SCOPE OF THE TERM ‘SANITATION CONSERVANCY’

The Oxford dictionary defines ‘Sanitation’ as, conditions relating to public health, especially
the provision of clean drinking water and adequate sewage disposal1. And term ‘Conservancy’
has been defined in the Oxford dictionary as, a body concerned with the preservation of natural
resources or the conservation of wildlife and the environment2. Hence, the term ‘sanitation
conservancy’ should refer to a body which performs services (or refers to the services) which are
concerned with regard to maintaining sanitation services for e.g. provision of clean drinking water,
sewage disposal etc.

The term ‘Sanitation Conservancy’ has not been defined as such in any Act or anywhere else in
the Indian legal literature. However the meaning can be gathered from a variety of other sources
and similar terms as defined or described in various Acts, policies of the Government, foreign
laws, research papers in renowned journals, books by some renowned authors, as defined in
publications by international organizations and many other such resources.

A report by World Health Organization3 has defined ‘Sanitation’ as a ‘big idea’ which covers
inter alia:

 safe collection, storage, treatment and disposal/reuse/recycling of human excreta (faeces

and urine);
 management/reuse/recycling of solid wastes (trash or rubbish);
 drainage and disposal/reuse/recycling of household wastewater (often referred to as sullage
or grey water);
 drainage of stromwater;
 treatment and disposal/reuse/recycling of sewage effluents;
 collection and management of industrial waste products; and

1
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/sanitation.
2
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/conservancy.
3
Securing Sanitation – The compelling case to address the crisis, Stockholm International Water Institute and World
Health Organization, http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/hygiene/securingsanitation.pdf.
  management of hazardous wastes (including hospital wastes, and chemical/radioactive and
other dangerous substances).

Madhya Pradesh Municipal Corporation Act, 19564 provides under the head of
‘Conservancy’, following services and procedures:

 deposit of rubbish, offensive matter, sewage and carcasses of dead animals

accumulating in the Municipal Area at some particular public depots or receptacle as
provided and appointed by the Commissioner;
 public notice may be given by the Commissioner of the collection and removal of
sewage, offensive matter and rubbish from lands and the buildings in any part of the
city to be taken by the municipal agency, and shall forthwith to take measures for the
due collection and removal of such matters from any lands and buildings situated in the
said part of the city;
 guidelines regarding the collection and temporary deposit of rubbish and offensive
matter by occupiers of premises; and
 prohibition of accumulation of offensive matter or sewage on any street, or in any place
not provided or appointed for the purpose under the provision of the MP Act, 1956.

The MP Act, 1956 further goes on to define more services under the head of ‘Sanitation
Services’5, the following services:

 construction of places for public bathing, etc;

 prohibition of corruption of water by steeping therin animal or other matter;
 regulation of washing clothes by washerman and washing places to be provided by
Commissioner for washerman.

Sanitation and Conservancy Regulation, 19696 defines ‘conservancy service’ as a service to

provide for the cleansing or emptying of sanitary pails or other similar containers, septic tanks,
aqua privies or cesspools or to provide movable toilets or other temporary toilets.

4
Sec 213 – Sec 216, Madhya Pradesh Municipal Corporation Act, 1956 (hereinafter MP Act, 1956),
http://www.dit.mp.gov.in/documents/10180/5df2dd60-50b0-426b-b4ef-d0dad9b9a574.
5
Sec 217- 219, MP Act, 1956
6
Section 3, Sanitation and Conservancy Regulation, 1969 (hereinafter ‘the UK Act, 1969’),
https://www.elegislation.gov.hk/hk/cap132BT?pmc=1&m=1&pm=0.
The UK Act, 1969, also further under the part IV of the legislation provides for the provisions
related to the disposal of contents of sanitary pails, etc.7 It provides that no person shall dispose of
any of the contents of any sanitary pail or container from any premises or any part of any premises
except through a conservancy service operated by the Director.

[Now a day's many municipal corporations / municipalities are outsourcing the activities of solid
waste collection (both door-to-door from premises and from streets), its transportation, treatment
and management. The reasons are obvious. The civic amenities ought to be provided and our local
bodies or authorities entrusted with such tasks are not equipped to handle and carryout such
functions. The result is that these activities are now a days being outsourced to private specialized
agencies or some organizations working on a PPP model, of course for a consideration.

The question arises as to whether such services, though listed as a sovereign function to be carried
out by the municipal corporations (say local authorities) under the Constitution, if carried out by
private players, be liable to levy of Service Tax. This needs to be analyzed in the light of scope of
service and exemptions provided under the Service Tax law.

The main activities in such arrangement are to undertake the activities related to waste
management which, inter alia, includes door-to-door collection, segregation, transportation,
processing, composting, recycling, trading, treatment and disposal of all type of waste (whether
solid or liquid) including Municipal Solid Waste (MSW), E-Waste and Commercial and Demolish
Waste (C &D).

Services provided to Government, a local authority or a governmental authority by way of water

supply, public health, sanitation conservancy, solid waste management or slum improvement and
upgradation or repair or maintenance of vessel or an aircraft are exempted in Entry No. 25 under
mega exemption Notification No. 25/2012-ST dated 20.06.2012.

This entry covers the following activities carried out by way of-

(i) water supply

(ii) public health
(iii) sanitation conservation

7
Section 8, UK Act, 1969.
 (iv) slum improvement / up-gradation

Hence all the aforementioned services are of public interest and if rendered to Government
(whether Union or of States) or to any local authority or governmental authority shall be exempt
from service tax.]8

[However despite all the sanitation conservancy services, 620 million people or 50% of the
population in India still defecate in open.9 Regarding the Conservancy Sanitation with respect
to Modern Requirements, an author writes that, there has developed in various direction a need for
sanitary appliances of types specially suited for use in places other than habitable buildings, and
at the present time, with the construction of air raid shelters throughout the country and the need
for their proper equipment, the provision of sanitary accommodation independently of water and
sewage services presents a problem of front-rank importance to local authorities and those who
advise them.10 Hence, institutions need to be reshaped to address the urgent need to increase access
to basic services.

The Indian Government therefore, launched the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) with an
ambitious goal to end open defecation in India by 2019. Along with providing funding, the SBM
has also sought active participation from the corporate sector to tackle the issue. Companies have
responded to this call-to-action with enthusiasm, many leveraging Section 135 of the Companies
Act, 2013, which introduced mandatory Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), to contribute to
the campaign.

Despite this significant interest and participation from companies, little is known about their
approach, the nature of their interventions and the barriers they face while implementing programs
in the field of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH). Hence, for a well-functioning WASH
market, gaps in the ecosystem need to be addressed. There needs to be more attention given to
financing solutions for stakeholders, innovations should be encouraged across the value-chain,

8
Service Tax on Soild Waste Management Services, Sanjiv Agrawal, https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/service-tax-
solid-waste-management-services-agarwal-sanjiv-company.
9
WHO/UNICEF JointMonitoring Program(JMP) Study on Water Supply and Sanitation(2011).
10
Conservancy Sanitation: Its adaptation to Modern Requirements, with Special Refrence to Problems connected
with Air Raid Precautions, Henry H Clay, Sage Journals, Volume 6o Issue 3, Page 128-138,
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/146642403906000307?journalCode=rsha.
actionable knowledge produced and disseminated and stakeholders supported through capacity
building initiatives.]11

Hence the scope of the definition of ‘Sanitation Conservancy’ has widened in light of all these
developments.

11
CSR in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), Indian Sanitation Coalition (ISC),
ficci.in/spdocument/20736/CSR-in-WASH.pdf.