obtained from hand-dug wells andconsumption was very low.

48. The waste disposal system was aninteresting one. It was a system known as1 long drop latrines', which had developed asa result of the high density of populationliving in tall, multi-storey buildings. Thissystem had worked well except where pipedwater supplies had been introduced causing aproblem of overflow of wastewater into thestreets. This overflow, together withseepage from overloaded septic tanks hadcaused pollution of the well water. What wasneeded was a completely new sewerage systemwith sewage treatment, and this was consideredaffordable.

49. Slides were used to illustrate the areaand its problems.

50. Mr HARRIS described the contrastingsituation in Dar-es-Salaam, a comparativelyrecent city which from the 1960s hadsuffered very rapid expansion due to influxof people from the rural areas. About 50% ofthe current population were squatters and thewhole city was very poor.

51. The city centre had a separate foulsewerage system connected to a sea outfall.Twelve outlying areas were similarly seweredand drained to waste stabilization ponds.However, some 80% of the systems werecurrently inoperative and needingrehabilitation.

52. There was a good water source for thecity piped from rivers outside. Thereticulation served the majority of thepopulation, the lowest level of service beinga shared standpost. Never-the-less there wasa high level of water-borne disease andinfant mortality was also high,

53. Slides were again used to illustrate.

54. Mr BHATTACHARYA asked whether there wasany blockage of the chutes in the 'long drop1

system due to the small amount of water used.

55. Mr JACKSON replied that there were noproblems of this sort. The size of the chuteprevented any blockage. Solids simply droppedstraight down the chute and no water wasnecessary to wash it down as in a normal flushtoilet.

56. Mr RUNYERA wished to know who paid thecollector to come and empty the chamber,since the multi-storey buildings seemed tohold several families in separate apartments.

57. Mr JACKSON pointed out that in fact itwas usual for all the occupants of a buildingto be from one family, so there was noproblem.

needed in this area was not a new seweragesystem but a greywater system.

59. Mr JACKSON said that with the highconsumption of water and density ofpopulation prevailing he considered that aproper system was necessary to deal withthis. The final decision was probably apolitical one, reflecting the aspirations ofthe community. It was decided that a newsewerage system was required.

60. Ms ELLINGTON asked whether any efforthad been made to encourage communityparticipation in the squatter areas, orwhether all services were brought in fromoutside.

61. Mr HARRIS answered that this had beenencouraged and now there was community andpolitical party involvement. A local teamof professionals was being set up to assessthe local needs and to motivate the people.

58. Dr NIMPUNO thought that what was really

71

Conference: Water people and waste in developing countries: 1981

TREATABILITY OF RICE STARCH WASTEWATER

DR AHMED HAMZADR FATHY HAMODADR SAMIA SAAD

Professor, Alexandria University, EgyptProfessor, Alexandria University, EgyptProfessor, Alexandria University, Egypt

INTRODUCTION

Production of starch in Egypt starts fromlow grade rice as a basic raw material. A majorrice starch processing plant is located inAlexandria and is considered one of the majorpolluting industries at Moharrem Bey IndustrialComplex (MBIC). This complex discharges all itswastes into the massively polluted Lake Mariutat the entrance to the city.

The wastewater generated at this plantoriginates mainly from two manufacturing proces-ses, namely, the steeping process in which cleanbroken rice seeds are macerated in caustic sodasolution for dissolution of proteinaceous matter,and the primary concentration process involvingcentrifugation of the milk of starch. The plantdischarges 800 cu meter/day of concentrated or-ganic waste(l).

Although biological treatment has beensuccessfully applied to potato starch wastes(2)and corn starch wastes(3), Brebion et al.(k)noted markedly detrimental effect of potatostarch wastes on a municipal (trickling filter)treatment plant. This contradiction in resultscould be attributed to the different loadingconditions used by various investigators.Chemical coagulation of potato processing wastesusing iron and calcium salts has been found ef-fective in reducing the pollutional content ofthis waste(5). Protein recovery from potatostarch wastes by multi-stage evaporation wasemphasized by Stabile et aZ-(6), who recommendedthe use of recovered protein as animal feed.

This study was conducted in order to eva-luate the potential for acidification, biologi-cal treatment and filtration of rice starchwastewater to reduce its pollutional content andrecover reusable constituents for animal feed.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Treatability experiments were conductedat room temperature (18-22°C) using a multipletreatment system consisting of two pH adjustment-sedimentation units, an activated sludge unit,and two filtration columns. The system wasoperated at different treatment conditions andits performance was evaluated based on solidsand organic removal. The parameters measureddaily included pH electric conductivity, solids,turbidity, biochemical oxygen demand, chemicaloxygen demand, and sludge volume index. Someother parameters were determined occasionallysuch as sulfates, nitrates, phosphates and dis-solved oxygen.

The experimental program comprised threeseries of experiments as shown in Figure 1.Basically, each series of experiments involvedfour consecutive treatment stages, namely: aci-dification to pH3 and sedimentation; pH adjust-ment to 6.5-7 with sedimentation; activatedsludge treatment; and filtration. This schemewas typically followed in series I, but inseries II different doses (1, 2, 5 mg/1) of anon-ionic polymer (Herclues 824,3) were added inthe first treatment step, whereas in series IIIdifferent doses (50, 100, 150 mg/1) of powderedactivated carbon were added in the activatedsludge aeration tank.

The experimental units used for pH adjust-ment and sedimentation consisted of two polye-thylene tanks of 200 liters each. In the firsttank, the wastewater was poured and acid (10%H2SO4 solution) was added to adjust the pH at 3,stirred for one minute at 120 r.p.m. to achieverapid mixing and for 10 minutes at 20 r.p.m. topromote flocculation. The tank contents wereleft to settle quiescently for one hour afterwhich the supernatant was discharged to the secondtank whereas the precipitated starch was withdrawnat the bottom of the tank. To allow for furtherprecipitation of starch and to render the super-natant suitable for biological treatment, the pHof the supernatant from the first tank was adjust-ed in the second tank at 6,5-7 while stirring asfollowed in the first tank.

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Rg.( 1 )•• SCHEMATIC OF EXPERIMENTAL MULTIPLETREATMENT SYSTEM

72The activated sludge unit consisted of a

plexiglass rectangular tank of 120 cm length,25 cm width, and 30 cm liquid depth. This unitwas divided into an aeration compartment of 72liters volume and a clarification compartmentof 14.4 liters at the effluent end of the unit.The two compartments were separated by a slidingbaffle adjusted to leave a slot opening at thebottom for the back flow of the settled returnsludge. Intentional wasting of excess sludgewas made to attain MLSS of 2000-3000 mg/1 inthe aeration compartment. The air flow ratewas controlled to maintain 3-4 mg/1 of dissolvedoxygen in the aeration compartment.

Two filtration columns made of plexiglasswere connected in series and used for final po-lishing of the activated sludge process effluent.The first column was packed with dual media ofcharcoal (1.1 mm particle size) and sand (0.45 mmparticle size). The second column was filledwith sand only (0.45 mm particle size). Eachcolumn had a total median depth of one meter.

Chemical and physical analyses were per-formed according to the Standard Methods forthe Examination of Water and Wastewater(7 ) .

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

1. Wastewater Characteristics

Table 1 summarizes the average characte-ristics of the raw wastewater. In general, thesecharacteristics varied slightly during the phasesof study and daily variations were moderate. Theraw waste is highly organic with a considerablyhigh percentage of solids (about 82 percent) inthe volatile form. The COD/BOD ratio of theraw waste averages 1.3 indicating that the wasteis fairly biodegradable. This ratio was redu-ced during treatment especially after acifici-cation which shows that the majority of theorganics in the colloidal form were removed.

The raw wastewater was relatively low inphosphate (1.8 mg/1 of P0^) and nitrate (2.3 mg/1 of NO3) content. These nutrient deficienciesof the waste were compensated for by the addi-tion of phosphoric acid and ammonia solutionprior to activated sludge treatment to attainthe B0D:N:P ratio of 100:5:1 required for suc-cessful treatment.,

2. Process Performance

Acidification to a pH value of 3 provedto be effective in solids and organic removals(Table 2). This particular pH value was adoptedbased on the results of a previous study(l)which showed best removals at pH3. The resultssummarized in Table 2 also indicate that subse-quent adjustment of the pH of the acidified wasteto 6.5-7 achieved further removals of solids andorganics.

Considering the nature of colloids (qua-si-hydrophobic-hydrophilic) present in thestarch waste, it is postulated that acidificationresulted in lowering the zeta potential and, toa certain extent, enhanced coagulation of thecolloid. Presumably, the magnitude of the zetapotential of the hydrophobic colloid was reducedso that repulsive forces between particles areless than the Vander Waals attractive force.Thus coalescence of colloidal particles wouldoccur and coagulation could be accomplished. This

caused the destruction of dispersed colloids inthe wastewater and led to their settling and reduction of suspended solids and organics in thesuspended form.

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3177

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4093

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4220

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•1.0

The additional reduction of these para~meters through the readjustment of pH to 6.5-7 was probably dependent upon the isoelectricpoint of the hydrophilic colloids (e.g. proteins)at which minimum solubility occurs being in therange of pH 4.0 to 6.5 for the majority.

Addition of different doses of the mon-ionic polyelectrolyte after acidification (seriesII experiments) improved the percentage removalof solids and organics (Figure 2) but a polymerdose of 1 mg/1 gave the best results. However,addition of a higher dose of the polyelectrolytethan the indicated optimum (1 mg/1) did not bringbetter coagulation) this is probably due to re-stabilization or deflocculation of the colloidwhen excess polymer doses are used(l). In general,the high polymer cost does not justify the slightimprovement in solids and organic removalsachieved by polymer addition after acidification.Moreover, addition of polymer or other coagulantsmay alter the nature of the precipitate to berecovered as an animal feed.

mto

0 1 2 J 4 5

POLYMER DOSE I mg /1 )

Fig.(2): EFFECT OF POLYMER ADDITIONON ACIDIFIED WASTE CHARACT-ERISTICS

The performance of the activated sludgeprocess was evaluated at different hydraulic de-tention times in the range of 8 to 15 hours whichcorrespond to organic loadings in the range of0.18 to 1.2 kg B0D5/kg MLSS-day. The results

obtained (Table 3) indicated that a significantportion of the organic constituents in thewastewater were removed during biological treat-ment. Approximately 96 percent of the BOD and95 percent of the BOD were removed•during thebest operating periods.

Effact of Itological and Filtration Tr**lm«ticaon Starch Waitawatar

73

kg BOD/kj KLSS-day

Hydraulic detention tima, hours

SVI. i i l / j

Parctntaga removal of chv

1, vt£Civ«c>d Jludfia syatem

BOD

COD

2, Nulli-madU filtar

S.S

BOO

COD

3. Sind filtar

S.S

100

COD

0.19

15

66

96.0

95.1

46.0

35.0

40.0

31.0

11.0

18.0

0.6

12

90

93.0

91.2

49.0

36,0

42.0

33.0

13.0

19.0

0,9

10

120

83.0

82.0

50.0

35.0

38,0

34.0

13.0

20,0

1.2

8

175

70.3

68.5

52.0

37.0

43.0

36.0

17.0

22.0

The BOD results fitted fairly well (Fi-gure 3) the kinetic model suggested byEckenfelder(8) which relates the removalrate of BOD to the effluent BOD concentrationas follows:

So - Se = KSe

WhereVSo = influent BOD concentration, mg/1Se * effluent BOD concentration, mg/1Xa = mixed liquor volatile suspended

solids concentration (MLVSS) mg/1t = hydraulic detention time, daysk = BOD removal rate coefficient,

L/mg/day.

EFFLUENT BOO, Se ( m g / 1 )

Fig.(3): BOD REMOVAL KINETICS

The BOD removal rate coefficient (k)obtained is 0.004 at a temperature of about20°C * 2°C. This coefficient is comparableto values reported for sewage(11) indicatingthat the waste was fairly biodegradable.

The BOD removal percentages- were plot-ted against the parameter X t, as shown inFigure 4. Detention time ft) was correctedby MLVSS in the aeration tank during differentexperimentations. Figure 4 clearly indicatesthat higher organic removals were obtained atlonger detention times.

Xo'f •» 103

Fig. (O; BOD REMOVAL CHARACTERISTICS

Acidification, in addition to its effect onstarch precipitation, could have resulted in partialsolubilization by hydrolysis of the colloid remain-ing in the acidified effluent fed to the activatedsludge process. The hydraulized substrate was pre-sumably more readily uptaken by the process micro-organisms.

Figure 5 shows the effect of organic loading(F/M ratio) on BOD removal efficiency and on sludgesettleability as indicated by SVI. Lower organicloadings resulted in higher BOD removals and bettersettling characteristics in the range of loadingsstudied. As expected, the higher loaded systemsbulked and developed dispersed organisms that didnot settle well. As the loadings were increasedhigher than 0.6 kg BOD/kg MLSS-day the systemperformance deteriorated drastically. This corres-ponded to hydraulic detention times of less than12 hours in this study.

100

to

S "CO

0 02 [M OS OS |'O 1*2

LOADING I Kg BOO/ Kg MLSS - dcy )

Fig.( 5): PARAMETER RESPONSE TO ORGANICLOADING

In a trial to improve the activated sludgesystem performance operated at a high organic load-ing of 1.2 kg BOD:kg MLSS-day, PAC was added to the .aeration tank at doses of 50, 100 and 150 mg/1.Addition of PAC improved the system performanceconsiderably as shown in Figure 6. The organicremoval efficiency was increased with the increasein PAC dose in the studied range. Also, the sludgerecovered its good settleability. Figure 6 showsthat percentage COD removals were higher than dosefor BOD removals, indicating better removal of non-biodegradable organic matter after PAC addition.

>

SO 100

PAC DOSE, mg/1

Fig(6): EFFECT OF POWDERED ACTIVATEDCARBON ON ORGANIC REMOVAL INTHE ACTIVATED SLUDGE PROCESS

74The use of filtration for polishing of

the activated sludege process effluent provedto be effective (Table 3). The first dual-media filter column adsorbed and retainedmost of the remaining organics and solidsescaping the activated sludge process throughadsorption/filtration. The second sand filterretained further suspended solids escaping thefirst filter. Up to 100 percent reductionsin turbidity were achieved after filtration.However, in field applications, the problemof filter back-washing must be considered.3. By-Product Recovery

One of the objectives of this researchwas to recover a saleable by-product from thestarch wastewater to be used as an animalfeed. The solids precipitated by acidifi-cation and pH adjustment can be further driedand processed for a cheap animal feed. Expe-riments conducted in this study showed thatabout 70 grams of dry solids were recoveredper liter of acidified waste. This meansthat the rice starch processing plant understudy would produce about 56 tons of drysolids daily.

CONCLUSIONS

Based on the results of this study thefollowing conclusions can be made;

1. Acidification of the rice starch wasteto pH3 effectively reduced the solids andorganic content of the waste. Further ad-justment of the pH to near neutralizationachieved additional solids and organic removalsand rendered the waste suitable for activatedsludge treatment. Overall removals of SS,BOD and COD were 87%, 78% and 80% respectively.

2. The rice starch waste is amenable toactivated sludge treatment. However loadingshigher than 0.6 kg B0Ds/kg MLSS-day resultedin drastic reductions in process performanceand led to sludge bulking. Up to 96 percentof the BOD and 95 percent of the COD were re-moved at optimum loading conditions of 0,2 kgBODS kg MLSS-day.

3. Reasonable activated sludge system per-formance attained at higher organic loadingswhen PAC doses in the range of 50-150 mg/1were added to the aeration tank.

4. Double stage filtration, using charcoalsand and sand filters, proved to be an effect-ive polishing treatment for the activated slud-ge process effluent. Total removals of 98percent each of SS, BOD and COD can be achievedthrough this multiple treatment system.

REFERENCES

1. Saad, S.G. "Case-Study of Rice StarchWaste Treatment". In "Treatment and .Disposal of Liquid and Solid IndustrialWastes". 3rd Turkish-German Environ-mental Engineering Symposium, BogaziciUniversity, Istanbul, Turkey, Vol.3;L57 (1973).

2. Bliss, G.R. et at, "Potato Processing PlantHandles 50 000 lb/day BOD Load". Food Pro-cessing, 33, 10, 22 (1972).

3. Bensing, H.O. and Brown, D.R. "ProcessDesign for Treatment of Corn Wet MillingWastes". Proc. 3rd National Symposiumon Food Processing Wastes, US EPA. 277(1972).

4. Brebion, G. et at. "The Influence of aSeasonal Effluent from : an AgriculturalIndustry on the Functioning of an UrbanSewage Purification Works". Water Pollu-tion Abstracts, 42, 2084 (1969).

5. Fossum, G.O, and Cooley, A.M. "Water Pol-lution Abatement by Improved Coagulationof Effluents from Lye-Peel Potato Proces-sing Plants". Rept. No. W1-OO6-7O, NorthDakota Water Resources Research Institute,Fargo, M.D. (1970).

6. Stabile, R.L.et at. "Economic Analysis ofAlternative Methods for Processing PotatoStarch Plant Effluents" Proc. 2nd NationalSymposium on Food Processing Wastes, 185(1971).

7. "Standard Methods for Examination of Waterand Wastewater", APHA, AWWA, WPCF, 14thedition (1975).

8. Eckenfelder, W.W., Jr. "Water Quality Engi-neering for Practicing Engineers". Barnessand Noble, New York, N.Y. (1970).

CREDITS:- This research is supported by grantNo.PL 352-4 from the US EnvironmentalProtection Agency,

75

Conference-. Water people and waste in developing countries: 7987

MEMBRANE TECHNIQUES IN EFFLUENl DISPOSAL ALONG WITH WATER/CHEMICALS RECLAMATION

DR S BASU Professor In Chemtcal Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology,SUMIT MOULIK Indian Institute of Technology. BombaV.

