Hello, my name is Rachel Beardsley and for my practicum I have been working with the Citywide Inclusive Sanitation Technical Assistance (CWIS TA) Hub to help record and report the experiences developing their Water Supply and Sanitation Master Plan which is used for cities to plan for years to come and to guide efforts and investment. For my practicum, I wanted to take on a topic I knew little about, sanitation systems, grow in my research skills, and create deliverables with the goal of informing programs and policies. This has been a very rewarding time as I have learned a lot about sanitation systems as a whole and management of the sanitation chain as well as developed skills such as those in making effective presentations and research. I also grew a lot in my ability to create research for programs without a predestined research plan. In the past when I have done research, I was attached to a program that was intended to be researched and had a clear methodology and research strategy prepared. For this project, the development of the masterplan was done without this paper, or any papers, in mind. Nevertheless, I am glad I got to work on this project because it helped me learn to adapt to roadblocks I will likely face in the future. This practicum helped me gain new skills and taught me more about sanitation holistically. I am very grateful that I had the opportunity to assist the CWIS TA Hub this summer.
Coming up, I will deliver my presentation on how to improve master plan development to the African Development Bank soon. I am excited to share my findings and hopefully provide useful knowledge to experts that will inform their work. I will also be finishing up my manuscript, disseminating my findings, and looking into publishing.
Before I end, I would like to give a special thanks to Dr. Manga and Dr. Najib who were both incredibly kind, thoughtful, and helpful in developing my skills during this practicum. I am incredibly lucky to have worked with them.
My name is Rachel Beardsley, and I am a MPH Student concentrating in Global Health. This summer, I am working with the Water Institute at UNC and the Citywide Inclusive Sanitation Technical Assistance Hub for my Practicum. This will be my second time working with UNC’s Water Institute as I previously developed and published my thesis “Factors associated with safe child feces disposal in Ethiopia, India, and Zambia”for my Bachelors in Public Policy at UNC. During this practicum, I will be analyzing the development of a Water Supply and Sanitation Master Plan for Freetown, Sierra Leone to assist other municipalities in developing more efficient, participatory master plans that can reach all segments of the population. This will involve writing a paper on the failures of past sanitation master plans, how the master plan was developed in Freetown, and what we can learn from these experiences. It will also require me to develop communication materials for liaising with sanitation leaders so that they may incorporate lessons learned from the experiences of Freetown, Sierra Leone.
I am excited for this practicum because I will be developing practical skills, deeper knowledge on sanitation, and a greater understanding of urban planning and how guidelines/policies are developed. While I do have previous experience and knowledge on sanitation, I have mainly focused on specific point issues related to access (largely open defecation). I am lacking, however, in my knowledge on sanitation systems as a whole. This practicum will give me better insight into these systems and sanitation planning. Additionally, I am looking forward to learning about how municipalities make decisions and how they incorporate lessons from other municipalities in the development of their own policies.
Thus far, my practicum has included writing a literature review on the failures of current master plans. While writing this literature review, I found that the conventional sewerage previously implemented in these areas was not effective in keeping pace with urban growth largely due to its high cost and thus was often only implemented in more privileged areas leaving low income and vulnerable people without access to adequate sanitation. Likewise, the idea that sanitation has a one-size-fits-all solution such as conventional sewerage is harmful as not every sanitation technology fits with every local reality. Focus needs to be directed towards using multiple sanitation technologies to fit a specific context. Participatory methods are also not used as often as is necessary in the creation of master plans which leaves much to be desired in terms of knowledge on local context, use preferences, and willingness to pay. Sanitation master plans have also failed because of gaps in both evidence and capacity. For example, a lack of long-term monitoring manifests in evidence gaps regarding sustainability of certain plans. Performance data, particularly relating to onsite sanitation services, is lacking which makes it difficult to determine which solutions work best. The capacity of local technicians and urban planners are limited. For example, the ability of technical staff to identify different sanitation systems was found to be lacking and there is confusion among local staff about common words to describe elements of sanitation systems. Staffing shortages also affect the effectiveness of a plan.
The deliverable I’m currently working on recounts how Freetown’s new master plan was developed and how it improves upon past plans. The TA Hub used field visits, technical backstopping, peer to peer learning, and capacity building to inform the new master plan. In the structuring of this master plan, I found three themes to be particularly significant. Firstly, participatory planning is essential to understand the local context for a sanitation system and to understand user preferences. Secondly, identification of the appropriate technology was emphasized. While conventional sewerage works for some areas of Freetown, simplified sewage or on-site sanitation technology may be better suited for most areas. Finally, management of sanitation across the entire sanitation chain is vital. The sanitation chain includes user interface/containment, emptying, transport, treatment, and end-use options/disposal. In the past, many development agencies and master plans focused on sanitation access and not sanitation management. For example, the Millennium Development Goals’ (MDG) only goal related to sanitation focused on access. However, dangerous faecal pathogens enter the environment through multiple methods that cannot be solved by access alone, such as the illegal dumping of faecal sludge into drains and water sources. I found myself slightly convicted in the identification of this particular theme as I, too, have only written about issues of sanitation access without placing it in the context of sanitation management. I now see all the important areas where work needs to be done and all the various opportunities available to improve the health of populations.
My practicum has required me to learn a lot quickly, and I occasionally feel out of my depths, but thus far I have enjoyed learning more about sanitation. I feel like I’m learning important knowledge and practical skills that I will take away from this practicum. I’m excited to produce work that could help municipalities inform their sanitation plans. I believe this experience will help me gain a deeper understanding of a topic I’m very interested in as well as insight into how policies/guidelines are informed and created and how to communicate effectively with a variety of stakeholders.
