Ahmedabad Sanitation Action Lab (ASAL)

USAID India Partnerships Program

Anand Rudra
USAID/India
February 17, 2015

In partnership with

Government of Gujarat
Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation
Sintex Industries Limited
Mahila Housing SEWA Trust

What is Ahmedabad Sanitation Action

Lab (ASAL)?

USAIDs India Partnerships Program Urban India

Water and Sanitation for Health Alliance (Urban
WASH Alliance), supports

Ahmedabad Sanitation
Action Lab (ASAL)
-

ASAL is an actionresearch for innovating and

implementing inclusive solutions to urban
sanitation problems

Municipal schools will be at the core of the

intervention incorporating concepts of water,
sanitation and hygiene (WASH)

ASAL will create child ambassadors for WASH in

their homes and neighbourhoods

ASAL a pilot in Ahmedabad will be scaled-up

and replicated across Gujarat

Program funding

Program design,
implementation,
management and
monitoring

Scaling-up and
replication

Role

Organisation

Primary donor

USAID

Matching grant
providers and
implementation
partners

Government of Gujarat
Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation
Sintex Industries Ltd.

Program lead

Urban Management Centre

Community
engagement partner

Mahila Housing Trust

Scaling-up partner

City Managers Association of Gujarat

Municipal Corporation of Pune

Observers and learners

Municipal Corporation of Indore

50 Municipalities of Gujarat

Communication
and dissemination

Communication and
dissemination partners

Mudra Institute of Communication

Theatre Media Centre

Problem statement

Increasing priority of government

Pehle shauchalaya, phir devalaya
First toilets, then temples
Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India
At a function organized in New Delhi for the youth, October, 2013

The need for sanitation is of utmost importance. Although the Central

Government is providing resources within its means, the task of total sanitation
cannot be achieved without the support of all. The Government intends to cover
every household by total sanitation by the year 2019, the 150th year of the Birth
anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi through Swatchh Bharat Abhiyan.
Arun Jaitley, Finance Minister of India,
Para 30, Union Budget, 2014-15

"Clean India" campaign from 2nd October this year and carry
it forward in 4 years. I want to make a beginning today itself
and that is - all schools in the country should have toilets
with separate toilets for girls.
The government should utilise its budget on providing toilets.
I call upon the corporate sector also to give priority to the
provision of toilets in schools with your expenditure under
Corporate Social Responsibility. This target should be
finished within one year with the help of state governments
and on the next 15th August, we should be in a firm position
to announce that there is no school in India without separate
toilets for boys and girls
Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India
Independence Day Speech in New Delhi August 15th , 2014

PAS Project

Launch of Ahmedabad Sanitation Action Lab

Was launched formally by the
Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation
on 2nd Oct 2014 aligning with the
launch of the Swachh Bharat
Mission by the Government of
India

Problem statement

Policy, process and financial gaps

Infrastructure gaps
Communication gaps

Problem statement

Issues in policy, process and financial gaps

-

Absence of convergence between various

stakeholders for WASH activities stakeholders
such as State Dept. of Health and Family
Welfare, State Dept. of Education, State Dept. of
Women and Child Development and AMC

Absence of systems and regimes within local

government no standard operating procedures
for operation, maintenance & repairs of
sanitation facilities, and on-site sanitation
systems

Deficiency in beneficiary contributions for

availing various sanitation schemes of State and
local governments

Limited accessibility of advance governance

systems (e-gov/ m-gov) to the urban poor

Insensitivity towards gender requirements in

sanitation, especially in schools

Problem statement

Issues in sanitation infrastructure provision to

urban poor
-

Many parts of the city are not covered by safe

drinking water

Large parts of slums do not have access to safe

sanitation facilities

Many municipal schools lack clean, maintained

and usable water provisions and toilets

Many toilets in slums are not connected to safe

waste water disposal systems

Open defecation is prevalent in the city and

manual scavenging has been reported by
independent sources

Garbage nuisance spots are spread across the

city, especially in slums

Problem statement

Gaps in behaviour change communication

-

Insufficient WASH activities in municipal schools

Lack of motivation in schools to adopt and

spread WASH learnings

Negligible attention towards menstrual hygiene

in municipal schools

Limited household level outreach to disseminate

WASH

Existing network of SHGs/ CBOs not utilised for

sanitation awareness

inadequate campaign by local government for

eliminating open defecation

Interventions proposed

Interventions proposed

Source: http://www.unicef.org/wash/index_43084.html

ASAL will contribute to USAIDs goal CDO 3:

Development innovations impact people's lives
at the base of the pyramid (BOP) in a range of
sectors in India.
Three pillars of sustainable WASH will be
adopted to address the issues highlighted in
the problem statement:
i. Enabling environments
ii. Behavioural change
iii. Water and sanitation services

Interventions proposed

ASAL will intervene in 5 slums of Ahmedabad with a

wider outreach to 70 slums through schools and
CBOs.
Activity No.

Activity title

KA 1.00

Creating enabling environment

KA 2.00

Behaviour change

KA 3.00

Water-sanitation and health improvements

KA 4.00

Dissemination and replication

KA 1.00: Creating enabling environment

Illustrative results
-

Standard design manual for individual toilets,

public toilets and on-site sanitation facilities
prepared and 1000 copies disseminated

A framework for monitoring by citizens prepared

for the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation

Fifty elected officials sensitised on water and

sanitation through training workshops

120 SHGs/ CBOs or citizen leaders trained on egovernance and m-governance

200 sanitation workers trained in following SOPs

200 officials sensitised on WASH, convergence

between engineering and health departments

3 standard operating procedures prepared

Review and improvements to existing municipal

administrative procedures for water-sanitation
access prepared

Gujarat WASH Alliance formed

KA 2.00: Behavioural change

KA 2.00: Behavioural change

Illustrative results
Thirty percent of schools with soap and water
at a hand washing station commonly used by
school children
-

Communication strategy developed

150 kits containing training material and

communication products developed and
disseminated

150 municipal schools and 25,000 students

reached through the sanitation campaign

10,000 number of school girls made aware

of menstrual hygiene

120 of CBOs/ SHG members trained and

sensitised for WASH

100,000 slum and slum-like community

residents reached for behaviour change

KA 3.00: Water, sanitation and health improvement

KA 3.00: Water, Sanitation and Health

improvement

Illustrative results
-

20 schools provided with improved water

supply and improved sanitation facilities

25,000 residents of slum and slum-like

communities provided with access to safe
sanitation.

KA 4.00: Dissemination and replication

KA 4.00: Dissemination and replication

Illustrative results
- 20 NGOs and institutions reached through the
national workshop
- 166 cities in Gujarat reached
- 400 municipal officers reached
- 8 issues of e-WASH newsletter disseminated

UMC is working hands-on with municipalities in Gujarat since 2009

providing technical support

General Profile of Schools

School Name

Vasna
school No. 1

Mediu
m of No. of
Shift of
No. of
School Instruct students teachers
ion
254
Morning
Guj
(All
7
Girls)

PT meetings

Yes

Guj

551
(All
Girls)

14

Yes

Afternoo
n

Guj

557
(All
Boys)

15

Yes

Afternoo
n

Guj

254
(All
Girls)

Yes

Guj

343
(All
Boys)

10

Yes

Guj

579
(All
Boys)

15

Yes

Vasna
school No. 2

Afternoo
n

Vasna
school No. 6
Chandola
School No.
2
Danilimda
school No. 1

Morning

Danilimda
school No. 2

Afternoo
n

Source: As per the information given by Principals of respective schools during inte

Condition of toilet in Chandola School

O&M Issues in toilets in schools, no water connections

Target beneficiaries

Target beneficiaries
-

ASAL would concentrate intervention in 5 slums and a wider reach through schools and CBOs to 70 slums in
Ahmedabad

The key target group includes school children, young adults, women between the ages of 15 49, and children under
5 years of age

ASAL aims to reach out to about 100,000 people including residents of slum/ slum-like areas and municipal school
children

ASAL activities will target slums and KFAs of Ahmedabad but it is envisaged that the benefits would be accrued by
the entire city

The results and the learnings of the program will be shared with fifty other cities of Gujarat and in cities of Indore
and Pune.

Thank you
Email ID : arudra@usaid.gov
Urban WASH Alliance proposals
http://www.grants.gov/web/grants/viewopportunity.html?oppId=222653