INTRODUCTION

Although three-fourths of the Globalsurface is filled with water, 99% ofthe water is nor accessable for directhuman consumption, 97% being confinedto seas, another 2% being fixed-up asice^caps in the polar regions. With muchof this available water, which constituteshardly 1% of the total Global water, beingimpaired due to unrestricted disposal ofdomestic and industrial effluents, watersupply is fast becoming one of the cost-liest resources to sustain the industrialgrowth in most of the developed and under-developed countries of the world.

The most single deficiency in conventionalwaste treatment systems, based on biologicalor chemical conversions, is the inabilityof these systems to reclaim water forreutilization.

Moreover, none of these conventional wastetreatment systems are addressed to theremoval of inorganic solutes which contributeto the degradation of the surface or ground-water, and may inhibit the use of the water.

Against this background of grave industrialpollution, coupled with acute scarcity ofwater, extensive exploratory research, andengineering studies have been undertakenduring the last two decades, on the develop-ment , and application of membrane technology-Electrodialysis (ED), and Reverse Osmosis(RO) - for the reclamation of water anduseful chemicals, along with pollutionabatement from industrial effluents inPulp & Paper (Ref.l - 6), Dairy (Bef 7.),Electroplating (Ref 8), Food processingindustries (Ref 7.), and saline water (Ref.9), RO and Ultrafiltration techniques asa cost effective device have been suggestedby different researchers as a tertiary aidin conventional waste treatment systems forthe elimination of toxic and bio-refractorypollutants from the secondary effluentsalong with water receovery for recycling(Ref.10).

A large quantity of wash effluents (around25 m /hr per spinning machine) are generatedduring spinning process which remain a bigpollution hazard surrounding Rayon industries.Conventional waste treatment process (basedon lime preparation) requires high capitalinvestment, with high operating costs due

to non-recovery of sodium and zinc sulfatesfrom the spinning wash effluents.

Techno-economic feasibility of Na SO /ZnSOconcentration and recovery from admixturein dilute solutions by RO technique hasbeen suggested by several researchersrecently (Ref.11, 12).

An attempt has been made in this work todemonstrate the applicability of ROtechnique in treatment of Rayon industrialeffluents, major objectives being toevaluate the techno-economic feasibilityof pollution abatement, along with water/chemicals reclamation for recycling, fromspinning process wash effluents.

EXPERIMENTAL PLANNING

Spinning wash effluent was obtained froma Rayon manufacturing plant at Kalyan nearBombay for experimental work with thefollowing analysis:pH - 1.50

TDS

SS

Na2S04 -

ZnSO4 -

H2 S 04 "

30,000

1000

15,500

250

3250

mg/1

mg/1

11

It

Initial experiments were carried out in testRO loop with an effective area membranesurface of 41 cm supported on porousstainless steel (Fig.l) for the evaluationof membrane performance, with respect tofeed pH, solute concentration, and flowvelocity on permeate flux rate, soluterejection, concentration ratio, and permeaterecovery at different pressures ranging from25 to 60 kg/cm .

Further experiments were carried out on atubular RO set-up (active membrane surfacearea of 2450 cm ) at the DEED Lab of theBhava Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Bombay,with three different types of membranes,i) Cellulose

Diacetate(CDA) from EARC , ii) CDA fromCSMCRI, Ehavnagar, India, and iii) Thinfilm composite aromatic polyamide(FA-30O) from UCF, USA.Eased on experimental data obtained withtest RO loopsCflat and tubular), aspiral wound RO module (capacity= I. 50lit permeate/min) was designed, fabrica-ted( in collaboration with Permionics,Baroda, India), and standardized at theChemical Engineering Department, H T ,Bombay.Experimental flow-sheet diagram(connec-ting both the test loop and the spiral •wound modules) is depicted in Fig.2.

As shown in Fig.2, pressure was regula-ted by a spring loaded SS back pressureregulating valve installed in the con-centrate stream. Flow was controlled byadjusting the needle valves BVI and BV2.The system, at start-up, was slowlypressurized, and depressurized at shut-down, by operating the needle valvesBV2 on the by-pass line. The concentra-te and the permeate were recycled backinto the 100 litre capacity HDPE feedtank, during experimental run.

A triplex plunger Pump (PT 81/60 manu-factured by the Speck of W.Germany)having rated capacity of 15 lit/min atdischarge pressure of 120 kg/cm2 V/a9 v;.:-.i.A conductivity meter , calibratedagainst the range of compositions ex-pected, was used to measure the streamconcentrations in terms of TDS.

Conceptual design features of the spi-ral wound RO module is depicted inFig.3. and the details presented asfollows :

Size of the module - 8.30 cmX 60 cmlength

- 2.80 m 2Active membrane area

No. of membrane leaves - 2

Dimensions of membrane leaves

= 55 cm width X 150 cm length.

Module is housed in 10 cm diameter40 schedule seamless M.S pine of 60 cmlength.Membrane components:

MembraneMem. support sheet

Bermeate channel

Concentrate channel -

Module wrapProduct(permeate)tube

CDAwoven polyesterclothmelamine formal-deBiyde impreg-nated polyester.

200 mesh HDPEnet I.12 cm thi-ck.PVC tape

PVC I.25cmtube diameter.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSTOWS

Fig.4 represents flux decline resultswith untreated effluents (without pHadjustment) using- CSMCRI membrane,which indicates pronounced flux declinedue to fouling effects. Permeate fluxand solute rejection % is found to behigher when feed pH is increased above3«Therefore, further investigations werecarried out with pH adjustment to 4.80followed by cartridge filtration, where-by all suspended solids more than 5 P-could be removed from the feed. FeedPH could not be kept above 4.80 becau-se of Zinc precipitation.Experimental results depicted in Fig.1?indicates, that, permeate flux rate isabove 0.60 m3/m2/d (15 ffd) and solute •rejections (Na2S0h and ZnSOO are high-er than Q7 % over the pressure range40 - 60 kg/cm2, PA-300 membrane provid-ing best performance.Zinc rejection is found to be above 9q^with less than 4ppm appearing in the•nermeate at 60 kg/cm2.As prepentert in Fig.6, permeate fluxrate, and solute rejections are adver-sely affected at higher level of perme-ate recovery.When RO module is operated at above60 kR-/cm? pressure under minimum perme-ate recovery conditions, permeate Qual-ity is found to be below 200 p-pm( withZn^content less than h. ppm (Fie1.7),whi c.h could be recycled back to thespinning process washing1.

Na2S0^ concentration in the concentra-te could be reached to the level of 16$under optimal conditions of RO treat-ment, and therefore complete recyclingof permeate and concentrate streamsappears to be technically feasible,according to the flow sheets presentedin Fig. 8a, and 8b.Reclamation of salts (Wa^SOi, andand reusable water from spinning processwash effluents, along with abatement ofpollution problems by RO technology,isexpected to give considerable amount ofsocio-economic benefit to Rayon industr-ies.

Further Work is. in progress to evaluatelong range membrane performance data atelevated temperatures in a spiral wound15 lit/min RO plant (pilot unit), toconfirm the operational data presentedin this ;ftiork.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT"

One of the authors(SM) offers his grate-ful thanks to the authorities of IIT-Bfor giving him PG Scholarship for M.TechDissertation, a part of which is presen-ted in this Work.

00000000 xxxxxx cocooooo

r rREFERENCE'S:

1. ChannabasappartjK. C.'Need for new and better membranes'Desalination, 18(1976) 15- 42.

2. Nielson,W.K., and Madsen, R. F.

•Ultrafiltration of bleach effluents-an example of waste water treatmentby Ultrafiltration1

Desalination, 2^(1978) 141- 154.

3. "Pollution control and by-productrecovery for the Pulp and PaperIndustry".

Information Eulletin of UOP(Fluid Science Div.).San Diego,California, U£A(I98O).

if. "DDS RO system for Pulp andPaper Industry".

Information Bulletin of DDS (RODiv,), Nakskov,Denmark.

5a Amerlaan, A.C.F., Dubey, G.K.,and Wiley, A.J.

'A membrane process for upgradingorganics and recovery of Pulpingchemicals'.

Proc.Symp. 'Recovery of FulpingChemicals', EUCEPA, Helsinki,Kay 13-17, 1968.

5b-Amerlaan, A.C.F., Dubey,G.K.,and Wiley,A.J.

'Application of RO to processingof spent liquors from the Pulpand Paper Industry'

TAFFI, 50, No.9(1967) 455-460.

6. Radhamohon, K, and Basu, S.

'Electrodialysis in the regenera-tion of Paper Mill effluents'.

Desalination, 33(1980)185- 200.

7. Channabasappan, K.C,

'Use of RO for valuable by-productrecovery'.

CEP( Symp.Series No.107 ),67(1970) 250- 259.

8. Ahlgren, R. M.

Ch.V in 'Industrial processingwith membranes', Ed. Lacey,R.E.,and I.oeb, S, Wiley, New York,N.YU972)

9. Mattson, K.E.'Significant developments in memb-rane desalination - 1979'

Desalination, 28(1979) 207-

10,Channabasappan, K. C,'RO process for wat^r reuse appli-cation1 .CEF(Symp.Series No.97)6^(1969) 140- 147.

II.Riley, R.

Desalination,19(1977) H9I2.1echnical Bulletin on l e i j in PEIL

Reverse Osmosis Tubular Module,rJei.iin l td . Tokyo, Japan (IQ79)

73

Conference: Wafer people and waste in developing countries-. 1981

INSTALLATION AND OPERATION OF A NIGERIAN ANAEROBIC DIGESTER BASED ON CROP WASTES.

BARRY I WHEATLEY University Industrial Centre, University College, Cardiff.S E ETHERIDGE Dept, of Microbiology/ University College, Cardiff,DR K ADESOGAN Dept. of Chemistry, University of Ibadan, Nigeria.

INTRODUCTIONThe generation of inflammable gases from

organic substances by the 'works of nature'has been observed for centuries and manyfamous names have shown interest in these gasesincluding Volta, Davy and Pasteur. These gaseshave been known by many names from the strangewill-o-wisp' lights sometimes seen over marsh-land to the more down to earth name of sewergas often used in the water industry. Whatever it is called (I prefer Biogas) the gaswhich is generated by the anaerobic fermenta-tion of organic material is a mixture ,withcarbon dioxide and methane as its major compon-ents. Table 1 shows the typical analyses ofsuch a gas and the properties of its components.

It has long been the hope of scientistsand engineers to harness this natural degrad-ation system to produce a useful fuel whileconserving any valuable fertilizer componentsthat exist in the original material. It hasonly been during periods of crisis that thewestern world has utilised these systems andduring the second world war many 'digesters'were built throughout Europe. With the cheapand readily available fuel of the late 50's andthe 60's the interest in small scale energy

Table !• Composition and Propertiesof Biogas.

Property CH4 C02 H2S Typicalbiogas

% by volume intypical biogas 54-80 20-45 0.1 100

Energy value(kcal/litre) 9.0

Explosive range{% by vol.with air) 5-15

Density (g/litre)0°C 760mm 0.72

Specific gravity(relative to air) 0.55

5.4

4.46 6-12

1.98 1.54 1.22

1.5 1.2 0.93

Critical temp.(°C) -82.5 +31.1 +100.4

Critical press.(Atm.) 45.8 73.0 88.9

Odour None None Rottenegg.

production units went into a decline.Anaerobic Digesters however, carried on

their development along two major routes.Firstly as a pollution control route for sewageand indutrial wastes. Secondly as a means ofmaterial and fuel conservation for small villageand town units in developing countries. Morerecently the higher prices being charged forfuel has revived the interest for digesters onEuropean farms and a bewildering range ofdigester designs are presently available fora farmer's selection.

BASICS OF METHANE FERMENTATIONThe generation of methane from organic

matter is achieved by the use of naturallyoccurring (fairly ubiquiteously too) micro-organisms. These create one of natures altern-ative routes to conventional aerobic decay.

Where insufficient air is available tobreakdown natures wastes a whole series ofanaerobes (bacteria which exist without oxygen)step in. If the temperature is sufficient thisdegradation can be carried as far as the prod-uction of methane.

Cellulose and Hemicellulose

FermentativeBacteria

Soluble Organics

AcetogenicBacteria

Acetic Acid

CH4

MethanogenicBacteria

CH4 + CO2

FIG. 1. Anaerobic fermentation of organic solids.

The process is not a simple one and is madeup of many differing groups of organisms but canbe most simply shown as a three stage process,(see Fig.l). Firstly the cellulose and hemi-cellulose is broken down to smaller more solubleorqanics by fermentative bacteria. Next acet-ogenic bacteria set to work producing aceticacid, other fatty acids plus hydrogen andcarbon dioxide. Finally the methanogenicbacteria take both fatty acids and the carbondioxide/hydrogen mixture and produce methane andcarbon dioxide.

Each of these stages is equally importantand all the groups of bacteria have to havetheir needs satisfied otherwise instabilitiesset in. On the whole each stage satisfies theother so that the only parameters which have tobe controlled are temperature and feed rate.

FACTORS AFFECTING METHANE PRODUCTIONIn real life many factors affect the

production of methane by anaerobic digestion.However usually only a few of the param-

eters need to be controlled or monitored. Thecomplete breakdown of material anaerobicallytakes from 10 to 20 days at a temperature of30°C therefore the flow rate through thedigester is an important factor which has tobe controlled.

The other factor which has to be controlledis temperature. In normal (mesophillicoperation) conditions this means that the temp-erature has to be maintained between 30 and40°C. To optimise the gas production it isbest that the temperature be controlled towithin 1°C at any selected temperature in theabove range. Fig. 2 shows the effect of bothtemperature and retention time upon the gasyields from a digester. In this case the resultsare for sewage but similar curves are exhibitedon most raw materials.

Table 2. Gas Yields from Various Substrates.79

40 50 60 70Hydraulic Retention Time (days)

Fig.2. Gas Yields Versus Retention Time.One parameter which usually cannot be

controlled is the raw material. Table 2 showsthe typical composition, gas yield and calorificvalue of biogas produced from the batch digest-ion of a range of different materials. As canbe seen the gas yields can vary quite immenselyas can the percentage methane. Some of theplant leaves giving the best results, both inquantity and quality of gas produced.

FERTILIZER VALUE OF THE RESIDUESBiogas has one major advantage over other

forms of fuel production from waste, it does noteliminate nitrogen. All the nitrogen in theoriginal material remains there. Table 3 showsthe typical effect of digestion upon a piggerywaste.

As can be seen almost 50% of the solids areconverted into biogas. Almost 80% of the fattyacids which are to some extent responsible forthe bad odours of many wastes are also removed.

Organic matter digested

Dairy cattle wasteCattle waste

Pig wasteWheat strawWheat straw 3 cmWheat straw 0-2 mmCloverGrassTurnip leavesSugar beet leavesPotato stemsMaize stems

Specific production(litres/kg organic)

3153424153673S3423445557496501606514

%CHindigester gas

80-27*5 - . . -80S78-580-281-377-784-084-084874-783-1

Calorificvalue

(MJ/m3)

28-827-028-928-128-829127-930-230130-326-729-8

Reference: Rheinhold and Noak.1

The Oxygen Demand of the waste whether measuredby chemical or biological means is significantlyreduced while the nitrogen level does not change.Therefore most suitable organic wastes may beconverted into a useful less odorous and lesspolluting irrigation/fertilizing slurry byanaerobic digestion.

Table 3. Characteristics of Input and Outputof Digester.

Ten-day detentionInput Output % Reduction

Total Solids (%)VFA (ppm)NH,N (ppm)BOD (ppm)COD (ppm)Gas/kg TS added

452262122

2105572480

2-2111321715333

419380-300 m3

45-078-7Nil74-742-2

Table 4. Composition of Input and Output ofDigester.

AshProtein N (Protein)NHjN (NH3)FatNDFPiO,f^O*ADFLignin

Input (% DM)

1403-2 (200)21 (2-6)

13-745-2

3-611

23-681

Output (% DM)

15-441 (25-6)2-7 (3-3)9-4

41-3601-4

25-6I IS

NDF = Neutral detergent fibre. Cellulose, hemi-cellulose andlignin.ADF - Acid detergent fibre. Cellulose, lignin.

Table 4 shows that there is an increase also inprotein content of the solids in the digestereffluent. This is being closely investigatedaround the world as a possible source of animalfeed.

Anaerobic digestion has one other 'grace1.The temperature and length of time required toproduce methane also reduces the population ofmany pathogens. See Table 5.

DIGESTER TYPES.As mentioned earlier there are a staggering

variety of digester designs available around theworld. It will be useful if I describe threetypes of digesters which are more numerous thanmost.

80Table 5. Survival of PathogenicBacteria during Anaerobic Digestion.

Fig. 3. The Gobar Gas Digester.

Bacteria Digestion Removal Remarks.No.days %

Endamoebahystolytica 12 <100

Salmonellatyphosa 20 92

Tuberclebacilli 35 85

Escherichiacoli 49 <100

Greatly reducedpopulations at

20°C.

reductionin 6 daysretention.

Digestion cannotbe relied uponfor completedestruction.

Greatly reducedpopulations at37°C about thesame reductionin 14 days at22°C.

(a) The 'High Rate1 Digester:- This is thedigester which is most accepted in WesternEurope and U.S.A. To be classified as 'HighRate1 it requires to be a heated and stirredreactor. Many different designs are available,Figure 2 shows but one. These type of digestershave been built at many thousands of sewageworks as secondary sludae treatment units. Theyare also becoming Increasingly popular withlarge farmers.

