Q: I am a first year Doctoral Student from India working on the water sanitation hygiene, its related morbidity impact on the slum dwellers of Mumbai(India. My study design will be cross sectional. In this regard I would like to know about experts in IRC so that i could discuss my doctoral work. I am also interested in knowing about various short term courses and conferences related to WASH where i could both discuss my research and get acquainted with other research activities in other corner of world.
A: Have you already tried the search and reference list options from our online IRC WASH library http://www.washdoc.info/docsearch/advancedsearch for your study?
I copy below selected results from a search on slum and Mumbai that you should explore further http://www.washdoc.info/docsearch/results?lmt=20&txt=slum+Mumbai. It contains summaries and here and there a relevant quote from the PDF text. You can repeat this search and save selected references (after registering online) as your reference list, which you can copy and past in the right format in a Word file. If you want to check research results from other parts of the world you should start a search with the word ‘slum’ in http://www.washdoc.info/docsearch/search.
Here is my first selection that includes the political and administrative context of slum improvement, an exam[le from Dhaka and more general Guidance notes on services for the urban poor:
Baken, R.-J. (2008). The political and administrative context of slum improvement : two contrasting Indian cases . Delft, The Netherlands, International Reference Centre for Community Water Supply and Sanitation (IRC)
Availability:
- WWW page: WWW MS Word [188 KB]
This essay deals with slum improvement. It focuses on the contrast between high-flown project intentions and the sobering reality of the politics of project implementation. It thereby attempts to give some answers to the above issues. Moreover, it presents a beginning of a way out of the political and administrative impasse. It tries to achieve this by giving a description of two contrasting cases in India. The first case is typical for many slum improvement projects in India and other developing countries. On paper, it is all-encompassing, integrated and participatory – a typical UNCHS “best practice”. In practice, it is none of these things. The second case is much more modest. There is no predetermined, all-round plan. In terms of organisation, mobilisation, teaching and learning the kind of slum improvement highlighted in the second case builds on what the slum dwellers themselves know and understand. In terms of output, it concentrates on community toilet blocks. The first case concerns slum improvement projects in Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam, two rapidly growing million-plus cities in Andhra Pradesh (1988-1996). It describes and analyses the problematic interaction between slum dwellers and the (local) government. The project was based on a number of unrealistic assumptions and approaches, e.g. with respect to dweller participation and the capacity of existing infrastructure networks. It invited patronage and corruption. Rather than truly including slums and slum dwellers in the urban civic space, the project delivered special slum (health, credit, livelihood, education and infrastructure) products of a substandard, makeshift quality. The second case is that of the 10-year experience in the construction of toilet blocks in Indian urban slums by urban poor federations and women’s co-operatives, with the support of the NGO SPARC. In its effort this alliance (called “the Alliance”) improved sanitation and washing facilities for hundreds of thousands of poor households and proved that such facilities could be both affordable and manageable. Apart from this concrete outcome, the efforts of the Alliance and its partner slum communities resulted in the gradual reconstitution of citizenship for the slum dwellers. Indeed, for all those involved – government agencies, slum dwellers and NGOs – the whole exercise was a training in “deep democracy”.(authors abstract)
http://www.washdoc.info/docsearch/title/170983
Capacity Building Service Group -Dhaka, BD, CBSG (2010). Ensuring services to slum dwellers : Dhaka WASA organisation for low income and slum community water service delivery : final report . London, UK, Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor, WSUP
Availability:
- Downloadable document: WWW PDF [293 KB]
(2009). Guidance notes on services for the urban poor : a practical guide for improving water and sanitation services.
Availability:
- Downloadable document: WWW Download PDF [1.80 MB]
According to this report giving poor people a say in the water and sanitation services they receive, and allowing alternative documentation to prove residence are some of the simple solutions that can bring sustainable water and sanitation services to the hundreds of millions currently living without. An interesting experience from Mumbai’s Slum Sanitation Project with community toilet blocks shows how municipalities also benefit. The municipal corporation issued the building permit after the community-based organisation (CBO) or small enterprise had collected at least 50 per cent of the expected maintenance fund from prospective users. It also had to develop a technically sound and community-endorsed plan for the toilet block. The actual construction of the community toilet block began only after that. Among other solutions, the study added that simplified, client-friendly procedures for billing, collection, and connection help the poor to gain and retain access to water and sanitation services. The report identifies barriers to service delivery for poor people living in urban areas in Africa, East and South Asia, and Latin America and recommends practical solutions to overcome them. It includes a compilation of 19 case studies from 12 countries as well as consultations with urban poor communities to analyze similar barriers and propose solutions.
Sarkar, S.; Nitti, R. (2003). Reaching the poor through sustainable partnerships : the slum sanitation program in Mumbai, India. (Urban notes : upgrading experiences / WB Thematic Group on Services to the Urban Poor; no. 7). Washington, DC, USA, World Bank
Availability: http://www.washdoc.info/docsearch/title/125629
Norman, G. (2011). When are communal or public toilets an appropriate option?. (Topic Brief (TB); 1). S.l., Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor, WSUP
Availability:
- Downloadable document: WWW PDF [358 KB]
This Topic Brief presents an overview of issues related to communal or public toilets and argues that that communal or public toilets may be the most appropriate medium-term solution in some specific situations: notably in high-density slums with a high proportion of tenants and/or frequent flooding and water-logging. [authors abstract]
“Communal toilets are seen in low-income communities of many African and Asian cities. Again, probably the best known example is from India: the SPARC model, implemented in Pune and Mumbai as a collaboration between three Indian NGOs (SPARC, the National Slum Dwellers Federation NSDF, and the women’s organisation Mahila Milan).3, 5 Under the SPARC model, communal toilets (each seat serving about 50 people) are constructed and managed by NGOs under contract from the municipality, with close community involvement; a moderate per-household monthly fee is then collected, allowing payment of an attendant with responsibility for cleaning.
We are not aware of any detailed independent evaluation of the performance of the SPARC model. Certainly it would be if interest to assess whether revenues are sufficient to ensure sustainability. There have been cases in which municipal politicians have demanded that these toilets be free, reducing revenues.5”
Kothandaraman P & Vishwanathan V (2007) Sulabh International: a movement to liberate scavengers by implementing a low-cost, safe sanitation system. UNDP “Growing
Inclusive Markets” Case Study, September 2007. http://cases.growinginclusivemarkets.org/documents/76
Burra S & Patel S (2002) Community toilets in Pune and other Indian cities. PLA Notes 44. www.planotes.org/documents/plan_04411.pdf
WSUP (2011) Documentation of WSUP-supported communal sanitation programme in Swatantra Nagar and Kaveri Nagar slums in Bangalore, India. Report for WSUP, available for
download from the WSUP website.
From E-Source news
India, Bangalore: improving water and sanitation for slum dwellers
With the help of local NGO AVAS, the residents of Sudhamnagar, a slum community in Bangalore, now have household latrines and a safe drinking water supply. Read more
Short courses
For short-term courses there are only few possibilities. One is Inclusive WASH Internet (learning sessions) from Melbourne, Australia (workshop), from 30 October 2011 – May 2012, They do a Poorest of the Poor
Discussion: February 2012, Live webinar: date tba, see more details http://www.source.irc.nl/page/67383.
Dick de Jong (Ask IRC)
Information and Communication Officer and Chief Editor Source Bulletin, IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre
