Linking Information Technology to Fecal Sludge Management

Fecal Sludge Management (FSM) is a management system that safely collects, transports, and treats fecal sludge (also called septage) from pit latrines, septic tanks or other onsite sanitation facilities (OSSF). One of the key components of fecal sludge management is the safe transportation of fecal sludge from the onsite sanitation facility to the point of treatment. There is no doubt that safe disposal of fecal sludge is the primary objective of any FSM project, and the fecal sludge transporters play a key role in this process.

In fecal sludge transportation, different stakeholders are involved in the successful transfer of sludge from containment to the treatment facility. These stakeholders include households, service providers, sanitary workers, septage truck owners and officers from the Urban Local Body (ULB). However, it is commonly seen that these different stakeholders do not work in a co-ordinated fashion when it comes to transporting fecal sludge from households to a treatment facility. It is in this case that technology can come to the rescue.

At present, the existing system is not fully equipped for holding, retrieving and maintaining information on sanitation facilities including service provision. For example, no authorised body in the ULB has complete information on Households (HHs) sanitation facility, fecal sludge containment and fecal sludge flow. This lack of information and communication will, in the long run, account for badly managed sanitation systems. In this scenario, it would be interesting if fecal sludge transportation followed a system like Uber or Ola cabs using an application.

Let us examine this idea a little more closely. What do the residents want from any service? 1. Reliability, 2. Efficiency 3. Cost effectiveness. All these three are available in the Uber and Ola Apps. These transport services are using mobile web-based GIS technology to provide real-time information about the vehicle, vehicle number, contact number and approximate cost (based on travel distance, total travel time and base fare). Once the service is complete, the customer is asked to rate the service for efficiency.

While this system can be easily adopted by the ULBs to reach customer locations as well as keep track of the septage trucks, the ULBs are wary about its misuse because once the mobile has been turned off or the app has been uninstalled, it is difficult to track the vehicle. However, if we keep in mind that the core aim is to provide customers with better services, and not just prevent illegal dumping of fecal sludge, these small lapses can be set right.

FSM projects in countries like Senegal have established the world’s first innovative call centre system to enable the customer to receive the best and most economical service for desludging. This system operates on request-based desludging not schedule-based desludging. The clients send their request for desludging to the call center, and the call center contacts the operators near the said client’s location for quotations. The call center, then sends the lowest quotation to the client based on which the client asks the call center to send a particular desluding vehicle. Once the desludging is completed, the call centre calls the client to check for customer satisfaction. This system works well, but requires transparency at all levels to be sustainable in the long run.

The integration of GPS, GIS, GPRS and the mobile-based web application for Urban Local Body, service providers and residents will improve the quality of service, are easy to monitor and ensure safe environment. GPS will provide the current position, GIS will provide route directions and how to get there (simple algorithm for path finding using different aspects shortest path, regulated path and travel time), while GPRS will provide real time data, through the mobile towers.

If the FSM project needs to be successful, it should follow the improved service orientation approach not just monitoring approach. If the sludge transport system has to run successfully for long periods, the process has to be transparent, and it should benefit both clients, as well as the service providers. Towards this end, all stakeholders have to sit together and discuss the possibility of an improved service-oriented approach to create a better environment for everyone to live in, and this approach should be facilitated by the Urban Local Bodies.