Fig. 2. The 'High Rate1 Digester.

(b) The Gobar Gas Digester:- This type ofdigester has been designed specifically withrural India in mind (see Fig.3). It is adisplacement type digester where cattle waste isadded at one side and the effluent overflows atthe other. In most of these type of digestersthere is an integral gas holder built on top ofthe digester. Their sizes range from 4m3 to140m3 and are usually constructed from brickwitha metal gas holder. Most are fed with a mixtureof cattle dung and night soil. Presently over70,000 of these plants are reported to be inoperation most being backed by government aid,though the plan is seen as a political failuremainly due to the amount of capital requiredper digester.

(c) The Chinese Digester:- These are operated ona semi-continuous basis being fed once a day.The digesters are usually constructed fromconcrete and bricks. The suspended solids tendto accumulate in the main body of the digesterand have to be dug out two or three times peryear. It is claimed that there are sevenmillion of these digesters in operation of sizesvarying from 6 to 8m3 (see Fig. 4).Fig. 4. The Chinese Digester.

THE. DESIGN OF A DIGESTER SUITABLE FOR NIGERIA.The University of Ibadan decided to build

up a University Consultancy Group and one areathat this group found to be of particularinterest was anaerobic digestion, especiallyfor the. production of electricity in rural areas.

The organic feedstocks to be investigatedare based upon crop wastes and will be supple-mented by night soil and/or animal wastes. Inthat way local wastes can be converted into fueland fertilizer while minimizing water losses andassisting with sanitation problems.

The type of feedstock envisaged is likelyto be suitable for a digester designed for highsolids, i.e. above 10% by weight, therefore themixing has been minimised. The local highambient temperature also minimizes the amountof heating required. The daily temperaturevariation however suggests that insulation couldbe important. The digester decided upontherefore a horizontal 'plug flow1 type ofdigester as shown in Fig. 4 made of a fibre glasssewer pipe (in this instance but could be madeof any local material.^

Fig. 5. The Plug Flow Digester81

The digesters will work in parallel ondifferent wastes and will hopefully demonstratethe suitability of this type of digester forpower generation. The final figure, Fig. 6,gives an artist's impression of the proposedresearch facility with storage clamps on theright for digester feed solids and fertilizersludge bays on the far right of the threedigesters.

These three digesters when in optimumoperation should be able to produce 10 to 20m3

of gas per day, i.e. 250 to 500 HJ of energyper day. If converted to electricity at aconversion rate of 30% this will give 2 to 4Kwh for 1 - 2 hours every day plus 150 to 300HJ of hot water per day.

£Lur, FIOW DIGESTER . Ref 1. Reinhold and Noak )1956)Methan ans Klarschlamm und mistVerlag Von Oldenburg. Munich.

Mixing and heating will be carried out by Ref> 2. Stafford, Wheatley and Hughes.means of a mild steel pipework within the p r o c_ -\st international Symposiumdigester which can be rotated by chain and on Anaerobic Digestion,pulley whilst hot water is pumped through it. Applied Sciences 1980.The digester will be installed in the ground sogiving natural insulation from daily temperaturechanges.

The gas will be piped from the digester toa fibreglass gas holder and then through a gasscrubber to remove the C02 and on to a smallelectrical generator.

Three 3m3 digesters have been shipped toIbadan from Cardiff at the time of going toprint, and are due to be installed andcommissioned during the month of July.

Fig. 6. Arists's Impression of the Anaerobic Digestion Research Facility at Ibadan.

82

Session 5AChairman; Ken Ellis

WEDC Group member

Discussion

Dr Ahmed Hamza, Dr Fathy Hamodaand Dr Samia Saad

Treatability of rice starch wastewaterDr HAMZA outlined the acute industrial wasteproblem in Egypt. One million cubic metres ofeffluent was being discharged to theMediterranean sea and other waters every year,with 67 000 tonnes BOD annual discharge.

2. Slides were shown to illustrate the AbuKier Bay area and the appalling conditionsproduced by the industrial waste discharge.In most cases there was no pre-treatment ofmaterial before discharge. Many plants had acommon sewerage system which discharged intothe lake.

3. The law required a maximum BODconcentration of 80 mg/1, and maximum COD of60 mg/1. This had never been enforced and wasconstantly violated due to lack of manpower,finance, monitoring etc.

4. A paradox existed in that the governmentowned and operated the plants, but themonitoring agents operated through thegovernment and the law could only be enforcedby the government. The plants relied onindustrial subsidies from the government tokeep running, and produced only marginalprofits.

5. The problem was one of public awareness.The feeling seemed to be that as there wasplenty of water available there was noimmediate danger. More obvious problems wereconsidered more important.

6. Now the University had been given a grantto survey the plants and to suggest appropriatere-cycling systems. Examples were given ofthree different schemes for starch wastewatertreatment as outlined in the paper. Goodresults were being obtained in the studies.

7. Dr BASU asked how such a large amount ofrice-straw waste could be discharged to theMediterranean.

8. Dr HAMZA replied that there was norecovery in this case. There was nowco-operation with the german government to tryto find a solution to the recycling of causticsoda.

9. Dr BASU knew of the german package for asoda recycling plant which had been given toAlgeria, The Alexandria plant was an old

plant and he wondered why they did not havea similar package.

10. Dr HAMZA explained that Algeria couldafford this type of solution but Egypt hadto find a more realistic and practicalsolution.

11. Mr OTIENO could not understand why itwas not possible for reasonable discussionto be proposed with the government to try tocombat the problem.

12. Dr HAMZA said that they were trying hardto persuade people of the dangers. Industrywas already convinced but foreign aid andgovernment help was essential before anythingcould be done.

13. Dr SAAD, a co-author of the paper, saidthat a great effort had been made to convincethe members of government committees, butthey did not have a realistic view of thesituation and seemed to have too many otherthings to think about.

14. Mr OBADINA commented that without thegrant the University people could not havecarried out their experimental work. Hewondered why they did not set up a Universityconsultancy service. This would make themindependant of outside funding.

15. Dr HAMZA replied that they had triedthis but all foreign aid had stringsattached. Foreign aid was essential forprojects to be set up and agencies tended towant their own consultants to be used. Itwas probable that costs incurred by theUniversity would be recovered if theexperimental plant was eventually installed.

Dr S Basu and Sumit Moulik

Membrane techniques ineffluent disposal,Dr BASU explained that the membrane techniquedescribed in the paper meant that pollutioncontrol could be integrated with a recyclingmethod so making it very cost-effective. Indeveloping countries pollution was often notconsidered to be major problem, but in hisopinion it should be.

17. An outline of the basic technique wasgiven illustrated with slides. Dr BASUpointed out that the technique had greatpotential, not only for industrial wastewatertreatment but also on a smaller scale forsimple desalination of drinking water inrural areas.

18. Mr PHAROAH asked how long the membranescould be expected to last.

19. Dr BASU said that in the prototype R0module the cellulose acetate membrane lifewas evaluated to be around one year. Howevernew non-cellulose membranes were under

83development which could last up to threeyears under more drastic conditions.

20. Mr OTIENO wondered whether the techniquewas really suitable for rural use.

21. Dr BASU was sure that the hand-operatedmodel described would certainly be useful inrural areas for the treatment of brackishwater.

22. Mr OBADINA asked whether the techniquewas adaptable for large amounts of water.

23. Dr BASU gave an example of onedesalination project where up to 100 milliongallons of water could be treated every day.

Barry I Wheatley, S E Etheridgeand Dr K Adesogan

Installation and operation of aNigerian anaerobic digesterbased on crop wastes.Mr WHEATLEY began by giving a description ofthe process of anaerobic digestion as tookplace in the digesters described in the paper.

25. He said that the method had severaladvantages when used for waste disposal. Helisted these as being: reduction of bulk,reduction of putrescibles to an innocuous form,BOD reduction, no loss of nutrients,significant pathogen destruction, productionof gas and finally simplicity. The materialsneeded were simple and could often be foundlocally.

26. A study had been made to try to find asuitable type of digester for use on a smallscale in rural areas. A simple digester hadthen been constructed from fibreglass based ona large diameter sewer pipe, with paddles tohelp disperse scum.

27. Slides were shown to illustrate theinstallation of the digester on a test site inNigeria. Three digesters were used in thetests to experiment on different mixes ofwaste material. As a demonstration the gasproduced was used to generate electricity.

28• Mr RUNYERA asked whether the methodcould be used for the disposal of nightsoil.

29. Mr WHEATLEY explained that this had beenone of the major aims of the project - toproduce a rural digester to take agriculturalwastes and nightsoil. Pathogen destructionwas good so there was no reason why it couldnot be used for this purpose.

30. Dr BASU asked about the costs of thesystem.

31. Mr WHEATLEY explained that thedemonstration model built of fibreglass wasexpensive. It had cost between £800 and£1500. But he was not advocating the use of

a specially-made unit like that one. Theidea was to design a digester that could bemade from local materials.

32. Mr OBADINA asked how failures of thedigester were dealt with.

33. Mr WHEATLEY pointed out that failure ofa small tank such as the one he had workedon was usually due to the material input.Monitoring was necessary to keep a check onwhether the mix was producing the wrongresults. One great problem with digesterswas the build-up of scum, but this would bepartly alleviated by the use of paddles.

34. Mr OBADINA said that he knew there wasa digester in use at the nearby hospital inthe area where the demonstration model wasinstalled. He wondered why no mention ofthis had been made.

35. Mr WHEATLEY said that he was not awareof that digester until he arrived in thearea. He had not been able to see it but hebelieved it to be a conventional one designedfor use with sewage. Their concern had beento produce a digester of novel design whichwould be suitable to take green material aswell.

Conference: Water people and waste in developing countries: 1981

ORGANISATION DEVELOPMENT

R. FRANKLIN Consultant, UK.

Introduction

In order to complete a task which is beyondthe capabilities or resources of a singleindividual it is necessary to develop somekind of organisation. The supply of waterto, or collection and disposal of waste fromcommunities are the sort of tasks requiringorganisations. When these tasks are definedin more detail, for example the quantity andquality of water to be supplied to acommunity within defined boundaries, they aretermed the definitive objectives of theorganisation. Water supply and wastedisposal organisations have a secondobjective which is to survive and this issometimes not adequately considered. If anorganisation is set up to design and/or toconstruct specific works only, then thesurvival objective will not be relevant. Inorder to achieve its objectives theorganisation carries out activities withresources which it either acquires or alreadypossesses. The resources may be divided intothree categories: physical, time, human. Thephysical resources required will differconsiderably depending on the organisationobjective. The possible utilisation of timewill also vary. The human resource isconsistently the raw material of organisationstructures and is probably the most variableand difficult resource to use. In additionto people within the organisation there arepeople outside who will be affected by andwho may influence the organisation'sactivities.

Organisation structures

Various organisational structures can beillustrated diagrammatically, the simplestform being an authoritarian structure wherebyone individual makes decisions on theutilisation of resources, and possibly alsoon objectives. Diagram 1 illustrates asimplified form of authoritarian structure.The manager may be answerable to shareholdersor similar interested parties but executivecontrol and power is wielded by the manager.

When the scale of operations grows so thateffective control by an individual becomesimpossible the organisational structure mustbe changed so that the organisation and themanager can survive. A manager should haveforeseen that a change would be necessary, and

should have considered the available options.In this way any changes will be planned andtherefore likely to be successful andsuitable to the circumstances. Haphazardchanges or improvisations are less effectivethan planned changes. One option availablemay be to extend the authoritarian system byappointing a manager to develop his ownauthoritarian network in individual functionsor services. This would result in a numberof almost separate units reporting to thegeneral manager who would no longer exercisethe same detailed control of the functionsas previously. This is shown in diagram 2.Further growth involves the preparation of agreat deal of very varied information foruse by the managers. This can often be donemost effectively by special supporting staff,thus leading to a third possible structure asshown in diagram 3. Another alternativewould be to develop very specialized seperategroups as shown in diagram 4, which could beused by contractors or consultants working onwater supply or waste disposal projects. Adevelopment of this structure would use aproject control section. This section wouldbe responsible for projects, which may involvespecialists from several other sections. Oncompletion of the projects the specialistswould either move to other project teams orreturn to specialized work within their ownsection.

People in organisations

Organisation structures can only exist andoperate if there are people able and willingto fill the different roles within theorganisation. A role not shown on any of theprevious simple diagrams is that of policymaking. The policy makers or governing bodyare not concerned with the day to dayoperations of the organisation. The GeneralManager is responsible for ensuring thatdaily operations are in accordance with thepolicy adopted by the governing body. Theremay be cases where people undertake two roles,for example the General Manager may be amember of the governing body and at the sametime has executive responsibilities. Otherexamples of dual roles may occur; the managerof a water testing laboratory may also advisea waterworks manager on water treatment.Care is needed to ensure that there is nomisunderstanding about the role in which

actions are taken. Every individual in anorganisation has their own view of what theirrole is, or should be, within the organisation.These views will be affected by an individual'sabilities, personal objectives and attitudesto colleagues. Consequently the actualorganisational development may not be as neatand simple as an organisation diagram implies.All managers have certain powers associatedwith their position; these may be enhancedor diminished because of personal character,expert knowledge, control of a resource orcontrol of information; factors which may bepossessed by non-managers, thus giving somepower to influence actions which would notnormally be associated with their role. Inaddition to people in the governing body andmanagerial positions there will be thosedirectly concerned with production and othersconcerned with supplying services to theproduction and managerial groups. In watersupply and waste disposal organisations thismeans quite a wide range of abilities arerequired from professionally qualified tounskilled manual workers.

People outside the organisation

Groups outside an organisation who may exertsome influence on development and activitiesinclude politicians, customers, suppliers ofservices or resources, government departmentsand Trade Unions. In the case of water supplyand waste disposal organisations which aregenerally government sponsored, thepoliticians can probably influence theresources available. Customers will oftenexert pressure on political representatives ormay affect the acquisition of resources bywithholding payments. Suppliers may affectprocedures because of the quantity or qualityof their product or because of theircommercial practices. Government departments'activities may increase the need for watersupply or waste disposal or make theacquisition of foreign resources difficult.Trade Unions can affect procedures, staffinglevels and remuneration levels. As theIndividual members of these external groupsdevelop and change, the interrelationshipbetween the groupsalso will change and mayresult in organisational changes.

Constraints on organisational development

Water supply or waste disposal organisationscannot develop if there is a reduced demandfor their services due to large scaleemigration or other causes. Alternativelydevelopment is difficult when there is ashortage of people with adequate training andeducation to fill all the roles in theorganisation. This sort of problem may besolved by redistribution of tasks or in thesetting up of training facilities. The lattercourse may generate new problems in obtaining

85resources and people for training programmes.Other constraints may be due to geographicaland climatic factors, for example there arephysical limitations on the development ofisland or desert communities. Communicationand provision of resources may be restrictedby snows, floods, forests or mountains.Wherever such constraints occur specialprovisions and possibly training will benecessary for the continued effectiveoperation of an organisation. Communicationsare an important aspect of any organisation;the successful completion of any activity isdependant on communications. Potentialcommunication difficulties may arise fromdifferences in education, use of technicalwords, use of slang words, dialect, languageor lack of understanding of the means ofcommunication. Communication of informationon the availability, quality and location ofresources is as important as communication onactivities. Communication deficienciescould therefore affect the obtaining ofresources.

Finance is necessary for obtaining resourcessuch as power, equipment or people. Thereforeany restriction on the availability of financecould prevent or defer obtaining the necessaryresources for achievement of objectives.Development of an organisation requiresfinance in order to acquire the additionalphysical and human resources essential togrowth.Co-ordination with other authorities concernedwith water use or waste generation may imposea constraint on organisation development,particularly when there is legislationdefining government departments to beconsulted.

Example of a rural water supply authority

The formation of a rural water supplyauthority or a waste disposal organisationcan mean developing a completely neworganisation where none previously existed.The following details derived from a ruralwater supply authority development illustratethe application of some of the pointsdiscussed previously. The full developmentplanned to be completed in twenty five yearswould consist of about 3200 new works ofvarious sizes. About 7% of the new workswould involve an extension of 50% or more toexisting municipal waterworks. The newauthority should design and construct the newworks as well as operate them afterconstruction. The legislation setting up theauthority required that it be an autonomousbody and also required co-operation andco-ordination with various concernedgovernment departments at two levels. Theprovision of water supplies to a large numberof rural communities being the purpose of thenew authority, it was considered most suitablethat the management of these numerous

86waterworks would be the executive backbone ofthe organisation. The large number of worksmeant several management levels would berequired and this afforded an opportunity ofensuring the required co-operation withgovernment departments. An expansion of thestructure shown in diagram 3 was evolved forthe ultimate 25 year development programme.The resulting diagram of the executive chainand corresponding government levels is shownin diagram 5.A maximum span of management of six isobtained with this arrangement. In additionto the executive chain there would be a needfor staff to deal with operating data,performance monitoring, quality testing aswell as accounts budgetary control, wages andadministration necessary at each level toArea Manager. Planning of new works andmonitoring the progress of a 25 year MasterPlan was included in the staff work at theChief Executive's office and at each RegionalDirector's office. The staff work atindividual works would usually be handled byone clerk. In addition to staff variousservices would be required. A Director ofTechnical Services would control workshops,transport, supply and stores, and buildingmaintenance. Due to the large programme ofworks to be undertaken a project constructiondepartment would be necessary and a seperatetraining department also would be required.These were also regarded as services to theexecutive and staff. The total staffrequired for the ultimate organisation wouldbe approximately 39 700 and the population tobe supplied would be just under eight andthree quarter millions. The government haddecided on the construction period of 25 yearsbut any change in the construction rate wouldaffect the organisation development. Theconstruction programme was split into fivefive year plans. The organisation developmentwas split into three phases, first theFeasibility Phase, second construction phasebuild-up, and thirdly construction phase run-down.During the Feasibility Phase conducted by theembryo staff at the Chief Executive andRegional Director's offices the work consistedof planning projects and training. Theassistance of expatriate consulting engineerswas obtained in order to prepare designstandard manuals which would facilitate futuredesign work. Mobile laboratories were alsoused to take samples and examine the qualityof sources. Some officers transferred fromgovernment departments where they had obtainedrelevant experience but many technicalofficials had little previous experience.Consequently the initiation of good trainingfacilities will be very important; in somecategories it has been possible to arrange withexisting outside institutions to providetraining. One problem, which is common tomany countries is that on completion of

training some people will leave theorganisation for better paid work elsewhere.The training facilities need to allow for thissort of wastage.During the construction build-up phase theorganisation's own workforce would not buildup to the level necessary to complete thefull construction programme. The excess loadwould be undertaken by contractors. Duringthe first construction phase the experiencein construction will help to determine whethermore use should be made of contractors forfuture construction. When the constructionrate is reduced in the second constructionphase there will probably be a need to switchsome staff from design and construction tooperation work. The development of workshops,stores, laboratories and vehicle fleets willbe finalised in the second phase.The periods of change when construction rateis increasing, when commissioning work is atits peak and when construction rate isdeclining are periods when there is a tendencyto incur unnecessary labour costs. Care willbe needed in forecasting the staff needsduring these periods of change. Goodjudgement will be required in deceiding whenit is necessary to create a District Officeor an Area Office.

