Assessment of Water Sanitation Status of a City / Towns in Developing Countries Case Study from Nepal

By Er. Dinesh Pd. Bhatt, bhattdai@gmail.com

Lecturer, Insitute of Engineering ,Thapathali Campus

Key Words: - Healthy City, Water Sanitation, Component, Indicator, Evaluation, Water sanitation Index

Abstract
In last few decades, population is growing rapidly in urban areas. Population growth in cities put pressure on all physical infrastructures. Cities wants make their delivery better than others willing to make their city best place to live. Every individual wants to live in a healthy city. Healthy City endeavor to support for good health condition of the people by creating improved physical and social environment. In developing countries that can be achieved trough proper attention in water sanitation along with road safety, food safety, social harmony, solid waste management, air pollution, housing, disaster preparedness, parks, resilience to climate change and public health. This paper mainly focuses on evaluation of cities on their delivery status on water sanitation through systematic process. Status of a city on water sanitation can be evaluated with the help of suitable indicators. Basic indicators as well as water sanitation index have been proposed to evaluate, monitor and find out the status of city and comparison between several cities. Background In last few decades, population is growing rapidly in urban areas. Peoples are migrating towards cities due to lack of economic opportunity and basic services in villages. Population growth in cities put pressure on physical infrastructures, water-sanitation, solid waste management, natural resources etc ultimately health of people. Every one wants to make his/her city healthy. Need of Evaluation Some components are basic components that are affecting the environment and health in cities. In the context of cities in Nepal, the one of major component identified is water sanitation along with road safety, food safety, social harmony, solid waste management, air pollution, housing, disaster preparedness, parks, resilience to climate change and public health. There is need of evaluation criteria to chanelize the efforts and resources to major challenging areas. Water and sanitation as Major Component Water is the most important requirement for the human life to exist. Satisfactory (adequate, safe and accessible) drinking water and sanitation are primary concern for healthy cities. Since water and sanitation are basic rights, all municipalities must be committed to deliver such services to people. The provision of safe water supply and good sanitation plays a vital role in promoting health and hygiene status of every individual and increases the productivity and

wellbeing of city as well as the nation. Water supply and sanitation are essential for economic development and poverty alleviation. Context in Nepal: Satisfactory drinking water and basic sanitation are common problems faced by cities of Nepal. Water demand of the cities has increased immensely in last few years due to the rapid growth of population and urbanization. Water has become a serious problem for the people of many cities in terms of both quantity and quality. Safe drinking water means there is reduce in health risk. Safe drinking water is suitable for all usual domestic purposes, including personal hygiene. If the water quality is not safe, it may cause serious health hazards. In Nepal piped water is also unsafe in most of areas almost throughout the year. Significant households suffer from water borne disease if they do not use their own disinfection systems at household level. Ensuring water quality is major challenge for municipal water suppliers in Nepal. In Nepal, there is less coverage of toilets even in cities. Open defecation is common practice in many areas in absence of HH toilets, which is responsible for serious health hazards, epidemics, several diseases and environmental contamination. In absence of sewerage system people have leave their wastewater in open places that is responsible for serious health hazards, epidemics, several diseases and environmental contamination. Most of cities in Nepal do not have treatment systems before disposal that is responsible for serious health hazards, epidemics, several diseases and environmental contamination of water bodies. The conditions requires in Healthy City: All the citizens must have access in satisfactory (adequate, safe and accessible) water supply. They should have access in proper sanitation. Human excreta and wastewater should be properly disposed without producing any adverse impact on environment. Methodology of Evaluation Indicators To evaluate the water sanitation status, there is need of indicators. Indicators are purposed to evaluate and monitor the performance of city towards delivery level on water sanitation. They are measures of health and of the factors that influence health in the arena of Water Sanitation. They are based on both qualitative and quantitative data. There is the requirement of indicators for the followings: To evaluate the status of the city. To find the areas to be intervene and prioritize them. To compare the health status of city with that of another. For allocation of scarce resources. For monitoring and evaluation of services, activities and programmes of service providers. To measure the extent to which the objectives and targets of a programme are being attained. Indicators of Water Sanitation Access to drinking water Access to water supply means having water within own house premises or near to house. If there is no access to water, people have to walk long distance fetching water or buy the water in

tankers and bottles thus by increasing the price of water. In addition, the combination of opportunity costs such as spending time fetching water rather than pursuing productive activities and water related health issues further hamper the capacity of households to grab opportunities for economic development. The piped water is considered as a source of safe water. In absence of continuous supply of piped water, people pick and mix a variety of informal sources such as open public sources, private boring and local water vendors. As water is basic requirement for life, every household manages it for their survival, but the major concern how they are managing it. Municipal pipe lines should provide water in their own house premises in cities. Water quantity Defining basic human needs for water is difficult. Normally we can estimate an average need of 5 liters/capita/day for drinking, plus 10 for food preparation, 15 for bathing, and 20 for basic hygiene and sanitation making a total of 50 liters/capita/day. However, domestic water demand is not simply a multiple of the population size. Per capita demand increases with urbanization and rising incomes. Per capita water demand is also indicator of human development index. Water supply is inadequate in many cities of Nepal; this has significant adverse consequences for public health and economic development of the country. Although municipal water supply pipeline in house is a matter of concern, but the main concern is it providing adequate quantity of water required for basic human needs. Water quality Improving access to safe drinking water can result tangible benefits to health. Safe drinking water means there is reduce in health risk. Safe drinking water is suitable for all usual domestic purposes, including personal hygiene. Access to drinking water can not guarantee access to safe water. If the water quality is not proper it may cause serious health hazards. In Nepal piped water is also unsafe in most of areas almost throughout the year. Significant households suffer from water borne disease if they do not use their own disinfection systems at household level. Ensuring water quality is major challenge for municipal water suppliers in Nepal. Water quality should be such that it doesnt cause adverse effect on health. If the water quality is poor it may cause serious health hazards, therefore water quality should be assured as per National Drinking Water Quality Standards 2005 or WHO standards. If the supply is not according to standard it may cause several water related diseases. Therefore, water related disease are indicator to water quality. Water Quality standards

