Abstract
Environmental pollution and increasing water scarcity are key features of the urban landscape of India today. The extension of centralised sewerage networks cannot keep up with city growth, and alternative sanitation systems are needed for citywide inclusive sanitation (CWIS). The government of India mandated larger buildings to be equipped with small-scale wastewater treatment plants (SSTP). This resulted in the emergence of a large number of technology and service providers, and in the implementation of thousands of private SSTPs. However, this quick scaling up was not accompanied by the development of appropriate governance arrangements. As a result, a significant proportion of SSTPs underperform and do not meet the effluent standards. Through a systematic analysis of governance arrangements around SSTPs, this contribution analyses the scaling up process of small-scale wastewater management and reuse at building level in India, in particular in the state of Karnataka and the city of Bengaluru. This paper identifies the gaps in this multi-level, polycentric governance framework and investigates which arrangements are needed to enable the performance of SSTPs on the ground and to create the necessary synergies between the relevant governmental agencies, the private sector and civil society. The scaling up of SSTPs in India mainly followed a market governance approach within a governance environment that is traditionally very hierarchical. The authors argue that hybrid governance arrangements, blending hierarchical, market and network governance are needed to foster market regulation and stakeholder coordination, and increase the performance of the sector. They conclude that an efficient governance of SSS requires the creation of dedicated SSS units at state and city level, and the development of an online platform collating all databases, streamlining and supporting processes from establishment to monitoring, and allowing meaningful collaboration between stakeholders. Through the case study of India, this paper contributes to understand the governance arrangements necessary for the successful scaling up of decentralised sanitation systems, and how to fulfil the potential of alternative solutions for sustainable urban water management. It contributes to governance studies by substantiating the concept of hybrid governance approach and proposing concrete measures to make it work for such distributed systems.
Highlights
The authors (i) analyze the scaling up process and governance framework of small-scale wastewater management at building level in India; (ii) analyze the particular case of the state of Karnataka and its capital city Bengaluru, which are spearheading the implementation of SSS systems in India; (iii) identify the gaps in the governance framework; and (iv) propose governance arrangements which foster the performance of scale wastewater treatment plants (SSTP) and the creation of the necessary synergies between the relevant governmental agencies, the private sector and civil society
The results presented in this paper are part of a broader study on small-scale sanitation in India consisting of three components: (i) a technical analysis; (ii) a financial analysis; (iii) a governance analysis
The analysis looks at the overall governance framework for small-scale sanitation, and at the governance arrangements along the project cycle of SSTPs
Summary
Small-scale sanitation (SSS, termed “decentralized” or “distributed” sanitation), here defined as wastewater treatment systems serving from 10 to 1,000 households, have proven to be a viable alternative to conventional systems for contexts such as large residential buildings, compounds, peri-urban areas, communities and small rural settlements (Wilderer and Schreff, 2000; Newman, 2001; Parkinson and Tayler, 2003; Gikas and Tchobanoglous, 2009; Van De Meene et al, 2011; Larsen et al, 2013; Singh et al, 2015; Larsen et al, 2016). Polycentric governance system, a concept which Pahl-Wostl (2009) defines as a “complex, modular system where differently sized governance units with different purpose, organization, spatial location interact to form together a largely self-organized governance regime.” In this contribution, the authors (i) analyze the scaling up process and governance framework of small-scale wastewater management at building (or cluster of buildings) level in India; (ii) analyze the particular case of the state of Karnataka and its capital city Bengaluru, which are spearheading the implementation of SSS systems in India; (iii) identify the gaps in the governance framework; and (iv) propose governance arrangements which foster the performance of SSTPs and the creation of the necessary synergies between the relevant governmental agencies, the private sector and civil society. It provides an insight on how to deal with multi-level, polycentric governance systems in sustainable urban water management and substantiates the concept of hybrid governance approach for distributed systems
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