The professional, scientific and managerialstaff would be recruited from urban areasbut the majority of manual workers, whetherskilled or not, are to be recruited from therural communities. In these communitiesalmost half of the population over the age oftwenty are illiterate and this may imposeconstraints on the operating procedures andrequire special training facilities. In someareas the local education authorities areable to assist in helping to teach employeesto read and write. The provision of incentivesmay be necessary to encourage employees tolearn to read and write.Having decided the numbers and categories ofstaff needed an investigation was made toascertain whether the numbers were likely tobe available to the organisation. Theprofessional categories such as engineers,chemists, geologists and bacteriologistsappeared to be being trained In adequatenumbers. There appeared to be a potentialshortage of accountants during the early yearsof the organisation but the educationalinstitutions were preparing to increase thenumbers of accountancy students. Technicalsub-professional categories such as surveyors,laboratory technicians and draughtsmen are notlikely to be produced in adequate numbers forsome years and shortage of these categoriescould cause acute problems.No difficulty is envisaged in recruitingsuitable people for administrative posts.Training in the organisation's procedureswould be necessary. Technical andadministrative supervisors could also be aproblem area; it may be possible to attract

competent supervisors from other organisationsor, more likely, the training of apparentlysuitable people will be undertaken by theorganisation. There may be difficulty inassessing craftsmen until examples of theirwork have been seen because of a lack ofstandard for most craftsmen in the country.There will be no problems in recruiting semi-skilled workers who would undergo trainingin the organisation. There may be difficultyin providing the training. There will be ashortage of managers, both operational andconstructional, but management trainingfacilities exist.

87The early years of the organisation havefollowed the predicted developmentreasonably well. Modifications andadjustments will occur at every stage buthaving an overall view of what is eventuallyrequired will enable the effect of changesto be assessed more easily. The actions andinteractions of people in the organisationhelp to determine the way in which theorganisation develops. Organisationssometimes seem to have a life of their own,but like growing children, their developmentis influenced by the people associated withthem.

Manager

Function (1)

DIAGRAM 1

Function (2) Function (3) Function (4) Function (5)

Manager 1

General Manager

Manager 2 Manager 3 Manager 4

I I I i1 2 3 4 Function

DIAGRAM 2

Manager 1

DIAGRAM 3

i I I •1 2 3 4

I 1 I I1 2 3 4

General ManagerI

Manager 2 Manager 3

I T T I

1 2 3 4

Staff

Services to production departments

ICivil Engineers

DIAGRAM 4

1Mechanical Engineers

General ManagerI

1Electrical Engineers Surveyors

Government level

Minister

Province

ProvincialSub-Division

Sub-Area

No of Govt Offices

16

96

277

Water Authority

Counc i1 andChief Executive

IRegional Director

District Manager

IArea Manager

Works Manager

No of Water Offices

1

3

16

96

550

DIAGRAM 5

7th 2833? Conference.- Wafer people and waste in developing countries: 7981

"THE PREHISTORY OF PUBLIC HEALTH - WATER AND WASTE IN THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST"

ROBERT MILLER American U n i v e r s i t y o f B e i r u t , Lebanon.

Introduction

Techniques of water management and theproblems of providing and maintaining sources ofclean water for both households and communitieshave a long history in the Near East. Withoutthe evolution of patterns of behaviour whichhelped to preserve public health, the widespreadsedentarisation which preceded and accompaniedthe establishment of early farming communitieswould have been impossible (refs. 1 and 7). Theexistence of settlements lasting several centu-ries shows that some of the problems of publichealth could be met and controlled within toler-able limits, even though there is also evidencefrom both early villages and early urban centresthat originally high standards of hygiene coulddeteriorate with time, leading to the abandon-ment of sites or acceptance of lower standardsof public health.

Components of traditional domestic wateruse can be traced back to Neolithic farmingvillages of 9-10,000 years ago, while fullydeveloped town planning including sophisticatedsystems of water engineering designed to supporturban communities began to appear by 5,000 yearsago. However, the difference between villageand urban water systems is largely a matter ofthe scale on which water was diverted, obtainedand stored and the size of the labour forcewhich could be mobilised, as the hydrologicaltechniques varied surprisingly little.

Archaeological evidence of public healthand patterns of waste disposal and water use canprovide case studies of the ability, or eveninability, of human communities to provide andmaintain water resources over a period ofseveral centuries, as well as illustrating therange of adaptations to local hydrological con-ditions which is possible using a simple tradi-tional repertoire of skills and tools.

Public health in the early villages of the NearEast

Features of traditional water use in theNear East which were developed in the Neolithicvillages of c. 10,000-7,000 years ago includedigging canals or wells to supply water tosettlements and using ceramic containers fordomestic water storage.

While canals would have increased cropyields, the economic benefits of irrigationwould have been partly offset by the increasedincidence of schistosomiasis which is endemic toirrigation projects. Although the earliestdirect evidence of schistosomiasis at presentcomes from Egypt c.1250-1000 BC (ref. 2), it isprobable that schistosomiasis has been endemicin human populations exploiting marshy environ-ments from the Pleistocene onwards.

Establishing permanent settlements in theimmediate vicinity of permanent water sourceswould have enabled early sedentary communitiesto exploit the relatively rich food resources ofwell-watered environments, but would also haveexposed the inhabitants to a greater incidenceof water-related diseases. Without carefulattention to domestic hygiene and ensuring agood supply of unpolluted drinking water, therecould have been a relatively high incidence ofgastroenteritis contributing to mortality,especially during summer months when water wouldbe in critically short supply and of poorquality (ref. 3: 103-10). Forms of skeletalpathology attributed to chronic gastroenteritisand malaria have been diagnosed in both adultsand infants among early Neolithic farmers of theeastern Mediterranean and western Asia settlednear marshes and permanent sources of water(refs. 4 and 5). Although the skeletal sampleis probably too small to be of significance, alower frequency of skeletal pathology was notedin prehistoric groups inhabiting dry environ-ments away from springs and permanent sources ofwater (ref. 4: 762).

Water-washed diseases, particularly diarr-hoeas, are one of the major human health hazards(ref. 6: 12-13). Indirect evidence of a signi-ficant part of the household water budget beingdevoted to domestic hygiene is found in thescrupulously clean plaster floors which arefound in early Neolithic houses of the 8th-7thmillennia BC at sites such as Jericho and QatalHuyiik. Rubbish from meals and household activi-ties was swept and washed off the plaster sur-faces of these floors, which extended part wayup to the base of the walls, facilitating wastewater runoff, and frequent cleaning with watercould lead to the leaching of the underside ofthese floor plasters (ref. 7: 335). Such care-fully plastered floors are often lacking inlater Neolithic households from the second halfof the sixth millennium BC on, and were gener-ally replaced by mud floors, although someculturally conservative sites, such as Byblos,

founded in the middle of the 6th millennium BC,continued to plaster house floors. Elsewhere inthe Near East at this time there is much greaterlikelihood of finding domestic refuse caked onmud floors, suggesting that standards of domes-tic hygiene may have deteriorated, with anaccompanying increase in water-washed diseases.

However, the suggestion that standards ofdomestic hygiene in later Neolithic villages mayhave deteriorated needs to be qualified, as animportant innovation in sites from the 6th mil-lennium BC on is the existence of permanentwells, which enable individual families andseparate residential quarters to have access totheir own private water supply and avoid depend-ing on surface water sources which are moreliable to pollution. Such wells which couldprovide water in quantity for both drinking andwashing are a feature of late 6th millennium BCsettlements in Mesopotamia, and contemporarysites in the Levant are often located in areaswith easily tapped sources of permanent ground-water where wells were probably also a featureof village subsistence.

Provided the well head is protected frompollution, and sewage is not discharged into thegroundwater in the vicinity of the well, highquality water could have been obtained from suchwells, and it is possible that trial and errorled to the development of ad hoc public healthstandards. In normally permeable soil, such asthe clay of an occupation mound, wells which tapgroundwater deeper than 12 m should be free ofbacterial pollution (ref. 8: 336). The need forwells to exceed this depth may have been recog-nised in the late 6th millennium BC at TepeGawra and Arpachiyah in northern Iraq wherewells 15 m deep have been found.

Another Neolithic innovation of lastingsignificance for public health was the use ofceramic containers which could hold water begin-ning around the second half of the 7th millen-nium BC. In addition to holding drinking water,domestic water jars could also be used to keepan alkaline solution of ashes from the hearthwhich could be used to wash dishes and laundry,following traditional Near Eastern villagecustoms. However, open containers in householdsalso provided a new breeding ground for theAedes aegypti mosquito, which carries filariasisand yellow and dengue fevers. In the Mediterra-nean, this mosquito is totally dependent on theman-made environment provided by storage jarsand discarded containers (ref. 9: 295), and wasprobably one of the unintentionally domesticatedspecies produced by the Neolithic revolution.

One answer to the problem of avoidingwater-related diseases was to avoid settling atpermanent water sources and instead to rely onjourneys to springs to obtain drinking water.At the early Neolithic site of Beidha insouthern Jordan, for example, the nearest springis 5 km away, but water for laundry and stock-watering could have been obtained from seasonalpools and shallow wells in nearby valley floors.

Another option was to avoid sedentarisation,and some groups probably chose to remain mobile,either as hunter-gatherers or livestock herders.After 6000 in Palestine and Syria there is a

89temporary break in sedentary occupation on manysites which may reflect a widespread reversionto nomadism. Although the boundary betweensettled arid nomadic life has often fluctuated asa result of social and economic choices as wellas in response to micro-environmental changes,one factor in the persistence of nomadism in thepast which should be taken into account is theexistence of groups aware of their lack of resis-tance to the various water-related diseasesendemic to settled populations. A parallel maybe drawn with recent Arabian nomads who avoidedcontact with towns and farms because of thefevers they experienced when camping too neardensely populated well-watered areas (ref. 10:477). Where standards of village hygiene havedeteriorated in the past it may be suggestedthat the option of nomadic life would haveproved attractive.

Nomadism enabled encampments of variablebut generally modest size to exploit widely dis-persed seasonal surface and groundwater catch-ments where the relatively brief associationbetween humans and water sources would inhibitthe transmission of water-related diseasesdependent on a permanent reservoir of humancarriers such as a village or town could provide.In addition to avoiding some pathogens associ-ated with settled life, poor hygiene and perma-nently polluted water, nomadic groups were ableto exploit efficiently small and quickly exhaus-ted water sources which would otherwise be un-economical to use.

The sophistication with which these scat-tered water resources were exploited can be seenin the number of words used to describe wellsand groundwater catchments among the early 20thcentury AD Rwala bedouin of N. Arabia, who dis-tinguished between fourteen different kinds ofwell and six types of groundwater (ref. 10: 676-84).

Early urban water systems

In the period beginning around 3500 BC,water engineering skills for supplying urbancentres with water were developed in the NearEast. Systems of diversion dams, canals andreservoirs were constructed to provide water forirrigated fields near settlements and provideintramural water supplies to supplement surfacewater sources in and near settlements.

One of the best preserved of these earlytown water systems is found at Byblos (ref. 11),where a centralised water system lasted foralmost a millennium, evidence of effective con-tinuity in integrated town planning and publichealth. Shortly before 3000 BC during the phaseof urban development which transformed Byblosfrom a fishing village into a major Mediterraneantrading port, the marshy area near the spring wasdug out to create a small reservoir of water,simultaneously providing an improved supply ofwater and eliminating the marsh which would havebeen a favourable environment for mosquitos andother carriers of water-related diseases. Duringthe following millennium of urban prosperity atByblos, the area round the spring was kept free

90from burials and domestic construction, and aclear apace of c. 30 m diameter around thespring was retained down to c. 2150 BC.

This area was the focus of the town plan,at the intersection of two major streets, withpublic buildings constructed on the periphery ofthe clear space around the spring. As the levelof the town rose c.2750-2500 BC, the sides ofthe spring pool were reinforced with retainingwalls and a flight of stairs was constructed togive access to the spring. At the same time areservoir with a capacity of c. 2500-3000 mJ

was put in north of the spring to provide asource of water for laundry, stockwatering andswimming and to keep the spring free of thepollution associated with these activities.

Byblos provides an example of long-term useof water sources created or modified by waterengineers which can be maintained and used with-out special skills once the water system is setup. Similar successful long-term water planningcan be identified in the re-use of earlier watersystems in a number of first millennium BCPalestinian towns, in the well-built Iron Age andRoman water systems which are still in use todayat Jerusalem, Horns, Bosra and elsewhere, in theqanats of the mid-first millennium BC and later,and in the canal systems in the alluvial plainsof S. Mesopotamia.

In the case of Mesopotamia, a number ofearly second millennium BC texts enable us toreconstruct the activities of early waterengineers as seen by their contemporaries. Eventhough the credit for the work usually went tothe monarchs who sponsored it, the scale ofthese works is impressive. In order to providefresh water for Larsa, Sin-iddinam (1849-1843BC) dug out a new course for the Tigris (ref.12: 191-2) and Rim-Sin of Larsa (1822-1763 BC)dug a large canal and reservoir to divert thespring flood of the Tigris and Euphrates withthe dual function of irrigation and supplyingfresh water to the cities of lower Mesopotamia(ref. 12: 205-6). Some concern for publichealth may be inferred from the claim by onelate 19th century BC ruler of Uruk to haverepaired the city rampart which had slumped intothe canal by the city and to have faced thecanal with burnt brick "so that the water in itsditches would be noisy", ie. fast-flowing andnot stagnant and thereby reducing the infesta-tion of the canal by the snail hosts of schisto-somiasis (ref. 12: 233).

One of the best documented water systems inthe Near East during the early 2nd millennium BCis that at Mari, where part of the correspon-dence of Kibri-Dagan, the official in charge ofbuilding the canal which was at the basis of thecity's prosperity, has been preserved (ref. 13:nos. 1-9). This canal was some 100 km long, andbrought water from a diversion dam built on theKhabur 20 km upstream from its confluence withthe Euphrates. In an inscription commemoratingthe building of the canal, the king of Maristates: "I opened canals, I did away with thedigging of wells in my country .... in scorchedlands, in an arid place where no king before mehad ever built a city, I built a city"named after himself, "Yahdun-lin City" (ref. 12:244-5).

The obsolescence - or banning? - of wellsand their replacement by canals is interesting,and may reflect the differing water exploitationpriorities of town planners and rural farmers,as some of the bottom lands used for pasture byshepherds were likely to have been brought undercultivation and lost to them together with thewells located in the bottom land, creating apotential source of conflict, and requiring theresettlement of shepherds with new sources ofwater and patterns of water use, perhaps in thenewly-established urban centre built by Yahdun-lin.

A conflict between nomads and townsmen overwater resources and access to stored water isbelieved to have been one factor implicated inthe breakdown of the best-preserved early townwater system, that of Jawa, a late 4th millen-nium BC site in the basalt desert of northernJordan which provides a unique, if short-livedexample of urban water engineering (ref. 14).A system of deflection dams, canals and reser-voirs was built to supply a population estimatedto be 3000-5000 with water for their fields,flocks and households. As both groundwater andsprings are lacking in the region today, if thesame conditions prevailed in antiquity, a pre-condition of human occupation was having theengineering ability to harvest the runoff fromepisodic andnnpre die table winter storms to pro-vide enough water for the coming year.

To design and construct Jawa's water systemneeded a knowledge of local hydrology, geologyand soils to determine the best materials, loca-tion and design for the components of the system.Even today specialised engineering skills of ahigh order would be required (ref. 15: 166).

Although Jawa's water system needed tooperate at only 3% efficiency to harvest andstore an estimated 50-60,000 m^ of runoff fromthe 2 x K>6 m3/yr available from adjacent catch-ments, it failed wihin a few generations of itsconstruction. After a phase when squatters'housing encroached on public land and huts werebuilt next to reservoirs and sluice gates, withthe town authorities either unwilling or unableto prevent the spontaneous expansion of thesettlement, and an abortive attempt to rebuildthe water system without expanding its storagecapacity, the site was abandoned (ref. 14: 201-14).