Government of Nepal has prepared and applied National Drinking Water Quality Standards 2005 and implementation directives to ensure that the water supplied by agencies to general consumers conform to NDWQS and do not have any harmful effects to human health. Disinfection Disinfection is method of killing pathogenic organism present in water. If the quality of city supply is good, citizens need not to disinfect the water. Water is usually boiled in many cities for disinfection. Water quality can be analyzed by peoples believe on quality of water of city supply. Sanitation Toilet A toilet is a plumbing fixture primarily intended for the disposal of human excreta. In Nepal there is less coverage of toilets even in cities. Open defecation is common practice in many areas which is responsible for serious health hazards, epidemics, several diseases and environmental contamination. Toilet coverage is important parameter to test good sanitation behaviour of people. Ideally each house holds should have toilet in their premises. Sewerage System Sewerage is a system of sewers and ancillary works to convey sewage from its point of origin to a treatment plant and/or to other places of disposal. Sewer is a pipeline to convey sewage or other wastes and does not normally flow full. In absence of sewerage system people have leave their wastewater in open places that is responsible for serious health hazords, epidemics, several diseases and environmental contamination. Central sewerage collection should be in cities to remove waste water from houses properly. In Nepal most of municipalities also assocites some rural areas within their boundaries. In rural area as buildings are not close by we cannot make such a long sewer lines due to cost consideration and economy of people. Therefore, it also should be taken in consideration. Sewage disposal Sewage disposal is the process of disposing of sewage. After conveying the wastewater through sewers, the next step is its disposal either after treatment or before treatment. The wastewater treatment reduces the objectionable properties of water carried waste and makes it suitable for safe disposal in water bodies and environment. Sewage treatment After conveying the wastewater through sewers, municipalities should dispose wastewater after treatment. Wastewater disposal with out treatment pollutes the water bodies (rivers) near the cities.

Water Sanitation Index Water sanitation index have been purposed here to find out status of the city in water sanitation and comparison between, a numbers of cities or towns throughout the word. Water sanitation indicators are divided into five classes in comparison to Nepalese context. Category A means best which we want to achieve in healthy cities and category E is worst condition we have in city regards to that indicator. To find water sanitation index following formula should be used. (No. of A 4 + No. of B 3 + No. of C 2 + No. of D 1 + No. of E 0) Water sanitation index = Total no of Indicators 4 Number of A=4,B=3,C=2,D=1,E=0 will be fixed from detail criteria prescribed in table bellow. Water Sanitation index have value range 0-1.
Table 1: Indicators for the assessment of water sanitation status at municipal level Indicator Access to drinking water Definition Access to drinking water means having water with in there own house by pipe or atleast two minute walking distance. There are two types of supply systems. Continious and interminent. Calculation methods (Supply agency HH connection + HH having PSP with in 2 min walk) / Total HH Overvation and sample survey Unit Percentag e Ranking method 100%-A >80%-B >60%-C >50%-D <40%-E Continious-A Intermitent daily thrice-B Intermitent daily twice-C Intermitent daily-D Intermitent not daily -E >120 lpcd- A 100-120 lpcd -B 60-100 lpcd C 30-60 lpcd -D < 30 lpcd-E 0-5%-A 5-15%-B 15-30%-C 30-50%-D 50%-E

Water supply system

Yes/No

Water quantity

Amount of water required per person per day for drinking, cooking, bathing, washing should be adequate Quality should be such that which doesnt cause advere effect on health and reduce occurrence of water related diseases

Water related diseases

Disinfected supply to people

Water quality should be according to NDWQS.

Households Toilet

Place for disposal of urine and feces

Total Supply /Population and interview with people (sample) Records of health facilities and sample survey of patients after their consultation Household water quality test and interview (sample) Census /Municipal

Liters /person /day (lpcd) Percentag e of patients having water related diseases Percentan ge

Percentan ge

100%-A >80%-B >60%-C >50%-D <40%-E 100%-A >80%-B

records and sample survey Access to safe disposal of sewage Disposal of sewage through sewer with sewage treatment in dense housing areas and septic tanks in isolated households Municipal records (sewer conection) observation of treatment facilities and septic tank (samples) Percentag e

>60%-C >50%-D <40%-E 100%-A >80%-B >60%-C >50%-D <40%-E

Conclusion If a city gets less index number in water sanitation, we can conclude there is a lot to do in this respect. Again go through indicator, those are reducing the index to find the major interventions we have made to improve the situation. It helps to identify the critical issues of water sanitation to
be solved within the city. Explore and report on particular problems of interest and roles of different stakeholders defining required standard and targets for city for different indicators. To achieve the improvements in most problem areas shown by indicators prepare a clear strategy and plan with service providers and stakeholders related to components need to improvement.

REFERENCES
Department of Water Supply and Sewerage (2005), National Drinking Water Quality Standards Khatri, N. R. (2009), Promotion of Healthy city concept in Nepal. Tsouros, A. D. (1997), Twenty steps for developing a Healthy Cities project, 3rd Edition ,World Health Organation , Regional Office for Europe. WHO (2002). Healthy Cities Initiative in the African Region: Evaluation Manual., World Health Organation , Regional Office for Africa. Brazzaville. WHO (2000), Regional Guidelines for developing a healthy cities project, WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific.