State workshop on ‘Septage Management for Cityside Inclusive Sanitation’

Govt. of Uttar Pradesh and Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) have a strong relationship in providing better sanitation services, including FSSM to the urban citizen of Uttar Pradesh. The journey of CSE’s partnership with the Govt. of Uttar Pradesh has begun in 2015 and over time the relationship got stronger. CSE has separate Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Department of Urban Development, National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), Regional Centre for Urban and Environmental Studies (RCUES), Lucknow, Chunar Municipality and Bijnor Municipality. Further, CSE works in close coordination with Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam (UPJN), AMRUT, Swachh Bharat Mission (urban) and Directorate of Urban Local Bodies.

The focus of CSE’s support has remained on supporting the government departments in achieving mandates given under various govt. programmes in the sanitation field by bringing insights from field level findings, supporting in preparation of policy documents and designing and implementing capacity building initiatives.

A workshop was proposed on 29^th July, 2022 in collaboration with (AMRUT/DoUD) to share the findings of the report related to the status of the FSSM projects in UPand having an effective discussion to take the FSSM journey forward. The specific objective of the workshop was:

• Launch of the Report: Sab keliyeswachhshaher :SwachhtakaNaya Safar.
• Felicitation front runner ULBs (Construction of Septage Treatment infrastructure)
• Identification of Bottlenecks in completion of works, Enabling Bye Laws and , Challenges and Priorities for City Wide Inclusive Sanitation

The workshop was organized jointly by CSE, Department of Urban Development (DoUD) Government of Uttar Pradesh, and AMRUT. The meeting discussed the current state of faecal sludge and septage management (FSSM) systems and practices in Uttar Pradesh, the challenges faced by cities in managing urban sanitation, and what could be an effective roadmap for the future. A report on Septage Management for City-wide Inclusive Sanitation in Uttar Pradesh was released on the occasion.

The event was presided by Director General- CSE, Director- Water- CSE, Principal Secretary- DoUD, Additional Mission Director- AMRUT, Director, Local bodies Directorate,DoUD.

The felicitation for the three best performing ULBs (Jhansi, Chunar and Bijnor) were done during the event.