However, the tradition of water engineeringrepresented by Jawa continued, and reservoirslinked to the town plan, although on a smallerscale than at Jawa, are features of the urbanlandscape in a number of third millennium BCtowns of the Levant apart from Byblos, notablyAi and Arad. Arad was laid out inside a smallcatchment basin whose runoff was channelled byradially oriented streets to a central reservoirwhich could have stored approximately 2000 m^(ref. 16). At Ai runoff from inside the townwas diverted to a corner of the fortificationswhich surround the site and stored in a 3 m deeppool with a storage capacity of about 1800 m3

which was paved with stone slabs and sealed withnaturally water-sorted clay found locally (ref.17).

Although significant as adaptations of

water engineering principles to local conditionswhich have been studied by archaeologists in co-operation with water engineers, the importanceof these third millennium BC reservoirs shouldnot be exaggerated, as their storage capacity isless than half the capacity of open-air cisternsused in modern villages in Syria and Lebanon tostore water for stockwatering and washing (ref.7). Except in times of siege, most ancientsites would have obtained drinking water fromsprings or wells within a few kilometres of thesite and could have used intramural runoff forlaundry and animals.

As emergency stores of drinking water,these reservoirs suffered from grave defects.If precautions were taken to ensure that thewater stored in these reservoirs did not receivefresh inputs of human waste, any pathogensbrought in with the original storm runoff frominside the town would either be diluted, des-troyed by ultraviolet radiation or die afterreaching the end of their natural life-cycleswithout finding a fresh carrier. However, thesereservoirs would have inevitably become popu-lated with algae, producing unpalatable drinkingwater.

Whatever the intentions of the water engi-neers who designed and installed them, such openreservoirs were hazardous civil defence measureswhich would be vulnerable to pollution. Even ifat the time of their construction awareness ofthe sort of hygienic behaviour needed to preventfaecal-oral disease transmission was present(Elmendorf, this conference), the odds are goodthat eventually a conflict or emergency wouldarise when these reservoirs which had beenallowed to become polluted through their con-venience for laundry and stockwatering were usedto supply drinking water to the town as a whole,with potentially serious risks to public health.A serious epidemic of disease could eventuallylead to the site being abandoned and avoided, asmost of these early urban sites eventually were.

Conclusion

What relevance does evidence of water useand waste disposal in the past have in planningfor the future? One concrete suggestion is thatin an arid area such as the Near East, havingseparate sources of water for drinking and otheruses, combined with public health educationaimed at individual households, is a formulawhich has worked well in the past, where bothrural and urban water use and water engineeringhave a much longer history than is often realised.Models derived from and taught in water-richareas are more likely to be inappropriate in thelong run, even if already in operation (Metwally,this conference).

The efficiency of small-scale water ex-ploitation techniques in contributing to thelong-term survival of rural communities, and thedangers of poorly maintained, poorly understood,or poorly applied water systems can be observedin action archaeologically. Perhaps study ofpast techniques of water use in a given areacould be of some use in formulating cost-

91efficient and lasting public health improvementsappropriate to their geographical and culturalsetting.

References

1. Brothwell D. The question of pollution inearlier and less developed societies. In, P RCox and J Peel (eds.) Population and Pollution.Academic Press, London, 1972. 15-27.2. Ruffer M A. Note on the presence of Bil-harzia Haematobia in Egyptian mummies of thetwentieth dynasty. Brit. Med. J., 1910, 1: 16.Reprinted in D Brothwell and A T Sandison (eds.)Diseases in Antiquity. Thomas, Springfield,1967. 177.3. McLaren D S. Nutrition and its Disorders.Churchill Livingstone, London, 1972.4. Angel J L. Porotic hyperostosis, anemias,malarias and marshes in the prehistoric easternMediterranean. Science, 1966, 153: 760-3.5. Ozbek M. Etude odontologique des habitantsprehistoriques du village de Mureybet (Syrie).Cahiers de l'Euphrate No. 2, CNRS, Paris, 1979:120-7.6. Bradley D. Health aspects of water suppliesin tropical countries. In, R Feacham, N McGarryand D Mara (eds.) Water, Wastes and Health inHot Climates. Chichester, Wiley, 1977. 3-17.7. Miller R. Water use in Syria and Palestinefrom the Neolithic to the Bronze Age. WorldArchaeology, 1980, 11: 331-41.8. Pickford J. Solid waste in hot climates.In, Feacham et al (eds.), cited in ref. 6. 320-44.9. Health Hazards of the Human Environment.WHO, Geneva, 1972.10. Musil A. The Manners and Customs of theRwala Bedouins. American Geographical Society,New York, 1928.11. Dunand M. Histoire d'une source. Melangesde l'Universite St. Joseph, Beyrouth, 1960, 37:37-53.12. Sollberger E and Kupper J-R. Inscriptionsroyales sumeriennes et akkadiennes. Cerf, Paris,1971.13. Kupper J-R. Correspondance de Kibri-Dagan.Archives Royales de Mari, III. ImprimerieNationale, Paris, 1950,14. Helms S W. Jawa: lost city of the blackdesert. Methuen, London, 1981.15. Wagner E G and Lanoix J N. Water supplyfor rural areas and small communities, WHO,Geneva, 1959.16. Amiran R. Early Arad. Israel ExplorationSociety, Jerusalem, 1978.17. Gallaway J A. New perspectives on EarlyBronze Age III Canaan. In, R Moorey and P JParr (eds.) Archaeology in the Levant. Aris &Phillips, Warminster, 1978. 46-58.

92

Conference: Wafer people and waste in developing countries: 1981

TREATMENT NEEDED FOR GROUND WATER IN SOME MIDDLE EAST COUNTRIES (CASE STUDY)

DR HASSAN MITWALLY Professor, Alexandria UniversityDR JACK I IBRAHIM School of Public Health, American University

of Beirut, Lebanon.

ABSTRACT:

Water treatment plants of the traditionaltype are generally built to remove turbidityfrom raw water. Turbidity in excess of theacceptable limits is found in surfacesources as rivers and resevoirs. Groundwater turbidity has been found always withinthe acceptable limits; accordingly, noclarification treatment is needed. Somecities have built their treatment plantswith its surface water treatment units toreceive groundwater of very low turbidity.When it becomes exposed to the atmosphere,algae breeding takes place due to thepresence of high material content, lowturbidity, and exposure to light. Consequently,algae troubles as taste, odour, and filterclogging take place too. All such troublesand others relevant to the presence of algaecould have been completely avoided if theraw water from the ground source bypassed thetreatment plant and joined directly the clearwater resevoir for disinfection, if needed,and then distribution directly. No technicalreason is known to build a surface watertreatment plant for a groundwater source.This is confirmed by results shown in table(1), and (2) for Geita spring water which isconsidered the main source of supply for thecity of Beirut. As a result of a surveycarried out in Lebanon where groundwater isintroduced to clarification units, it can bestated safely that no need for clarificationsince the groundwater turbidity has beenalways found within the internationalacceptable limits.

1. INTRODUCTION:

In this part of the world, water treatmentfor municipal purposes is carried out toremove turbidity in the vast majority oftreatment plants. Surface water is the onlywater that has turbidity in excess of theacceptable limits. Treatment plants inEgypt, Syria, and Iraq are provided withsurface water from rivers and permanentsources. Such plants have been capable ofreducing the turbidity of raw water to theacceptable levels. The relevant turbidityranges from few units in draught time tofew hundreds during flood season. Theturbidity is mostly inorganic and itspemoval, which is the main function ofmany regional treatment plants, is carried

out through chemical precipitation processesand sand filter operations.

Algae might contribute to the presence ofturbidity especially draught time and when theturbidity level permits considerable sun lightpenetration as the case in Egypt after construc-tion of the high dam. Therein, it has beenreported to have a considerable ratio of organicturbidity as a result of algal abundance,

11. ASSOCIATED TROUBLES:

Algae flourish in waters of low turbidity andhigh mineral contents when it is exposed tolight. Groundwater environment, accordingly,when it becomes exposed to the sunlight for aconsiderable period encourages the breed ofalgae which might thrive to the extent of havingan algal overpopulation case with the consequentdie off. This will be due to the lack ofsufficient feed from the limited mineral contentsof groundwater. Extensive algal growth in watersupplies can result in serious deterioration ofthe quality of water particularly if it is to beused for domestic or industrial purposes. However,the presence of algae in water, whether alive ordead, causes tastes, odour, and filter troubles.Additionally, the ability to combine inorganicelements into organic compounds makes algaeimportant as primary producers in aquatic foodchain. Many of the blue-green algae possessthe ability to fix free nitrogen which allowsthem to grow independant of sources of combinednitrogen.

In water treatment plants algae are best knownfor their ability to produce odour and tasteproblems, and because they clog sand filters.In addition, algae often contribute largequantities of organic material to the water,and cause pH, alkalinity, colour, and turbiditychanges. During the daylight hourse algaecontinuously remove CO from the water forphotosynthesis. The Co removal may be highenough to alter the amount of bicarbonates inthe water causing the precipitation of carbonatesand a reduction in water hardness. Anotherpossible effect of algal photosynthesis is anincrease in dissolved oxygen which increases thecorrosive activity of water.

Such algal problems are mostly associated withsurface water supplies. Groundwater supplies ifexposed to the direct atmosphere for a considerabletime will be a very suitable environment foralgae breeding with the consequent algal troubles.To avoid such troubles, groundwater supplies

93

Table 1. Chemical and Phys ica l Analysis ofWater Treatment P lan t by Seasonal

Water Samples c o l l e c t e d a tand Annual Mean Values and

the Entrance to the Bei ru tYearly Standard Deviat ions*

* All values a re in mg/1 unless otherwise ind ica ted

Parameters

Conductivity (micromhos/cm) at 25°C

PHQ

Temperature, CTurbidity, JTU

Total Hardness, as CaCO

Calcium Hardness, as CaCO

Magnesium Hardness, as CaCO

Total Alkal ini ty , CeC03

Hydroxide Alkalini ty, as CaCO3

Carbonate Alkalini ty, as CaCO

Bicarbonate Alkal ini ty , aa CaCO^

Ammonia N, as N

Ni t r i t e N, as N0a

Nitrate N, as N03

Phosphates , as ortho

Sulfates , as SO

Total dissolved sol id

Calcium, Ca

Chloride, as Cl

Iron, as F«

Magnesium, as Mg

Potassium, as X

Sodium, as Na

Dissolved Oxygen

Fluorides

Winter

326

8.OB

15.0

2 . 2

2 1 1

176

35

195

0

0

195

-

0

0.93

0.23

10.70

219

63,5

11.7

0.055

9.35

1.1

-

9.85

0.68

Seasonal

Spring

333

8.16

16.3

0,71

187

146

41

194

0

O

194

0.48

0.004

1.03

0.25

8 . 0

207

-

15.42

0.015

-

0.81

-

9.92

0.081

Mean

Summer

359

7.79

17.4

1.75

233

173

60

168

0

0

168

0.38

0

0.84

0.27

8 . 3

' 237

67.7

25.00

0.048

21.43

0.76

1.08

10.75

0,107

Fall

407

7.93

16.5

1,47

257

175

82

279

0

0

279

-

-

1.75

0.23

21.5

320

63.5

17,5

-

-

-

-

YearlyNumber ofSamples

25

24

21

24

24

24

24

24

25

25

24

5

4

21

21

2 5

11

4

14

7

4

12

2

9

9

Mean

344.2

.8.06

16,31

1.57

219.5

168.2

51.3

206

0

0

206

0.42

0.00

1.106

0,247

12.2

236.27

65.6

16.96

0.041

15.39

0.87

1.08

10.17

0.033

SD

61.45

0.288

1.05

1.13

42.7

39.7

29.8

46.08

-

-

46.08

0.18

0.428

0.05

6 . 3

45.8

20.12

8.89

0,015

6.99

0.26

-

0 . 4

0.019

BEIRUT WATER TREATMENT PLANT

1;

2.

3,

4:S i .t.7.

Nahr.el-Keib iUvei-J e i t i Spring - Outlet of

JeitS CaveJeita CaVeKsshkoush EprihgCovered Portions of the '

Concrete CanalHydroelectric Power PlantThe uncovered Portion of

the ianalThe Diversion DariiControlled Intake From

River to canalVillage of NokhsdaThe Treatment Plsnl at

Dbayah

n

Sjfetc EhQ«ihg Locations of Jeitaspring; the Concrete WBter Canal;.Kashkoush Spring, and Nahr el-KelbRiver

Table 2: Chemical and Physical Analysis of Raw and Treated Water Samples from Beirut WaterTreatment Plant, 1979/80*

R A W T R E A T E D * *

Parameters

Conductivity (micormhos/cm)

pH

Turbidity, JTU

Total Hardness, as CaC0o.3

Calcium Hardness, as CaCOo

Magnesium Hardness, as CaCO,,

Total Alkalinity, as CaCO

Hydroxide Alkalinity, as CaCO

Carbonate Alkalinity, as CaCO,,

Bicarbonate Alkalinity, as CaCO

Nitrate N, as NO

Phospates, as ortho.

Sulfates, as SO.

Chloride, as Cl

Potassium, as K

No. ofSamples

25

24

24

24

24

24

24

24

24

24

21

20

25

14

12

Mean Valuemg/1

344.2

8.06

1.57

219.5

168.2

51.29

206

0

0

206

1.106

0.249

12.22

16.96

0.87

* All results are in mg/1 unless otherwise indicated** Filtered water, before Chlorination.

No. ofSamples

14

15

8

15

15

15

15

15

15

15

9

9

15

4

4

Mean Valuemg/1

337.5

8.14

1.31

229.2

164.5

57.3

226.5

0

0

226.5

1.001

0.21

12.91

13.13

1.11

Table 3. Monthly mean of Total Algal Units Per ml of WaterValue of Hours of Sunshine, 1979/80(a).

by Sampling Site, and Daily Mean

S a m p l i n g S i t e

PeriodAt Entry To

PlantEffluent of the Rapid SandCoagulation-Sedimentation FiltersBasins

A - Months with daily mean between 8.00 to 11.40 hours of sunshine

AprilMayJuneJulyAugust

31,92547,32023,64026,200125,080

(2)(3)<2)(2)(2)

September 127,060 (2)October 137,305 (3)

Mean 74,076 (16)

28,81070,99229,34027,80084,00064,620156,147

65,958 (16)

35,43066,47523,04330,68553,24050,226

136,773

56,555 (16)

B - Months with daily mean between 3.38 to 7.9 hours of sunshine

NovemberDecemberJanuaryFebruaryMarch

51,500 (2)29,984 (2)23,980 (2)47,640 (2)29,400 (3)

58,42027,74031,12839,57318,650

35,102 (11)

45,57226,56728,83519,87521,306

28,431 (11)Mean 36,501 (11)

(a) Number within brackets represents the number of Samples

should be piped from the ground sourcein closed pipes or conduits to storage tankswhere disinfection, if needed, takes place,and then to the distribution system. Groundwater supplies in the regional plants do notneed any treatment except disinfection as asafeguard measure.

All groundwater plants in Egypt invest suchgifts of nature and provide water supplieswithout any treatment. However, in Egyptchlorination should be applied as a safeguard against any probable contaminationand as a control measure of summer diseases.In new expansion unit where iron andmanganise may cause troubles, special unitsfor their removal are recommended preferablyof the closed type to avoid any surfacecontamination or exposure to the atmospherewith the relevant troubles.

III. SURVEY AND PROBLEM

In a survey on water treatment plants inLebanon where surface water sources are notreliable, it was found that some cities aresupplied with groundwater sources afterpassing through surface water treatmentplants although such sources are not in needof any traditional treatment. These citieshave built and operated their plants withsurface treatment units while the raw watercomes from ground sources. The exposure ofgroundwater with its negligible bacterialand turbidity load to the atmosphere in openchannels from the source to the plant whereit stays for additional several hours asdetention periods in treatment units providesall favourable factors for algal growth withits sequant plant troubles. This is the casein considerable number of treatment plantswhere surface treatment units are introducedfor some reasons which are not technical, andwhich are not known obviously.

The needed treatment for the groundwater fromall these plants is chlorination only withoutany extra clarification since the trubidityrecorded has always been within the inter-national acceptable limits, Examples of sometreatment plants using surface treatment unitsfor groundwater sources in the region arethose of Beirut, Syda, and Tripoli citiesin Lebanon where the sources came from thesprings. Jeita Cave and Kashkoush Springnear Beirut, Ras El-Nabe Spring near Syda,and Kadisha Spring near Tripoli are thesoueces of groundwater which are directedto surface treatment clarification unitswithout any technical reason. This is anextravagant way of spending money and effortwhich ought to be avoided by transferringthe raw water in closed conuits to bechlorinated and distributed into thedistribution system without passing into thepresent treatment plants. The presentlyconstructed treatment plants should bedemolished or altered to surface water treat-ment if surface water is available and needed.

IV. RESULTS

To illustrate such a survey numerically,Beirut water treatment plant is selected forpresentation. Table (1) shows the chemical

95and physical analyses of water samplescollected at the entrance to the Beirut WaterTreatment Plant by seasonal and annual meanvalues and yearly standard deviations.

It is to be noted here that at the mouth ofJeita Cave "The source", the spring water isdiverted into a concrete canal which conductsthe water to the treatment plant. The canal isclosed for one kilometer from the mouth of thecave. Then it is uncovered for three kilometersafter which it is covered again for about 10kilometers. The open portion of the canal runsthrough a narrow valley of cultivated landexposed to sunlight and to contamination fromsurface runoff water.

Table 2 shows the chemical and physical analysesof raw and treated water samples from Beirutwater treatment plant. The difference betweenthe raw and treated samples as regards therelevant parameters as turbidity for example isby all means insignificant especially when wenotice that the turbidity of the raw water ismuch lesser than the maximum internationallimits.

