Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) is organizing an Advanced Training on ‘Planning and Designing of Treatment of Faecal Sludge & Septage’ after taking cognizance of the need for capacity building of engineers involved in implementation of Faecal Sludge Treatment Plants (FSTP). The training would include specialist sessions by Dorai Narayana (former Head of Department of IWK, Malaysia), David Robbins (Former Specialist Oxfam, RTI International and Philippines Sanitation Alliance), Dr Abdullah Al-Muyeed (Head of Policy, WaterAid Bangladesh) and Suman Kanti Nath (Project Manager, WaterAid Bangladesh) who would share the experience of implementation of FSTPs in Malaysia, Philippines and Bangladesh.The training is being conducted by the School of Water and Waste, Anil Agarwal Environment Training Institute (AAETI), at Nimli, Tijara Block – Alwar in Rajasthan from today (22-27 July). This is a newly built fully residential green campus demonstrating building materials, energy, decentralized water and wastewater treatment that provide lessons on what can be done countrywide. The institute also has India’s first faecal sludge management laboratory that can both analyse solutions for septic and sewage systems to validate new technologies.After the training,the participants would undertake a field exposure visit for Faecal Sludge Treatment Plants in Odisha which were commissioned last year.This training aims to support the objectives of the National Policy on Faecal Sludge and Septage Management (2017) which highlights that on-site pit latrines and septic tanks account for a substantial proportion of toilets in urban India and that the end objectives of Swachh Bharat Mission cannot be achieved without proper management of faecal sludge and septage across the sanitation service chain. Various states across the country including Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Odisha have already taken the initiative of floating tenders for scaling-up FSTPs in the state. As of now more than 400 FSTPs are proposed for implementation across the country which includes around 60 FSTPs proposed in AMRUT towns in Uttar Pradesh. The participants include around 25 engineers from Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam (Nodal Agency for implementation of FSTPs in Uttar Pradesh) and five experts from the National Mission for Clean Ganga.The participants were from UP Jal Nigam, Urban Local Bodies of UP and AMRUT, UP and Bihar, SPMG, Bihar and NMCG and NIUA. They will be also taken for an exposure visit to see the successful FSTP projects at Odisha (Puri and Bhubaneshwar) run by Odisha government. Post training these officers will implement these FSSM (Faecal Sludge and Septage Management) projects in their states. 66 cities have been selected for FSTP and Co Treatment projects in UP. CSE focused on two major towns, Bijnor and Chunar as models for FSSM and DWWTS (Decentralised Waste Water Treatment System).
