FAECAL SLUDGE MANAGEMENT SERVICES FOR BAKSHI KAA TAALAB TOWN, LUCKNOW IN UP, INDIA

Abstract

Bakshi Kaa Taalab (BKT) is a small town situated in district Lucknow of Uttar Pradesh in India with a
population of 49,166 (Census 2011). WaterAid India and Vigyan Foundation with the help of Municipality of BKT
has carried out rapid scoping study of FSM services for BKT in year 2018. 93% of the septic tanks installed by
households are overflowing into open drains while 67% households have never resorted to emptying their septic tanks.
Faecal Sludge therefore is dispersed mostly in open environment in BKT town calling for immediate action by all
stakeholders. This paper narrates key findings of study.The study titled “FSM services for BKT” is based on
Household level survey of total 57 households (3 Households from 19 wards) and key informant interviews with
desludging services providers both from municipality and private informal sector. 89% household surveyed were
having one toilet whereas 9 % of household were having 2 toilets and another 2% had 3 or more number of toilets
within households. BKT also has plans under SBM for 2 Public Toilets and 19 Community Toilets. BKT had 8728
families as per census 2011. All these toilets are connected to a so called structure of Septic Tank. 93% of Households
have Pucca (well build house) structure whereas another 5% households have semi pucca (Semi Well Built House)
and 2% households have Kutcha (temporary shelter) structure.
BKT posed a typical challenge of a small town situated very close to big city in terms of absence of sewerage services
and poor management of faecal sludge. The quick assessment of FSM in BKT presents a pathetic picture of largely
unregulated FSM services and recommends for a quick action on regulating and organizing FSM services across the
value chain of safe containment, safe emptying, safe transportation, safe treatment and reuse of Faecal Sludge by
NPP BKT with technical support from external agencies and state authorities. BKT can become, in effect, Open
Defecation Free (ODF) only when the Faecal Sludge is managed safely and effectively.
Based on rapid assessment, the research team suggests a model of FSM services that is economically self-sustainable
to run the transportation and treatment costs of BKT Nagar Panchayat. The model proposed consists of construction
of a 25 KLD Faecal Sludge Treatment plant by BKT Nagar Panchayat and running 3 emptiers of 5 KLD each for
collection and transportation of 25 KLD septage daily to treatment Plant. The desludging charges are proposed to
start with same amount that is being charged currently by private service provider.The scheduled desludging period of
at least once in every 3 years, regulation of emptiers , fixation of route map ,regulation of emptying charges,
monitoring with GPS installed emptiers trucks , 24X 7 Help line for citizens are some of the recommendations from
the study.
Construction and operation of FSTP of at least 25 KLD capacity to begin with, in Mubarakpur area (where the land is
observed to be available for this purpose by municipality), shall be the first step towards organizing the FSM services
by BKT NPP. Since the design capacity is not expected to be used initially completely, it is proposed to collect sludge
from septic tanks from adjoining rural villages as well on a nominal tipping fees and desludging charges as regulated
by BKT NPP. The FSM Model proposed is for small towns and adjoin 8-10 GPs with predominance of septic tanks
and can be Rurban model for achieving economies of scale in FSM services.