Table 3 shows the monthly mean of total algalunits per millimeter of water sampling siteand daily mean value of hours of sunshine. Thenumbers of algal units shown are self explanitoryand they need no comment more than that theywould have been absent completely if the divert-ing canal was covered and the treatment plantwas not built.

V. RECOMMENDATIONS;

In conclusion, the only needed treatment forgroundwater in the region is disinfectionmostly by chlorination. This is carried out asa factor of safety against any probable contam-ination. No need for clarification since thegroundwater turbidity has been always within theinternational acceptable limits.

96

Session 5BChairman: Dr Andrew Cotton

WEDC Group member

Discussion

R FranklinOrganisation development,Mr FRANKLIN expressed the need for a properorganisation for the design, construction oroperation of a water supply or waste disposalscheme. It was a means of utilising resourcesto achieve an objective.

2. He used the diagrams from his paper toillustrate his Ideas on the structure oforganisations. However in practice thingsrarely worked out as in the diagrams becauseof the different people and theircharacteristics that were involved eitherinside or outside the organisation.

3. For example within an organisation peoplehad different powers and often had a differentperception of their role than others did.Outside the organisation politicians, tradesunions, customers, suppliers, governments,international agencies and charities all exertinfluences,

4. The factors outlined in the paper weretaken into consideration when a project wasproposed for a master plan for rural watersupply in Iraq. This was started by aconsideration of the requirements of the idealorganisation which should exist after thetwenty five years of the project. In this waythe method of development of the organisationcould be decided. The development began asanticipated, but then there was a completechange of personnel which had held backdevelopment.

5. Mr WILLIS felt that this paper was of theutmost importance, not only in developingcountries but for every country in the world.He thought that organisation was a neglected,misunderstood area. The problem was thateveryone in power seemeed to assume that theywere competent to design organisations,although often unaware of organisationalrequirements. There was a great need for thisawareness and for the use of the skillsinvolved.

6. When creating an organisation it wasalmost essential to get an outside view fromsomeone free from involvement, with skill inorganisational design, who could avoid thefossilisation of internal, preconceived ideas.

7- Mr CREE suggested that managerial skillsneeded as much training as technical skills,and asked what training of this nature was

being provided.

8. Mr FRANKLIN replied that when startingfrom scratch in forming the organisationreferred to in the paper, the jobs grew withthe organisation. Training was given asneeded but mostly skills were learnedthrough experience. No formal training wasgiven except by definition of the tasksrequired. In this way people learned towork out their own solutions throughexperience and sometimes by mistakes.

9. Mr BUKY pointed out that the World Banktended to have as its primary objective theprovision of institutions rather than actualfacilities in the water and waste sector,and that in fact this was the field in whichthey had been least successful. He felt thatthey might be using the wrong people. Forinstance the use of management consultantsmay not be right. It would be better to havemore water industry personnel brought in.

10. Charts and diagrams with boxes fordifferent levels of organisation were of nosignificance if the actual manpower did notexist - they might also be totally unsuitablefor the social and cultural requirements ofa community. In his opinion the whole idealacked practical application. What wasneeded was more assistance from the waterindustries. There had been some effort inthis direction in the United States and theUK but so far this had been pitifully small.

11. Mr FRANKLIN agreed with this. His firstrecruits had been from the Ministry ofMunicipalities and they had some experienceof working in the water industry. Younggraduates were then brought in to work underthem to get experience. Originally amanagement training scheme had been set up togive geologists, chemists and engineers abroad management training. However as soonas they had been trained, these people leftto take better positions elsewhere and thescheme had to start all over again. Thissort of situation often arose in developingcountries where rapid promotion could begained outside the original field of training.

12. Mr GRIEVESON agreed with Mr Buky.Management training was a very difficultfield. The ability to effectively manage wasa natural skill which could not be entirelyimparted through teaching. The trainingcould be used to help expand a naturalability but could not in itself createleaders.

13. He believed that institution buildingwas one of the most important issues in thedeveloping world at the present time. Hisorganisation, the ODA, had two of its mostsuccessful schemes in the water field. Forthese schemes, people had been seconded fromwater organisations in this country to bringmanagement experience to people in developing

countries. It was hoped to start similarmanagement schemes in other areas and inparallel with them to introduce programmes inpublic hygeine education.

14. Mr FRANKLIN felt that the education ofconsumers was very important, especially inthe area of health and hygeine.

15. Mr SAYLES had great sympathy with theviews expressed on this subject. He feltthat it was very easy for organisations toforget that they were dealing with people.Consultants might find it convenient to drawcharts with boxes, but the people were notthere. It was necessary to find them, trainthem and keep them. For this, autonomy ininstitutions was important, otherwise peoplewere shunted around to work in inappropriateareas of which they had no experience.

16. Mr FRANKLIN agreed and gave an examplefrom the project in Iraq, There they hadfound that the people who were expected tohelp collect and collate water records werein fact mostly illiterate. So it wasnecessary to start by encouraging these peopleto at least learn to read.

17. Mrs AIN gave an example of humanorganisation in water distribution. InPakistan the only human organisation was theMosque. The mullah managed water distributionin his area to between 2000 and 5000 people.A local committee had organised and dug a wellactually in the mosque. There were alsolectures given on hygiene after prayers.

18. Mr BUKY endorsed this point. He saidthat the mosques represented the formaliseduse of water through required ablutions and soit was necessary for them to organise itssupply and use. He wanted to know whether thiswater provided by the mosques was alsoavailable for drinking.

19. Mrs AIN replied that if the water wassweet then it was made available for thispurpose; otherwise the government supplieddrinking water in tankers.

Dr Robert Miller

The prehistory of public health:water and waste in the ancientNear East.Dr MILLER explained that the paper wasconfined to the Near East because that was thearea in which he had lived and worked for sometime. The same approach could be applied toany area of the world. There were interestingcase studies of water use over long periods,and this provided the opportunity forcollaboration between historians,anthropologists and water engineers ineducating students about the use and misuse ofwater.

9721. In the Near East the first villages grewup between 9000 and 10 000 years ago. Thisindicated a change from the former nomadicexistence to a settled way of life. Fromthis came the need for the development ofpatterns of water use and waste disposal inorder to preserve the health of the settledgroups.

22. Early agricultural villages were foundto have used all the basic components ofwater use with the exception of the cistern.The use of irrigation canals enhanced theopportunities for development ofschistosomiasis, and this was not just aproblem of the Near East. It was known thatsimilar development had occurred in Indonesia.

23. He believed that the development ofschistosomiasis went back into earlypalaeolithic times but the earliest directevidence for the disease was found during thedissection of mummies in 1910. These mummiesdated from 1200 to 1000 BC. In Iraq in the1950s snail shells of a carrier ofschistosomiasis were found in mud bricks from6000 years ago.

24. There was some evidence of gastro-enteritis and malaria from skeletal remainsfrom 7000 to 9000 years ago.

25. In the early villages it seemed thatthere had been great efforts to keep thefloors of living areas free from waste etc,since there was a lack of the usual materialsof use to archaeologists. It was not untilbetween one and two thousand years later thatfood remains and artefacts were found inquantities in the hut rubble. The conclusiondrawn from this was that there had been adeterioration in general hygiene standards inthe villages. This coincided with the almosttotal abandonment of Palestinian Neolithicsites. A possible explanation for this wasthat increasing mortality from water-relateddiseases had encouraged the people to leavethe permanent sites and take up a nomadicexistence again.

26. Shallow pits had been used for a longtime to provide water for both humans andanimals, but the digging of permanent wellsdeveloped around 7000 years ago in Iraq. Thedepth of these wells, up to 15m in some cases,may have been due to a recognition that thefiltering effect so achieved was desirablefrom a health point of view,

27. The examples frfom the paper of failedand successful water systems in urban areaswere then examined.

28. Mr BHATTACHARYA had found the paper veryinteresting and he thought that we had muchto learn from the prehistorical studies.Egyptian wall inscriptions and Indian Sanskritwritings indicated that ancient peoplesrelated water and disease. Some inscriptionswere found which suggested that water should

98be boiled before drinking. Also the Romanshad well-developed systems for water treatment.They may not have been built on our presentscientific principles but these people hadsame expertise.

29. Mr SAYLES asked whether the speaker hadcome across any evidence of early water laws,and the conflicts in water use which musthave occurred.

30. Dr MILLER explained that this was a veryspecialised field, especially whereinvestigations in early written languageswere concerned. He had not come across anyactual evidence of municipal legislation. Hethought it was more a case of the peopleknowing what worked in practice.

31. Professor MITWALLY was interested inDr Miller's account of the discovery ofschistosomiasis in Egyptian mummies. Acharacteristic of the disease was the passingof blood in the urine, and it was known thatin early Egypt, if someone was known to bepassing blood he was not allowed to urinateor defecate into water. It had to be done ina dry place and in the direct sun where itwould soon dry out. This showed anappreciation of the connection between thedisease and water.

32. Mr BUKY had an example of currentabandonment of land through recognition ofwater-borne disease. Land in the Upper Voltahad been abandoned because of the highincidence of river blindness.

33. He also asked whether Dr Miller had anyevidence of a correlation between increase inwealth and increase in water use. He wasthinking particularly of the Roman Empire atits height when water use was known to behigh. It was known that use of more than100 lpd had no additional health benefits andso was purely convenience use.

34. Dr MILLER had no direct evidence of thisbut he felt that it was an Interesting andvalid point. He thought that prestigecertainly played a role in the amount of waterused and this applied in Rome.

Dr Hassan Mitwally andDr Jack I IbrahimTreatment needed for groundwater insome Middle East countries-professor MITWALLY explained that parts of the

paper were taken from a doctorate thesis by

the co-author, Dr Ibrahim, The study had

arisen from recognition of the problem of algal

growth in water treatment plants in both

Beirut and Alexandria. It was a problem of how

to deal with the decision-makers in an area.

Letting them know what was meant by public

health, environmental engineering and

environmental sanitation.

36. The survey of treatment plants inLebanon was outlined, as was the diagrammaticmap of the Beirut treatment plant as foundin the paper.

37. Ms ELLINGTON asked whether the riverwater which joined the spring water had beentreated, and also how the water was . • -.•transported from the Kashkoush spring to thecanal.

38. Professor MITWALLY explained that notreatment of any kind was given and thishelped to save money. He pointed out on themap of Beirut the position of the pipelinewhich carried the water from the spring tothe canal.

39. Mr BHATTACHARYA wondered why the plantswere built in the first place. He thought itwas a glaring example of good water beingturned to bad.

40. Professor MITWALLY said that the plantshad been built in the 1940s so he did notknow why they had been built. There was aconcern to save money by combining the springwater with the surface water.

41. Dr COTTON commented that money could besaved by simply closing down the treatmentplants. Then there would be no maintenanceor operation costs.

42. Ms ELLINGTON asked whether any surfacewater was going into the treatment plant.

43. Professor MITWALLY said that only springwater was now directed through the treatmentplant.

99

Conference: Wafer people and waste in developing countries: 7987

IRRIGATION IN AFRICA AND ASIA - POLITICS AND PROBLEMS

CHRIS EDWARDS Lecturers, University of East Anglia, Development Studies,LINDEN VINCENT Norwich, England.

1. Objectives of this paper: to provokediscussion at the 1981 WEDC Conference amongirrigation engineers and planners about theneed to consider the social structureas well as the natural environment whenplanning irrigation schemes. The pointsraised in this brief paper arise from theexperience of:

Chris Edwards, economist; andLinden Vincent, hydrologist, bothat the School of Development Studies,University of East Anglia, Norwich,England, and from the writings ofother people on irrigation - fullreference to which are given atthe end of the paper.

2. Irrigation - what is. it? irrigation isdefined here as the application of water toland for cultivation using manual ormechanical means. There are many differentmethods of irrigation, some of which areillustrated in figure 1; there is a range oftechnologies, with the class structure ina particular society as well as the physicalenvironment determining the technology used.The large-scale schemes, such as gravitycanals or deep tube-wells, are invariablycontrolled or at least sponsored by centralor local state agencies, while the smallerscale schemes are more commonly associatedwith private capital. The annual capitalcosts per hectare range between US? 1O andUS$ 40. it should be noted that these arerough estimates, based on 1978 prices andexclude interest charges. Clearly the rangeof capital cost per hectare is quite small,but these capital costs per hectare arecalculated on the basis of the potentialor maximum command areas specified infigure 1; the actual areas irrigated areoften considerably less, particularly forthe large-scale schemes.

3. The scope of, and need for irrigation

In the four countries in which we haveexperience, the utilisation of irrigationpotential varies considerably - rangingfrom over 60% in India to less than 2% inZambia as shown in Table 1 below.

In Bangladesh, the population density Isone of the highest for any country in theworld; land is relatively scarce and labourplentiful. Irrigation is indispensible forincreasing agricultural output !(See ref ,1) .It is required both for reducing the riskattached to high-yielding varieties and formultiple cropping; see figure 2. Here,particularly, there is a conflict betweenfragmented land-holdings and a relativelyindivisable technology - we come back to thiscentral point in section 4 below.

Dryland India also confronts a severe landconstraint. Water resources are regionallyvariable, but often poor - see fig 2 - withlimited groundwater availability and rest-ricted potential for small storage schemesbecause of the volume and pattern of rainfall.As in Bangladesh there are strong classdistinctions in access to capital forirrigation equipment.

In Tunisia, sophisticated technology isrequired whether it be for the large communalschemes in the north and centre, or oases, andirrigation schemes have been associated withresettlement. In general, compared withBangladesh and India there is less pressureon the land, and irrigation is not anindigenous activity, having been'superimposed' to alter or extend traditionalralnfed cropping, and is associated withbring farmers into the market economy.

In the latest Zambian Five Year Plan, twoprominent objectives are to increasaagricultural output and to promote self-reliance. Irrigation is inferior on bothcounts compared to more Intensive rainfedagriculture through, for example, the use ofoxen. Land is not as serious a constraintin Zambia as labour, and there is a progress-ion by farmers through oxen and tractorownership for rainfed farming before labourand capital is released for irrigation (seeref.2).

4. Politics and problems in irrigation

In the mid 1970*s, the AgriculturalAdministration Unit of the OverseasDevelopment Institute began a programme of

CDCD

"SURFACE" TYPES

Notes

'. 'PI - Based on data from:

1. Bangladesh2. Zambia

l3l Annualised capital costs excludeinterest charges

* Shallow tubewell

* • Manually operated shallowtubewell for irrigation

"GROUNDWATER* TYPES

DTW [Dieselor Electric)

Potential command area [hectares ]

Capital cost per hectare C$US, 1978 prices)

Annualised capital costs per hectare ( " ) t 3 i

Pumping height [metres]

Generally financed by State [SJor private [P] capital

Fig. 1 Irrigation Methods

101Table 1

Total population(198o-mns)

Total cultivable area(ran has)

People per cultivabletiectare

Irrigated area- actual (mn has)

potential (mn has)- % actual factor to

potential

Bangladesh

90

9

10

18+12

India

63O

152

4

589362

Tunisia

6

9

<1

0.14

Gambia

6

32

<1

O.O21-102 or less

comparative research on the organisation andmanagement of irrigation schemes (ref.3).The motivation for this study was providedby the failure of many large irrigationprojects, with much of the poor performancebeing blamed on weak management. In someareas (eg. Taiwan) the schemes seem to havebeen successful but it is claimed by some ofthem that there are historical reasonspeculiar to Taiwan accounting for thissuccess (ref.4). In other areas (eg. onthe Mwea and Gezira schemes in Kenya andSudan respectively), a highly 'integratedmanagement1 structure seems to have beensuccessful (in terms of increasingagricultural output) in the early stages ofthe schemes, but seems to have suffered frominstitutional stagnation (see refs.5 and 6).

But why is the strong and detailed managementprovided by, for example, the irrigationassociations in Taiwan necessary? We arguethat "strong management1 is an attempt toresolve a contradiction which arises in thecontext of irrigation, and which isparticularly evident in, for example,Bangladesh. This is the contradictionbetween a fragmented landholding structureand a relatively indivisible irrigationtechnology. The average landholding inBangladesh is very small (see Table 2 below)with even moderately rich farmers inBangladesh having too little land in oneholding to make the purchase of a hand-pumpeconomically viable without the sale ofwater to neighbouring farmers. This sale is

Table median landholdlngs (hectares perfarming household)

Bangladesh lessDryland IndiaTunisia moreZambia

than3than2

r-l

5

often difficult to effect because of thenature of the commodity. Thus the riskassociated with the purchase of even small-scale irrigation equipment is high; theprovision of credit by the government mayeliminate this risk, but because of thepolitical power of rich farmers, the loansare invariably not repaid, thus reducingthe incentive to sell water. The problemof equipment underutilisation then emerges.

The contradiction and the equipmentunderutilisation may be resolved by theconsolidation of landholdings under privateownership. This seems to be happeningparticularly rapidly in those areas ofBangladesh in which state credit has beenmost extensively given for irrigation andother investment in agriculture (see ref.7).But then this "capitalist" consolidationhas created growing landlessness. Thelandlessness may be avoided withoutrecreating a fragmented landholdingstructure through the establishment ofproduction cooperatives as in the communesof China (see ref.8), but this requires apolitical framework not obtaining in thecountries of South Asia.

Consolidation, whether 'capitalist1 or'collective1, is one way of resolving thecontradiction between fragmentation oflandholdings and an indivisible technology.Another way is to make the technologydivisible. The latter route was discussedin an article by Ed Clay which discussedinnovations in the Kosi region of Bihar inIndia (ref.9). Clay pointed out that "thetwo most important innovations were thedevelopment of lower cost wells culminatingin the bamboo borings, made largely of localmaterials, and the emergence of a market inthe services of pumpsets" (see p. 77, ref.9).The latter also seems to have been occuringin Bangladesh with farmers buying the servicesof pumpsets for use on their own land ratherthan buying the water pumped from the landof a neighbouring farmer (see ref.lO).

