WASPA

Introduction

With a view to meeting the United Nations Millennium Development Goals to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger and ensure environmental sustainability, the use of wastewater in agriculture is now strongly promoted as a way to help communities grow more food and conserve water and nutrient resources. In Bangladesh, wastewater management is a relatively new concept.

The Wastewater, Agriculture and Sanitation for Poverty Alleviation (WASPA) in Asia project was implemented under the direct supervision of the NRC of NGO Forum for Drinking Water Supply & Sanitation in collaboration with the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Sri Lanka; COSI, Sri Lanka; International Water and Sanitation Centre (IRC), the Netherlands; and Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), Sweden, funded primarily by the EU Asia Pro Eco II Programme of the European Commission. The objective of WASPA was to develop and test solutions for wastewater management and sanitation in order to reduce risks and improve the livelihoods of peri-urban and urban farmers using wastewater in agriculture, the communities responsible for producing the wastewater and also those consuming the agricultural produce. The project period was from January 2006 to December 2008 and was undertaken at two different sites, Rajshahi in Bangladesh and Kurunegala in Sri Lanka. Both cities were selected because they have inadequate sanitation and wastewater treatment facilities, open sewers, and areas where untreated wastewater is used for irrigation.

Background

Rajshahi City is located in the north west of Bangladesh and covers an area of approximately 48 km2. The population of Rajshahi City was approximately 0.8 million in 2005 (Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, 2005). The city has an extensive drainage network that was initially designed to receive storm water. However as there are no centralized wastewater treatment facilities, the drains also receive significant quantities of domestic wastewater and effluent from commercial units including health care facilities and small scale industries, in particular the silk industry. Many households use settlement tanks to collect their domestic wastewater and although they are mostly referred to as septic tanks, they are usually not properly designed and provide little treatment apart from the settlement of solids prior to the wastewater being discharged into the drains. The drains are mainly uncovered and as a result they collect large amounts solid waste.

Several of the main drains that pass through the city flow through an area of 98 ha in which intensive agriculture is practiced by some 247 farmers. The farmers in this area use the urban wastewater for irrigation. In addition to its agriculture end-use, observations have also been made of people bathing and washing household items in drains on the outer edges of the city. Due to the complex network of drains and the locations where wastewater agriculture is practiced around the Rajshahi city, the area selected for project implementation is irrigated by two main drains. Paddy, wheat and leafy vegetables are the main crops grown by the farmers in the area.

Before management strategies and solutions could be proposed or implemented it was necessary to understand the current conditions in the urban and peri-urban areas and existing practices associated with urban wastewater management and the use of wastewater for agriculture in Rajshahi. A series of background studies including water quality assessment, sanitation assessment, stakeholder identification, institutional analysis and review of wastewater agriculture practices were conducted.

Learning Alliance and Participatory Action Plans

To ensure the sustainability of the measures taken to improve the wastewater management and sanitation issues associated with wastewater agriculture, a participatory approach was adopted whereby relevant stakeholders were included in the decision making, planning and implementation processes through the establishment of a local Learning Alliance (LA). The LA formed included representatives from the community, local government, private sector and NGOs. The preliminary background studies were first shared with the LA members to increase their understanding and awareness of the issues associated with wastewater management and its end-use in agriculture around Rajshahi. The stakeholders discussed the findings and concluded on the key issues that affected them. This knowledge sharing exercise helped to build consensus and create an understanding of the opportunities and constraints that are faced by various stakeholders.

Based on this increased knowledge and shared understanding the LA members worked together to define the local priorities for managing the urban wastewater for agricultural production and jointly developed Participatory Action Plans (PAPs) that were prioritized and undertaken in collaboration with the relevant stakeholders. The PAPs included construction of garbage traps along the drains; training for farmers using wastewater; community awareness of hygiene practices, sanitation and handling of wastewater crops; review of regulations and their implementation; feasibility study of small-bore sewage system; investigation of cleaner production options for the local industries; investigation of appropriate natural wastewater treatment options for Basuar Beel.

Lessons Learnt

The project demonstrated the value of involving all stakeholders in the planning, assessment and implementation phases as it helped to ensure that the activities undertaken were realistic and accepted by the community. It also increased the ownership, accountability and responsibility of the stakeholders in relation to the actions taken. More importantly, the approach adopted had built capacity, increased awareness and strengthened relationships between the stakeholders and this was essential for ensuring the sustainability of the solutions implemented and that wastewater and sanitation issues associated with the use of wastewater in agriculture will continue to be addressed beyond the project period. In testing this participatory approach however a number of valuable lessons were learnt that are applicable to other cities where similar projects may be carried out.

Fostering good relations between the LA members is also crucial because improving collaboration between stakeholders and ensuring this cooperation continues after the project period is essential if the solutions implemented are to be sustainable. The implementation of some of the PAPs required significant stakeholder involvement, commitment and time and therefore maintaining momentum and motivation is crucial. Evidently there are numerous obvious benefits of adopting a participatory approach including capacity building of stakeholders, increased collaboration and ownership of solutions. For the community it provided a means for them to articulate their needs and for these needs to be addressed in more socially acceptable and sustainable ways.

WASPA

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