Strategic Sanitation Approach/Strategic Sanitation Planning (SSA/SSP)

The Strategic Sanitation Approach/Strategic Sanitation Planning (SSA/SSP) is an approach to the delivery of urban sanitation services that engages with all the factors; social, technical, institutional and economic, which impact on the potential for sustained services provision to all sectors of the urban community. It focuses on incentives, demand responsiveness, unbundling of service delivery, and availability of choice between a range of technical, financial, and management options.

Table of Contents

Background

Developed in the late 1980’s, SSA was piloted in Kumasi, Ghana, and in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso by the Water and Sanitation Program of the World Bank, its underlying principles are:

  • demand orientation - in other words its assumption that sanitation services should be responsive to the expressed needs of users who should demonstrate this demand by bearing some or all of the costs incurred in meeting those needs;
  • attention to incentives –identifying factors which tend to improve behaviour and performance of stakeholders relating to the sound management of completed facilities;
  • horizontal unbundling –(or decentralised sanitation) in which large cities are subdivided into two or more small parallel independent sanitation service areas or zones;
  • vertical unbundling where management of upstream sanitation services (toilets, neighbourhood networks, collection of on-site pit waste, management of local re-use etc) can be separated from the management of downstream collection, treatment and re-use/disposal of the resultant waste streams. 
  • choice between a range of technological, financing, and management options; and
  • use of a neighbourhood-centered approach to sanitation, in which the neighbourhood, community, or the smallest independent parallel sanitation area, serves as the pivotal point for aggregation of household demand and the first level of zonal sanitation demand expression and, hence, sanitation service planning and service delivery

Experience to date

SSA was the basis for the Bombay (Mumbai) Slum Sanitation Project designed in 1995 as part of a World Bank sewage disposal project for Mumbai, India.  Its principles are inherent in the unbundling of sewerage in Bangkok; in the condominial sewerage system for Brasilia and other cities in Brazil and Latin America; in the most recent form of the Orangi Pilot Project’s approach to urban sanitation in Pakistan; and in Indonesia, where its principles have shaped the design of the Indonesia Sanitation Sector Development Program (ISSDP).

Experience in Bharatpur, India concluded that the SSA is quite different to standard municipal practice and for widespread adoption state governments need to incorporate such practices into municipal routines. The pilot also highlighted the acute need for capacity-building of government staff if they are to fulfil the managerial and technical responsibilities that come with use of the approach (Colin, 2000). 

In contrast, Vezina (2002) reports greater success with using SSA in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Here a parastatal organisation (the National Water and Sanitation Office (ONEA)) has been appointed by the government as the lead agency in the sanitation sector; this has given it the necessary authority to carry out its work. ONEA itself generates the funds to finance the sanitation improvements by levying a surcharge on the cost of treated water. These funds do not go through the central government budget so the fact that the same institution is responsible both for levying the surcharge and implementing the programme has been critical and an important part of the approach’s success.

Evidence of effectiveness

In Indonesia, where the ISSDP is ongoing, central government has indicated that city sanitation strategies will in future provide the framework for allocations to cities for sanitation investments.  The new approach to planning is being adopted within established administrative processes and the government intends to scale up the formulation of city strategies from 2010 onwards (Colin, 2009).  Technical assistance will be made available to develop capacity for sanitation planning and investment at all levels of government.  Small incremental steps are planned and implemented as part of the larger, longer-term strategy.

Colin, J., Ceetelaar, C., Utomo, N.T. and Blackett, I.C. (2009).  Urban Sanitation in Indonesia: Planning for Progress, WSP-EAP, Jakarta, Indonesia.  http://www.wsp.org/UserFiles/file/Urban_San_Indonesia.pdf    Accessed March 2010.

Salifu, L. (2008). Presentation from the 2008 World Water Week in Stockholm.  WasteCare Associates, Ghana. 

GHK (2002).  Effective Strategic Planning for Urban Sanitation Services, Fundamentals of Good Practice.  GHK Research and Training, UK.    http://www.ghkeurope.com/products/prd02.asp?id=4 Accessed March 2010.

Orangi Pilot Project Institutions and Programs (2002).  89th Quarterly Report, Jan, Feb, March 2002. Orangi Pilot Project Institutions and Programs, Karachi, Pakistan.

Vezina, M. (2002). The Ouagadougou Strategic Sanitation Plan: An Holistic Approach to a City’s Problems.  Field Note 10, Blue Gold Series. WSP, Africa

WHO (2002).  Mumbai Slum Dwellers’ Sewage Project Goes Nationwide. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 2002 80 (8).  WHO, Geneva, Switzerland.

Colin, J. (2000). Urban Environmental Sanitation Planning. Lessons from Bharatpur, Rajasthan, India WSP SA, New Delhi India. http://www.sulabhenvis.in/admin/upload/pdf_upload/sa_bharatpur.pdf Accessed March 2010.

Tayler, K., Colin, J. and Parkinson, J. (2000). Strategic Sanitation Planning, A Guide. GHK, WEDC and WSP South Asia, UK.

Neder, K. D. (1999).  Condominial Sewerage Systems for the Federal District of Brazil.  The 1999 Water Supply and Sanitation Forum on Financing Sustainable Services. World Bank Institute and the Water & Sanitation Division of the World Bank. Washington DC, USA

Saywell, D. and Cotton, A. (1998). Strategic Sanitation Approach - a review of literature. Water, Engineering, and Development Centre (WEDC), Loughborough University, UK

Tayler, K. (1998).  Strategic Sanitation in South Asia. 24th WEDC Conference, Sanitation and Water for All. Islamabad, Pakistan.

Orangi Pilot Project Research and Training Institute (1998).  Proposal for a sewerage disposal system for Karachi. City Press, Karachi, Pakistan

Wright, A.M. (1997).  Toward a strategic sanitation approach: improving the sustainability of urban sanitation in developing countries. UNDP http://www-wds.worldbank.org  Accessed March 2010.

World Bank (1995).  Bombay Sewage Disposal Project: Staff Appraisal Report.  World Bank, Washington DC, USA.

Resources

This article is linked to the article on Environmental Sanitation Planning for the Urban Poor. Other related sections are:

This collection of atricles were contributed by Elizabeth Tiley (project officer at Eawag) and Andy Peal. The issues and topics addressed are based on the title, Hygiene and Sanitation Software: An Overview of Approaches, by Andy Peal, Barbara Evans,and Carolien van der Voorden.

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