ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL; Implementing technical and social assessments of sanitation reforms in rural Indonesia

ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL; Implementing technical and social assessments of sanitation reforms in rural Indonesia

Binol, R.R.

Lier, J.B. van (mentor)
Kreuk, M.K. de (mentor)
Molenbroek, J.F.M. (mentor)

Civil Engineering and Geosciences

Water Management

Sanitary Engineering

2013-08-30

The deadline for the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) No. 7, to halve the world’s population without access to improved sanitation is fast approaching. Reports have shown that significant progress have been made since its first initiation in the 1990s. Unfortunately, based on the current development rate, the estimated population of the world that will have improved sanitation in 2015 will be 67%, which lags behind the target goal of 75%. Regardless, countries, government agents, sanitation experts and health organizations worldwide are continuously cooperating together to stay on track with the MDG with the objective of improving the health of the world’s population and to achieve environmental preservation. In order to provide sanitation facilities that achieves this objective, many different types of decision-making frameworks have been developed to guide decision makers in selecting the most optimal sanitation facility that could function under local conditions. These tools have varying criteria, there are one that focuses on the technical feasibility and other assess the systems based on the incurred cost as well as the willingness to pay of the user. Models that recognizes the sensitivity of the social-cultural influence of the users have also been created. Though, difficulties may come when communities ought to be assessed and expressing findings or social phenomenon in quantified values. In light of progressive development in the sanitation world, this research aims to participate in implementing a socio-tech assessment on sanitation options in Banten, Indonesia. It has been abundantly seen that sanitation options implemented in the past stopped functioning within a period after its construction. Poor operation and maintenance, lack of managerial oversight and unavailable funds are some of the issues that trigger the abandonment of these monumental sites. The technical functionality of different sanitation options will be assessed by adopting the decision making tool developed by Malekpour (2012). Furthermore, social assessments using qualitative analysis were conducted using three different case studies to investigate the current practices of the communities and to identify their needs and requirements with the available sanitation options. The three different sanitation systems that have passed the screening stage were 1) pour flushed toilet – communal septic tank – subsurface constructed wetland; 2) pour flush toilet – communal septic tank – upflow filter; and 3) pour flush toilet – biogas digester. After sanitation options were assessed based on a probability evaluation on their performances for the criteria of exposure to health hazard, accessibility, reliability and sustainability, the sanitation option that performed the best was the option that used the pour flush-toilet connected to a communal septic tank and subsurface wetland. Results from the social assessments showed that receptivity of a technology is greatly influenced on its fulfilment on the demands of the users. Factors found to be of dominant requirements include: maintainability, affordability, water accessibility and convenience. By combining the findings from both the technical and social assessment, this research proposes an open toilet design that have been tailored to the practices of the local users, with a squatting pour flush toilet pan (aiding local users that are classified as washers), connected to a communal septic tank and finally to a constructed wetland with subsurface flow. This design aims to attain acceptability from the users, to motivate optimal usage of the facility and achieve health and environmental improvement in the project area of Banten, Indonesia.

socio-tech assessment
sanitation
Banten

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:2bb6c35c-40d7-4ded-876c-dd4d911ae94b

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2013 Binol, R.R.