These - the consolidation of landholdingsor the fragmentation of technology - arealternatives to a •strong integrated1

management system. They are, of course, not

102

BANGLADESH

mm.500

400

300

200

100

WET SEASON RICEC JUTE)

NEED FOR

IRRIGATION NEEDFOR

IRRIGATION

INDIA (Dryland areas)

mm.400

300

200

100

MILLET AND

SORGHUM

Yields improvedwith irrigation

IRRIGATION

SORGHUM

NEEDED DRYSEASONNEED FOR _IRRIGATION

(WHEAT)

J F M A M J J A S O N D J F M A M J J A S O N D

TUNISIA ZAMBIA

mm.400

300

200

100

MAIN PERIODOF IRRIGATION ^

RAINFED (VEGETABLES,CEREALS t FRUIT & FODDER)

SOMEIRRIGATED

WINTERVEGETABLES

-AND FODDER(MAINLYRAINFED)

RAINFED.CEREALS

300

200

100

r ,MAIZE MAIZE* »

IRRIGATION NEEDED

J F M A M J J A S O N D J F M A M J J A S O N D

Fig. 2 Crop Calendar and Irrigation Needs in Four Countries

103mutually exclusive alternatives but weemphasise them to illustrate the importance,for irrigation planners, of considering thepolitical structure of a society.

5. Five important points

We wish to emphasise five points which arisefrom our experience of irrigation:

(i) without specific politicalcommitment, the smaller farmersdo not have equal access toirrigation;

(ii) the promotion of irrigationand other agricultural "improvements"by the governments of thosecountries in which we have worked,has encouraged the growth ofcapitalism in agriculture alongwith landlessness and inequality(see ref.ll): but...

(iii) land reform, if limited toredistribution of land ownershipthrough re-fragmentation, mayhold back long-run developmentand accumulation in agriculture,even though it reduces landlessnessand inequality in the short-run;

(iv) the cost-benefit analysisof irrigation schemes is often aspurious paper exercise withhighly unrealistic assumptionscommonly made about irrigationcommand areas given the socialstructure. In these circumstances,detailed technical planning isuseless or even counter-productive(see ref. 12).

(v) if a scheme fails, thetemptation of blaming the failureon an "irrational peasantry" shouldbe avoided. A number of studiessuggest that such a simplisticconclusion is invariablyunwarranted (see refs.12 and 13).

REFERENCES

1. BIGGS, S,.EDWARDS C, and GRIFFITHS: J, 1978.1978, Irrigation in Bangladesh. IDS,University of Sussex, Discussion paper 126,Feb. 1978.

4. ABEL M, 1975, Irrigation systems inTaiwan: Management of a decentralised publicenterprise. Staff paper, Department ofAgriculture and Applied Economics, Universityof Minnesota, July 1975; see also Newsletter1/77 of ODI (see ref.3 above).

5. CHAMBERS R, and MORIS J, 1973, Mwea: anirrigated rice settlement in Kenya. WeltforumVerlag, Munchen, 1973.

6. BARNETT A, 1979, Why are bureaucrats slowadopters? The case of water management inthe Gezira scheme, Sociologica Ruralis,XIX (1).

7. AZIZUR RAHMAN KHAN, 1979, The Comillamodel and the Integrated Rural DevelopmentProgramme of Bangladesh: an experiment in'Cooperative Capitalism1: World Development1979, pp 397-422.

8. NIKUM J, 1978, Labour accumulation inrural China and its role since the culturalrevolution. Cambridge Journal of Economics,1978, pp 273-286.

9. CLAY E, 1975, Equity and productivityeffects of a package of technical innovationsand changes in social institutions: tubewells,tractors and high-yielding varieties, IndianJournal 'of Agricultural'Economics, October-December, 1975, Vol XXX, No 4.

10. BRAMMER H, 1980, Some innovations don'twait for experts, Ceres, March-April, 1980,pp 24-28,

11. HARRISS J, 1979, Why poor people staypoor in rural South India, Discussion PaperNo. 48, School of Development Studies, UEA,Norwich, Feb. 1979.

12. VINCENT L, 1980, a) Irrigated farming,debt or profit? A case study of the Medjerdairriqation scheme, Tunisia

b) "Efficiency" as aconcept in irrigation desiqn- both are discussion papers of the School ofDevelopment Studies, UEA, Norwich, DPS 68 and69 respectively.

13. PALMER-JONES R, 198O, Why irrigate theNorth of Nigeria? Agricultural Economics Unit,Wye College.

2. EDWARDS C, 1981, Irrigation in Zambia.Report to FAO (mimeo) April 1981. Obtainablefrom the author at UEA, Norwich.

3. See successive newsletters of theIrrigation Network, produced since the mid-1970' s. Obtainable from the AgriculturalAdministration Unit, Overseas DevelopmentInstitute, Percy Street, London, Wl.

104

Session 6Chairman: Adrian Coad

WEDC Group member

Discussion

Dr C B Edwards and Linden VincentIrrigation in Africa and Asia:politics and problems.Ms VINCENT explained that she was from theSchool of Development Studies of theUniversity of East Anglia, which was primarilyacademic In nature, but also had anarrangement with the University by which itwas able to take on overseas work.2. The paper was based on experiences gainedin irrigation in four countries: Bangladesh,India, Tunisia and Zambia. Slides were shownto illustrate the contrasts between thesecountries in terms of population size anddensity, rainfall and cropping patterns. Animportant point was that in areas of highpopulation density land for agricultural usewas scarce but labour was plentiful. Incontrast where population density was low,land was available for agriculture but butlabour for operating irrigation schemes wasscarce.

3. Before reviewing or changing an irrigationsystem it was necessary to know three things.These were: why was irrigation being used -for instance was it helping to provide astable or marketable crop; were therealternatives available; and what was theirrigation providing and at what levels ofnet profit.

4. Slides were shown to illustrate aspectsand methods of irrigation found in the fourcountries. These included deep and shallowtube wells, hand jetting of tube wells, lowlift pumps, hand dug wells, simple liftingdevices and irrigation furrows.

5. Mr CREE wanted to know how free the socialplanning of an irrigation scheme could be,taking into account limited supplies of water.Even where groundwater was available forirriagtion it would often be necessary to bringin fresh water from outside to counteract thebuild-up of salinity by leaching. Finally hepointed out that an irrigation project was aneasily-seen development project oftenintroduced as a political measure to showthat improvements were being made. It wasoften important for the people to be able tosee such visible improvements.

6. Ms VINCENT felt that there were financialand political arguments with regard to thefreedom of planning. It was highly important

that many people should benefit. To producea very efficient system, good management wasneeded and this could be expensive, so itmight be better at that stage to have slightlyless efficiency. Where finance was limitedstaggering and phasing of schemes oftenhelped.

7. She had no experience of working in anarea where lack of leaching caused salinityproblems. Where she had worked rainfall washigh at certain seasons and this had theeffect of flushing out the build-up of salts.

8. Mr GRIEVESON thought that the provisionof irrigation raised the same sort of problemsas that of drinking water and sanitation. Itwas a question of winning hearts and minds.Good management was essential. There weremany small-holder irrigation schemes in theworld where as much as 60% of the waterapplied was wasted through ignorance orpoorly operated systems. He asked whetherthe figures given in the paper included allsorts of irrigation, for instance floodirrigation.

9. Ms VINCENT replied that supplementaryand flood irrigation were not included.

10. Mr MURPHY commented that they werefinding from studies at Ahmadhu BelloUniversity that disease was oftn negating theeffects of better irrigation amongst farmworkers. They had found that instead of theirrigation being used to provide food for thefarmers and their families it was producingbreakfast cereals and sugar for the richcountries of the world.

105

Conference.- Water people and waste in developing countries-. 1981

MIGRATION AND SQUATTING AND THE IMPLICATION THIS HAS ONWATER SUPPLY AND SANITATIONHildegarda M Vanlankveld Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban

Development, Tanzania

Introduction

Much has been written about migration butlittle has been said on how it affects thesanitation and water supply of the region towhich the migrant is bound. Migration asdefined in this paper is population movementfrom one place to another, either temporarilyor permanently. Although there are severalpatterns of migration all of which havedifferent effects on water and sanitation, inthis paper the emphasis is on urbanization andthe influx to Dar es Salaam for presumedopportunities, rather than migration in thegeneral sense which is rarely encountered inTanzania.

Urbanization in Tanzania has been veryconspicuous and has attracted much attention,especially from planners. Although most ofthe present urban centre developed during theColonial period as a result of externallyoriented economic development, much urbanizationoccurred after Independence in December 1961.The indiginous population accepted urbanizationas a way of life and this could be reflected inthe rural to urban migration. In Dar es Salaamin the recorded population growth of the lastfew years, migrants represent 79% of thepopulation. It has been observed that mostmajor towns grew at an avergae of 8-10% pa overthe period 1957-67, The annual growth rate forDar es Salaam rose from 7% in 1957 to 11% in1967. The 1978 census put the population at830 398 compared to 272 875 in 1967, which isan annual growth rate of over 15%. Such arapid increase in urban population means atleast doubling it in less than ten years.Urban population in Tanzania is 2.8 million,constituting 13% of the total population of17.5 million.

The inevitable consequence of this high rateof urbanization is senn in the pressure exertedon land, housing, employment and other socialand technical infrastructure. Implicitly,urbanization is associated with problems of lowincome which cretaes a category of people whocannot afford to develop land in planned areas.Available services and utilities are unable tocope with urban growth and financial constraintson the government contribute to the problem.This partly explains the existence of largesquatter or slum areas which are inadequatelyserviced. Government housing and loans favourpeople in formal employment, whereas migrants

are usually jobless, self-employed or doinglow paid jobs. When the city expands thesepeople are engulfed as squatters and thegovernment demolish their poor structures oraccept and upgrade their settlements.

The slumming and squatting problems areinvariably associated with poor and inadequatesewage disposal and sanitation systems, poorrefuse collection and diseases associated withsewage and water.

The case-study findings presented in this paperare based on Mabibo, Buguruni and Keko Torolisquatter areas, with the emphasis on Buguruni.

Rural to urban migration and governmentpolicies towards associated problems

Both 'pull' and 'push' from the place of originsuggest to the rural residents that thingsmight be better in the urban areas. Factorsconstituting the 'push' include:

1. Lack of employment opportunities for thelarge numbers of untrained people in ruralareas.

2. Low productivity and low incomes in theagricultural sector due to traditionalfarming methods, vagaries of weather andpests, resulting in low prices foragricultural products.

3. Over population in some areas such asKilimanjaro and Bukoba where the landtenure system has resulted in fragmentationof land through multiple Inheritance,Young people who cannot inherit land fromfamily and are not willing to find othervacant land migrate to urban areas insearch of jobs,

4. Government investment in major regionaltowns in preference to rural areas. Over80% of industries in Tanzania are foundin urban areas, Dar es Salaam having morethan 25% and employing 61% of all urbanlabour in manufacturing industries. Theabsence of effective planning andco-ordination among responsible authoritieshas contributed to continued unregulatedurban growth.

5. Immediately after Independence the educationcurriculum was changed to increase primaryand secondary education. At least 10% ofurban and rural youth received seven yearsof primary Colonial education so as to beable to assist in clerical teaching and

106administrative work. Education afterIndependence, education was aimed atpreparing young people to live in rural areasand to be self-reliant. However this was notsuccessful. Employment in the non-agricult-ural sector continues to be the ambition ofpeople even after completing primary, middleand higher education. Research in Dar esSalaam shows that increasing numbers of youthsengage in banditry.6. At the family level, social disruptioncaused by modern development is seen. Thepresent high living standard is out of reachof many low-income, unskilled andunsuccessful farmers. Family breakdowns arecommon. Male divorcees migrate and engage insuch jobs as banditry and pick-pocketing.Females engage in sedentary jobs such asplaiting women's hair, selling bread andprostitution.

Consequences of migration

After looking into the 'push' and 'pull'factors we have now to look into the positiveand negative aspects of migration. Thenegative aspects are mainly problems caused bythe increase in population. The effects ofthis are social, economic, health and technical.

1. Housing is a problem in all urban centresin Tanzania. Due to financial constraints)the government has failed to house itsincreasing urban population. Individuals,especially low income earners, are unable toconstruct their own houses and provision ofgovernment housing favours people with formalemployment. Thus the unemployed and those inthe informal sector usually seek accomodationin privately owned housing or they constructhouses in unsurveyed areas. Every town orcity is bounded by a legally recognisedboundary. Many low income earners dodge plotpayments imposed by the government by crossingthe urban boundary and settling 'free ofcharge'. As population increases these areasbecome congested and disorganised. Pressurefalls on related government authorities totry to accomodate these areas in plans forprovision of water, dispensaries, electricity,roads, schools and markets, but this isdifficult to achieve.

2. Slumming and squatting have alwaysproduced hygiene problems. Disorganised,congested housing with no proper roads havemade it difficult to construct storm waterdrains or service the areas with refuse trucks.Often the groundwater table is too high forthe use of pit latrines, although these are themost common form of sanitation system. Withinadequate emptying services the latrines areflooded and create serious public healthproblems.

3. Hospitals, schools and other socialfacilities are overcrowded, so that thelimited facilities become obsolete too quickly.

4. Water for Dar es Salaam is the respons-ibility of the Ministry of Water, Energy andMinerals and the Dar es Salaam WaterCorporation. The Public Health Departmentwithin the City Council has the duty ofchecking water quality by taking samples forbacteriological and chemical analysis, andadvising the Water Corporation. Demand forwater In the city has increased very rapidlyin recent years and has outstripped bothsupply and distribution facilities.

5. Sanitation. Only six towns in Tanzaniahave some form of sewerage system which islimited to 10% of the population of thosetowns. Septic tank soakaway systems servicea further 10% of the population in the lowand medium density areas. The other 80%depend on either pit latrines or nothing atall. Those with no latrines use neighboursfacilities or public toilets which are oftenin a disastrous condition, out of order oroverflowing due to misuse. At present outof 77 units in Dar es Salaam only 11 arefunctioning. In squatter areas conditionsare worse. Inadequate structures are builtdue to lack of finance. Pits fill quicklythrough over-use and inadequate emptyingservices, and the high groundwater tablemeans they are often flooded. Malaria,cholera, hookworm, Bilharzla, Filariasis andother excreta-related diseases are common.

6. Increased urbanization brings technicalproblems, especially in the field of townplanning. Master Plans for towns, Bye-lawsetc become inadequate in a short space oftime even if the technical and economic meansare available. Traffic and transport problemsabound due to narrow roads and increasednumbers of vehicles.

7. Government efforts to solve the problemhave included the slum clearance andcompensation programme of 1964, aimed atejecting people from squatter areas anddiscouraging more people from coming to town,forceful repatriation of loiterers andunemployed migrants, and the 1975 RepatriationProgram.

8. Migration involves movement of people fromless developed areas to developed areas. Hencemore development takes place in urban townsand so the migration process becomescontinuous.

Government efforts to contain migration problems

1. Repatriation. This concentrated onstreet beggars, loiterers and those engaged inselling on the streets. Disabled beggars weretaken to Rehabilitation Centres. The ForcefulRepatriation method was in line with the goalsof the Arusha Declaration of 1967 which statedthat everyone should be self-reliant by beingan industrial worker or a peasant. By theend of 1967 the policy was seen to be inadequatebecause it attacked the migration problem from

the receiving area rather than from thesource area, only dealing with those whowere rounded up and not prohibiting furthermigration. It was also expensive. IdentityCards were then tried, but people managed toforge them.

2. Slum clearance and reconstruction. BeforeIndependence provision of good housing waslargely based on race and income, withresidential zoning for high, medium and lowincome dwellers. Characteristically, inhigh income areas, density is low and theareas are well planned on good land and withgood quality services, as opposed to lowincome areas with high density, poorly orunplanned, with few or no services and thuspoor conditions. After Independence thegovernment aimed to eradicate insanitaryconditions by providing modern standardhousing and basic infrastructure. Ruralpeople were expected to be self-reliant,providing their own modern housing.Institutions were created to cater for housingneeds and to provide loans

In 1964 national slum clearance aimed at theabolition of the worst housing and theredevelopment of modern housing. In 1969 theprogramme was stopped because it had provedtoo expensive. Construction of houses wasslow and behind target, and at family levelincome was reduced due to disruption. Alsothe compensation scheme brought an unexpectedproblem in that the compensation moneyattracted more people. Poor units wereerected overnight in anticipation ofcompensation. It became necessary for thegovernment to pass a bye-law to stopcompensation in cases of illegal constructionon private plots. The abolition of the towncouncil in 1972 resulted in furtherdeterioration of the urban environment withno enforcement of urban laws.

In 1972 the government adopted the site andservice squatter upgrading scheme focussedat providing infrastructural services at aminimally technically viable level. It wasenvisaged that this would act as an incentivefor people to improve the quality of theirenvironment by building their own houses onnewly serviced areas or improving existinghouses with loans. Poor houses were no longerbulldozed.

3. Redistribution of investments and basiccommunity infrastructure. Rural developmentpolicy through Ujamaa villages was expected toabsorb the present unemployed and unskilledand school leavers. To date we find that 90%of our people live in 8210 villages throughoutTanzania. This figure is below target butnonetheless acceptible. In general redist-ribution of investment has been unsuccessful.

