Water Aid India is representing as member of the Technical Support Committee for supporting the implementation of FSM in rural India through pilots and replication. This pilot’s aim at demonstrating simple, sustainable and replicable FSM models in rural area of the states.

Bhartiya Grameen Mahila Sangh in Indore is NGO partners in this pilot Project. BGMS was given an opportunity to work on FSM in rural areas in June, 2019 by WaterAid. Although, the organization holds a long experience of working on the issue of urban sanitation even then it was a little challenging to work on rural FSM in the beginning.

To begin with, realizing the need for better understanding of the subject matter and place of execution, BGMS accumulated a list of four blocks in Indore district that have the largest population and highest number of toilets whose tank have to be emptied periodically. Thereafter, the organization gave a visit to these shortlisted gram panchayats.

Given that proper FSM can only be ensured through FSTP, for successful operation of FSTP, factors like availability of sludge and area of land for proposed FSTP were kept in mind while selecting gram panchayats.

After considering above mentioned factors and after visiting various gram panchayats for FSM, Kali Billod Panchayat falling in Depalpur Block in Indore district was found appropriate along with Ranmal Billod and Salampur as two adjacent gram panchayats.

About Kali Billod

Kali billod is a village in Depalpur Tehsil in Indore District of Madhya Pradesh state, India. It belongs to Indore division and located at 31 km towards west from Indore city. Kali billod has Depalpur Tehsil towards the north, Mhow tehsil towards the south, Nalchaha tehsil towards south, Indore tehsil towards east. Pithampur, Mhowgaon, Mhow cantonment, Rau are the nearby cities to Kali Billod.

There are basically two types of settlements in these GPs viz typical rural and semi-urban (colony). People in colony area mostly works in Pithampur and nearby industries whereas, people from rural area are farmers, currently, around 70% of total population of three GPs is residing in colonies.

Before implementing the project, it was necessary to understand the following things:

• What type of toilets are made in intervention area?
• What is the existing system / practice of emptying the tanks and disposing the sludge?
• Who are involved in this work?
• Is there any mechanical system of emptying tanks or is it emptied manually?
• What is the system / mechanism in colony type areas where common collection tanks exist?
• What are the charges of emptying the tank, etc.?
• What kind of technology /design and capacity would work here?

The following capacity building trainings were conducted for the team working under rural FSM:

• Two days capacity building training on FSM in detail including visit to Ujjain for understanding existing FSTP mechanism.
• Training on conducting Baseline including spatial survey on M- water mobile app.
• Training on community mobilization ,communication, documentation and record keeping.

Community Level Initiatives

• Meetings with community leaders and people
• Understanding existing system by organizing meetings with various stakeholders like residential welfare associations, colonizers/ developers, Pit emptier/ desludging truck operators, sanitation workers, local institution’s RPs,frontline workers etc.
• Quick assessment in format developed in consultation with field team
• Training of CBOs/SHGs on FSM ( role of CBOs/ SHGs in FSM )
• Training of local institutions on FSM
• Training of sanitation workers on FSM and safety measures
• Workshop / consultation meetings with pit emptier/ desludging operators and colonizers
• Community level campaign on FSM – Nukkad Natak , Rallies, awareness through IEC in form of calendars, hoardings , pamphlets etc.

Government Level Engagement

• Meeting with collector, CEO and DPC to explain them why kali billod is suitable for FSM.
• Meeting with sarpanch, secretary and RPs of kali Billod panchayat to explain them project in detail.
• Meeting with CEO and DPC to discuss the MOU content/matter.
• Meeting with CEO ZP, CEO Depalpur Block, BCs, Sarpanch and GPs RPs to share the design and technology of planned FSTP in kali Billod panchayat
• Exposure visit of govt. official to Bangladesh

Preparation for Proposed FSTP in Kali Billod

• Identification of land
• Selection of land
• Approval / allotment of land
• Topography survey and soil testing of allotted land
• Boundary marking
• Recording of land through drone camera
• Boundary wall installation
• Pre-bid meeting
• Tender committee meeting for selecting vendor for FSTP construction work

Future Plan

• Starting of FSTP construction work
• Collaboration with the existing truck/desludging operators to link them with FSM programme
• Providing support to SHGs/CBOs so that they take ownership of the programme

Funding Agency

Water Aid India, H&M

Project Outlay

Rs. 40,54,341