Urban sanitation in a mess due to Budget cuts and wrong priorities

If the budget for a high priority sector is cut by more than a half in a year in which the most ambitious targets were to be achieved, then there has to be an explanation.

There has been none in the case of urban sanitation for the Financial Year 2019-20.

This is the year when the internationally discussed, widely publicised objective of ODF was to be achieved by October 2 2019. But during the same financial year, the government records say, the budget for Swachh Bharat Abhiyan Urban, the flagship program of urban sanitation, was cut by more than a half. No explanations were given.

In 2019-20 Budget, there was an originally an allocation (BE or Budget Estimate) of Rs 2650 crore for Swachh Bharat Abhiyan Urban. This was cut to Rs 1300 crore while preparing the Revised Estimate (RE) for this year. As the table below shows,this Revised Estimate was also much lower than the actual expenditure for each of the three previous years. The budget allocation for this program (BE) for this year 2020-21 is also lower than the original allocation made in the previous year, as also the actual expenditure of the two years preceding this.

(Actual Expenditure data is so far available only up to Financial Year 2018-19).

Table—Budget of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan Urban for 5 Years

(All figures in Rs. crore, One crore=10 million)

Year Budget

2016-17 ( Actual Expenditure) 2,135

2017-18 ( Actual Expenditure) 2.539

2018-19 (Actual Expenditure) 2,462

2019-20 ( Budget Estimate ) 2,650

2019-20 ( Revised Estimate) 1300

2020-21 (Budget Estimate) 2300

Source—Compiled by CBGA ( Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability) from Union Budget Documents, various years, available in CBGA budget analysis of 2020-21 budget of Union Government.

It is clear from the table given above that the big cut in the budget for this program in Financial Year 2019-20 was highly unjustified and it is likely to have very adversely affected the actual realisation of the ambitious targets set for this year.

What was the actual condition of urban sanitation at the time this big budget cut was being made? In the period October –March, I visited three working class colonies in Delhi, the city which is supposed to be getting the most attention. I found that the people here including women continue to face the most difficult conditions as far as most basic sanitation needs are concerned.

In Haidarpur Nirman Camp, the old places where people were going for open defecation have been cordoned off. Guards chase us with a danda (stick) if we go there, people said. At the same time public toilets that exist are so far away and so crowded that there is a lot of difficulty in accessing them. Om Prakash said sometimes children and elderly persons, while desperately rushing to these toilets and then having to wait there, defecate in their pants, leading to a lot of embarrassment.

As these toilets are locked at night, where do we go when we need to at night hours, people here ask. Guards are even more ready at night to chase with their danda at night. The difficulties for women can be imagined.

In Sabar Dairy New A block, women said that mostly they are still dependent on OFD as the public toilets in market are too far away and difficult to access. As Mamta explained, women have to go too early or too late in the dark hours so as to avoid public gaze in a crowded urban setting but even then they cannot escape this in crowded urban setting, and in addition there is a lot of insecurity.

In Bawana JJ colony Phase I and II, people said that the spaces left for toilets by the DDA were not utilized properly. The existing toilets mostly are so dirty or lack water and hence cannot be used. Only very few clean toilet seats exist and for this Rs. 5 per visit is demanded which people living here cannot afford. Hence almost half of people remain dependent on open defecation. At the same time the open spaces available earlier are now increasingly difficult to access.

All these 3 colonies are inhabited mostly by construction workers, domestic workers and factory workers. In the case of all three categories, sanitation situation at worksite also is very difficult, particularly for women.

In the course of these conversations, people particularly women would often say—where is dignity in these situations?

The government’s own studies reveal a dismal situation. A survey of public toilets in Delhi, conducted by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs in November 2019 revealed that nearly 55 per cent of the facilities inspected were found to be either completely unusable or extremely dirty. The bulk of these surveyed facilities were found to be run by three municipal corporations controlled by the BJP.

In addition the urban sanitation efforts are highly biased in favor of highly centralized, top-down and needlessly expensive technologies. Decentralized, less expensive technologies more conducive to involvement of communities are availed but have not been used adequately. Technologies such as those relating to waste to energy plants which have been found harmful and highly polluting have not been given up easily. The choice and implementation of more expensive and wasteful technologies is also marred by a lot of corruption.

Big sewage treatment plants function much below capacity and fall far short of achieving their objectives. There is little concern for the longer-term risks and implications of technology choices being made now and not much patience and scope for trying out decentralized , innovative solutions based not on big contracts but on creativity and community involvement.

This is the reason why, despite a few creative patches here and there, on the whole urban sanitation is in a mess just now and the future also looks forbidding unless priorities are corrected soon and also supported by adequate budgets and community involvement.

(The writer is a freelance contributor. His latest book is Protecting Earth for Children— Crucial Role of Next Decade)