Water and sanitation

Various water projects in association with

107UNICEF and DANIDA have been undertaken. Therehave been improvements to water supplystations, increase of public standpipes etc.Water at public kiosks is provided free. In1976 86% of households used tap water astheir main source of supply. Unpiped wateris contaminated and the public is cautionedand advised to boil this water. Variouswater and sanitation campaigns have beencarried out through radio, newspapers, adulteducation classes and meetings etc, aimedat improving public health, respect anddignity and increasing productivity. Inspite of this sanitation systems in old townsare inadequate. Sewerage systems are old,and out of eighteen pumping stations servingDar es Salaam centre only two are in operationand those are giving problems. The resultshave been discharge of sewers and foulsewerage overflows to drainage ditches andstreams.

The government has set up a sewerage anddrainage division in the Ministry of Lands,Housing and Urban Development, with the taskof formulating sanitation policies andrehabilitating the existing sewerage system.Assisted by the World Bank the country hasadopted both sewerage and low-cost sanitationsystems, according to local conditions andfinancial constraints. Compost pit latrinesand ventilated improved pit latrines (VIPs)are being tested.

In the Water and Sanitation Decade thegovernment will provide loans for upgradingof latrines in squatter areas or constructionof new ones, mainly VIPs. Studies arecurrently being undertaken by foreign firmsin the major towns aimed at rehabilitation ofexisting sewerage and drainage systems.

Case studies of Buguruni, Keko Toroli andMabibo

In 1974 Dar es Salaam was converted into aRegion by itself with three Districts: Ilala,Kinondoni and Temeke. Buguruni is locatedin Ilala District. The area is denselypopulated with disorganised housing highlycongested. Keko Toroli and Mabibo are situatedon either side of Buguruni. All the areas havesimilar socio-economic conditions.

Economic factorsAll three areas are squatter areas situatednear Industries Government and privately owned.Except for the major tarmac roads crossing theareas there are no proper roads, being servedby meandering tracks. There is limited socialinfrastructure, with only one Dispensary at theDistrict centre to serve almost all the peoplein the District. Water points are few and thetaps are far apart. Buguruni has only 52public taps serving a population of 32 672.There are no surface water drainage systems.

Housing and peopleThe majority of houses are poor, Swahili type

108houses which are cheaper to build than amodern house of equivalent size. Despite poorconditions rents are usually high and frequently-raised. To many house owners housing is seenas a source of income rather than a socialamenity. Tenants complaining about intolerableconditions are threatened with eviction.Because housing is a problem for both employedand unemployed people accept insanitaryconditions because there is no alternative.Most people are low-income earners self-employedin petty businesses or casual work who oftencannot afford to pay their monthly watercharges and so have the water cut off.

Sanitation and waterFor the household survey done in Buguruni, 688houses were visited and completed thequestionnaire, showing that 98% used pitlatrines and 1% had no proper sanitation. InKeko all fourteen houses visited had pitlatrines. In Mabibo of 123 houses visited,97% had pit latrines, and three houses hadflush toilets.

In a number of cases the pit latrinesuperstructure is also used for showering.There is no problem with sharing ofsanitation facilities between families in thesame house, although the same cannot be saidfor next-door neighbours.

Among complaints were the inefficiency of thecity refuse trucks, shortage of space for anew pit and scarcity of materials for buildingpermanent latrines. Low income is senn asa contributory factor to the present poorlatrine structures. The units lack privacyand have no ventilation pipes or covers toprevent smells and insect breeding. Drums,tyres and blocks are used to line the pit, andare easily affected by water causing saggingand collapse. Overcrowding causes the pits tofill up rapidly and high ground water causesoverflowing of excreta. These problems aremore pronounced in Mabibo.

Another feature brought out by the survey isthe practice of manual pit latrine and soakpit emptying. The method involves the diggingof a new pit adjacent to the full one. A holeis then broken through the adjoining wall,releasing the contents to the new pit. Thefaeces is removed by scooping with buckets.The government is trying to improve conditionsby introducing a high capacity vacuum truck todo the job, and also by increasing the numbersof cesspit emptiers.

People are generally not aware of the connectionbetween insanitary conditions and disease andmostly believe that foul water from shallowwells is safe for washing. Garbage disposalis done in open pits, dustbins and on vacantland, so garbage tends to be blown and spreadaround. City Councils are inadequatelyequiped to deal with the problems, having only21 refuse trucks and few street sweepers andrefuse collectors.

Waste water is disposed of in soak pits, pitlatrines and open drains near houses.

Recommendations

Over-concentration of economic activites inDar es Salaam and other major towns partlycontributes to the poor sanitary conditions.Government funds are directly channelled tothose productive activities and thus propersanitation, safe water and cleaning activitiesare given less attention. The governmentshould put priority on primary health careand implement equalization of socio-economicdevelopment in rural and urban towns so asto reduce the burden brought about bymigration.

Practical implementation of preventive healthprogrammes in urban and rural areas as awhole is essential and should be enforced bylaw. This will alleviate many of theinsanitary conditions. Better preparation ofrefuse for collection is one of the primeneeds of the residential areas. Improvementsmay be brought about by a media campaign,through radio and self-help groups. If thisdoes not work it may be necessary to use alaw and impose fines.

To make the Decade successful we should trainmore women in water-related professions.Health education in primary schools should bestrengthened. It is women and children whosuffer most from poor facilities and disease.It is these people who must walk long distancesor queue at taps for water. It is thereforethese people who could prevent environmentalcontamination and plan for adequate options insafe water and sanitation if they were equippedwith adequate knowledge and tools.

Conclusion

There should be effective control of theenvironment for better living. Endeavours madeby related Ministries of the Government ofTanzania to ensure better conditions aregreatly appreciated. Efforts are howeverhampered by lack of proper expertise andresources, thus reflecting the general levelof development in the country.

109

Session 7Chairman: Jo Buky

World Bank

Discussion

Hildegarda M Vanlankveld

Migration and squatting and theimplication this has on watersupply and sanitation,Ms VANLANKVELD explained that her paper wasbased on social surveys which she had carriedout. She was also Involved in the provisionof health education in areas of special need.

2. Tanzania was described as a developingcountry which relied mainly on agriculture foremployment. Industrialisation was limited.The country suffered from most of the problemsusually encountered in developing countries.

3. From the 1960s the country had suffered arapid growth of its towns and cities due to alarge influx of migrants from rural areas.The causes and consequences of this were dealtwitii in the paper. Migration took place insearch of employment and a generally improvedstandard of opportunities, and there had beena lack of proper planning and implementationto deal with the problems arising.

4. She explained the causes of migration andthe problems it brought in housing, education,employment and of course water and sanitation.The government had tried to contain theproblem by limiting influx and by moving peopleback to rural areas, but this had been shownto be inadequate so another method had beentried by issuing identity cards. However,forging then became common.

5. Further efforts by the governmentincluded slum clearance programmes and thebuilding of more modern housing. But this toohad brought problems. Now squatter upgradingschemes were being tried. Piped watersupplies were part of these schemes.

6. The government recognised the need forgreat improvements in connection with theWater Decade and were making efforts to raisefunds, sponsor studies and increase facilitiesfor appropriate training.

7. Mr HARRIS said that Ms Vanlankveld hadparticipated in the household survey carriedout at the start of his firm's study, to tryto determine what would be the most appropriateand useful Improvements to the existing pitlatrine system. Following this initial workthe government had built a demonstrationproject and installed over one hundred pit

latrines. He wondered whether there hadyet been any feedback from the demonstrationproject,

8. Ms VANLANKVELD replied that about 110pit latrines had been built in various partsof the city. Most of these units were nowin use. A problem that had been highlightedwas that people wanted two units, one forbathing and the other for defecation. Onlysingle units had been provided so thatbathing had to take place in the same unitas defecation. Another small problem hadbeen one of size and design. The units hadbeen found to be rather too narrow to becomfortable.

9- Mr QTIENO asked why only three low-costsanitation systems had been tried and whethershe was convinced that they had chosen thecheapest options.

10. Ms VANLANKVELD said that their surveyshad shown that 80% of the people used pitlatrines. They had tried to demonstratecomposting latrines and the ROEC but thepeople wanted pit latrines. There were alsoproblems of space in that there was often noroom for a garden, and thus no need forcompost. Experiments would take place inother areas with low-cost options of othertypes. The VIP latrine was certainly thecheapest option to install and operate.

11. Dr NIMPUNO asked whether there had beenany cases of pit collapse due to use of thepit for bathing as well as defecation,

12. Ms VANLANKVELD replied that there hadbeen no problems of this kind.because therewas allowance made in the pit for soakage, sothere was no build-up of liquids. There hadbeen experiements on insect breeding in thepits and it was found that 80% of the fliesetc escaped through the vent pipe and 20%through the hole. If the surrounding areawas kept clean and dry, flies would not findso many places to breed and the incidence ofexcreta-related disease would be reduced.

13. Mr OBADINA asked whether the VIPs wereprovided in public places or private houses.

14. Ms VANLANKVELD replied that both had beentried and monitored, A check had to be madeon whther the public latrines would be keptclean, and whether private ones were properlymaintained. Some had been provided in primaryschools to help with health education.

15. Mr OBADINA felt that attendants should beprovided to keep the public latrines clean.He also thought that provided each houeholdrealised that the latrine belonged to themthey would look after it properly.

16. Ms VINCENT wished to know how much workof this nature was being done in other townsin Tanzania, and how finance would be providedfor further work.

no17. Ms VANLANKVELD said that her departmentwas responsible for all the towns in Tanzania.Rural areas were the responsibility of theMinistry of Health, who with the help ofUNICEF were carrying out several projects.

18, Mr WILLIS commented on the mention in thepaper of conflicts between ministries andother bureaucratic problems. He wonderedwhether part of the problem was lack of properorganisation.

19. Ms VANLANKVELD agreed that this was aproblem. It came down to weak organisationalstructure and poor planning.

20, Mr BUKY thanked the speaker and wishedher luck with the implementation of such amassive programme.

General discussionWater, women and wasteMr PICKFORD introduced a general discussionsession by saying how the Conference had heardmuch about women and their place, Mrs Ain andMs Vanlankveld proved that there were women indeveloping countries who were articulate andoften better able than many men to expressthemselves and enthuse people with the needfor water and sanitation.

22. The Conference had heard of the need formore women public health engineers, althoughthere were a few. He said that the 1981-82WEDC MSc Course was expecting to have fourwomen students.

23. Much had been heard of the suffering ofwomen in getting water. There were hundredsof pictures available of women carrying water.The great need was to involve these women.Many of the speakers had described projectsfor water and sanitation in developingcountries, but they had concentrated on adescription of the technology. They had notsaid how they would involve the women and itwas accepted that this was a difficult task.

24. He felt that the involvement of theordinary women who carried the water wascrucial to the success of the internationalwater programme and he invited participants toenter into general discussion on how to goabout getting this involvement,

25. Ms ELLINGTON felt that it was basically aproblem of education. In many developingcountries women were not allowed even primaryeducation. She believed that this was the key:that once they had the opportunities foreducation, they would become more involvedwith the running of their countries.

26. Mr BUKY pointed out that some of theworld's most powerful leaders were women andthat teachers were often women.

27• Ms CHARD thought that it was difficultto get people involved when most of theirday was spent in fetching water. Time was afactor in the problem. However, complainingwas the first stage in getting involved.Once these women had realised their problemand begun to complain then the battle washalf won. They had to be shown that therecould be more to life than just fetchingwater.

28. Mr BUKY said that this was true in manyplaces. But he was concerned that in Ghanaand parts of Nigeria, commerce was in thehands of some very capable and forcefulwomen, but there were none in the field ofwater and sanitation.

2 0 1 D r BOURNE felt that the introduction oftechnology in water could often bedestructive to the role of women. Althoughthey did all the work they were at least incontrol of the situation. Once simpletechnology was Introduced, such as handpumps,the men tended to take over and made thedecisions and did the constructional work.The women no longer had control of thesituation.

30. The potential of women to do otherthings when the burden of water-fetching hadbeen taken away had also been mentioned. Itwas felt that women would then be free totake part in education and economic activities.However he knew of a study of this which hadshown that in fact the women tended to usetheir new-found free time for resting. Sothere was a health benefit, but notnecessarily any other benefit to them.

31. He felt that it was misleading to lookat what some women did in one sector and thengeneralise for other sectors in other partsof the world. In many developing countriesthe class distinctions were strong, and inthe upper classes of these countries therewas little distinction between men's andwomen's roles. Here the women could becomevery powerful. But at the very bottom of thesocio-cultural scale the women were In a veryinferior position and had no opportunity forsuch powerful role-playing.

32. He stressed that it was important to avoida sort of cultural imperialism in our view ofthe developing world. Equality was a newidea even in developed countries, and it waswrong to immediately try to impose theseideas on countries where it would simply beregarded as a fad. The process would be aslow one and required complete change in allsectors, not just the water sector.

33. Finally he agreed that education wascrucial. Literacy for young girls was moreimportant than anything else.

34. Mr BUKY said that developing countrieswere being expected to produce women to help

Illdevelop and implement the Decade targets.However some previous papers had mentionedthat 50-60 years ago Europe was not muchfurther ahead than many developing countrieswere now. He wanted to know whether in thecourse of development, european women hadstepped forward and taken roles in planningetc.

35. Ms ELLINGTON said that this was just thepoint being made. At that time europeanwomen were not being educated. It was notuntil basic education was provided for themthat they were in a position to becomeinvolved.

36. Mr JACKSON believed that, given time,women would emerge in all fields. He feltthat the worst cases of the suffering womenwere in the poorest of the developing countries.He gave the example of Libya, which he firstvisited in 1960 when it was still poor. Thewomen and girls carried water then and thegirls were married off very early into a lifeof child-rearing. When he returned in 1978after the development of the oil industrywhen Libya had become a rich nation, thesituation was very different. The girls werebeing educated and becoming emancipated.

37. The key was economics. It was the samein this country. Women needed to work tohelp support their families.

38. Mrs AIN said that in Pakistan in therural agricultural communities, the womenworked in the fields alongside the men. Theyparticipated in all economic activities.Because it contributed to the family incomethey were allowed to go out to work.

39. She told how, when the education classeswere first set up in Karachi, the organiserscould not go directly to the women. It wasthe men who had to be persuaded because theywere the decision-makers. She went to themen and asked if she could set up sewing andknitting classes for the women so that theycould earn extra money. Of course the menagreed and contributed money to help buy themachines and provide a trained sewing teacher.After the sewing classes started, theorganisers began to teach reading and writingas well. When the news of this got out manymen objected, but they did not want to stopthe scheme because their money was involvedand much time and effort had been put in. Sothey agreed that the literacy classes shouldcontinue alongside the sewing. This was anexample of a very successful scheme achievedthrough ithe provision of several benefits tothe community.

40. Mr RUKOIJO belived that training andeducation still did not make women equal.

41. Mrs AIN said that equality was completelyinappropriate for these women. It was an ideawhich did not occur to them. Education must

begin on the day a girl was born, in whatshe saw other women doing around her. InPakistan a girl was considered to be aburden. What did anyone expect from girlswho were brought up in this way? It did notmatter how highly trained they became. Theymight become doctors, but they were stillbasically very weak people who were subjectto the wishes of their families, were marriedoff as soon as possible and were then subjectto their husbands and the husbands' families.

42. Mr PICKFORD asked whether in that caseall the efforts being made by the UN and theWorld Bank and other organisations were beingwasted because of this lack of education forwomen. Was the whole thing impossible?

43. Ms ELLINGTON pointed out that women wereheld back by men. The men in charge had togive opportunities to women. The idea ofhaving to approach women through their men,as described by Mrs Ain, was a humiliatingstate of affairs.

44. Mr JACKSON thought that there wouldalways be some women who would prefer to stayat home, just as there would always be menwho did not want responsibity. He believedthat opportunities did exist for women to belike the women present at the conference ifthat was what they wanted.

45. Ms CHARD said that it had taken a longtime to get equality in developed countries,and care should be taken that our views werenot forced onto people in developing countries.There was a given social structure in thesecountries which must not be destroyed.

46. She also believed that it did not matterwhether change was initiated by men or bywomen, provided that change happened. Theremust be people who at a certain stage wouldput pressure on authorities.

47. Mr MURPHY gave an example of trainingcourses for farmers which he had once visitedin Kenya. In that country all the farmerswere women but he had found that the peopleon the courses were all men. In NorthernNigeria where he had worked, the last coursehe had organised had 20% women participants,and those women had dominated the course.They were married women whose husbands hadsent them to the course. So he believed thatthings were changing slowly. He also pointedout that education should be working the otherway too, in providing courses for men intraditional womens subjects such as sewing.

In this way the barriers could be broken down.

48. Mr MSIMBE said that different countrieshad different views of women and their roles.For instance in Muslim countries women werenot supposed to be seen at all, so how couldthey be approached. How could they participate?Many villages still retained taboos regardingwomen.

11249. Mr BUKY said that this was the pointbeing made by the women participants, thatchange had to be made.

50. Mrs AIN thought that the education ofmen was also important. Where men were alsoilliterate and uneducated this worsened theposition of their women.

51. Mr BUKY pointed out that the socialistand communist countries were reputed to havetotal equality of the sexes. Recentlyhowever, at a womens' congress in Moscow, theleaders had expressed the view that they hadgone too far in this, that it was time to getoff the tractors and put down the shovels andgo back to the home.

52. Mr KIDD said that emancipation was afunction of development. The most highlydeveloped country in the world, the USA, hadvery dominant women, but in Islamic countrieswomen were still second-class citizens. Itwas a matter of education - of men as well aswomen. Women had the same potential as men;they simply needed the opportunity to developit,

53. Mr BUKY closed the conference by sayinghow much he had enjoyed the sessions. Heexpressed thanks to Mr John Plckford fororganising the event.