In each phase a specific approach is needed to provide the people with suitable watsan solutions. The interventions should be based on quick impact and do no-harm.

This paper suggests basic solutions that can be implemented fast enough as timely intervention in emergencies and that can assist people quickly for rehabilitation, but that have no significant negative (long term) impact. Also for development specific options are mentioned. Several technical solutions are described, but also issues like the sustainability, ownership, community mobilization (participation), etc. are included.

2. Need for Watsan in (post)conflict situations

As mentioned, water and sanitation are especially important in post conflict situations. In emergencies water and sanitation is often essential to survive and needs to be provided as quick as possible to prevent from outbreak of epidemic diseases causing more casualties.

After a conflict like during the CFA or after a disaster like the Tsunami, when people settle down again to live in a particular place, they need the rehabilitation of water and sanitation facilities to be able to recover and to restart their lives. The rehabilitation becomes gradually replaced by development when additional facilities are provided or facilities are improved. When people can take enough water close by their home, it does not only safe a lot of time and energy to bring the water to their home but also ensures enough water can be used for cleaning, bathing and often also for purposes like home gardening or even some agriculture. Sanitation is not only needed for safe health, but also improves the self esteem and psycho social well being. When toilet facilities on the own compound can be used instead of going to common places like the jungle or sea it prevents from problems for women like harassment or abuse or that they tend to drink (too) less to reduce the frequency of urinating especially at night.

The relief, rehabilitation and development solutions should not only be technical feasible, but also based on quick impact and do no-harm. In emergency it is probably more important to provide half of the required (Sphere) amount within say 2 or 3 days, than the full amount after one or two weeks. For rehabilitation it is important that all people get as soon as possible basic facilities, to assist them in starting up their lives and to increase their self esteem to enable them to focus on other issues than their daily struggle to survive. Special attention is needed for the extremely vulnerable households, like female headed households, families with many small children, families with disabled members, etc. Without basic facilities being restored, it is difficult for them to think about peace and future developments.

Figure 1b Need for basic facilities (shelter and watsan) in (post) conflict areas

Figure 1c Need for basic facilities (shelter and watsan) in (post) conflict areas

The interventions should also be based on do no-harm. In emergency this means that providing bad quality water could create more risk than providing no water at all. In rehabilitation there is a risk of providing the wrong solutions, like a toilet that becomes flooded during the rain or assisting a family that doesn’t fit into the criteria. However, there is also a perhaps more serious risk that people are not getting enough assistance, if quickly restoring the basic facilities it is not wanted for certain reasons by (local) authorities or if the expectations are too high. If technical standards are raised to a very high level, people are actually prevented from getting assistance while donors are not able / willing to provide such facilities and / or the progress of assistance becomes very low.

For development the watsan facilities can be improved like introduction of new technologies, for example eco-san toilets, or the amount of facilities can be increased while more time is available for research and implementation.

3. Situation in Sri Lanka

3.1 General situation in Sri Lanka

Normally people in SL use water sealed toilets. In the cities toilets are nowadays mostly in the house, but in the rural areas toilets are mostly built separate. In urban areas these toilets are connected to a sewerage system, septic tank or soakage pit. In rural areas the toilets are in general connected to a soakage pit and only rarely to a septic tank. The poor households who cannot effort to build a toilet use often a dry pit in their compound.

3.2 Situation in (post) conflict areas (North-East)

In the rural (post) conflict areas, people expect to have a pour flush toilet with soakage pit. In general people have relatively large compounds (> ¼ acre) and therefore a minimum required distance (100 feet) between toilet and wells can be kept. Most families do not even have a private well. Due to the conflict and displacements toilets were damaged or families have never been able to build a toilet, while they had no income and there was no cement. In certain districts only a small percentage of the population has a real toilet, the others have to use a pit, corner of their compound or go to the sea or jungle.

If for example Kilinochchi district is considered, in 2005 almost 36.000 families were registered of whom most (64%) have been returned after being displaced due to the conflict. Some families have built a toilet themselves or with the assistance of programmes of the GoSL and INGOs during the CFA, but most people (probably 75%) did still not have a toilet when the CFA came to an end. Similar applies to other (parts of) North Eastern districts.

3.3 Situation in Tsunami affected areas

In the Tsunami affected areas in the North-East, many fishermen families were during the CFA restarting their lives. The coastal villages were somewhat more densely populated than the inland villages, while the fishermen like to live close to the sea and therefore prefer to occupy the coastal belt directly bordering the sea.

If these families had water and sanitation facilities, these normally existed of a shallow well and a pour flush toilet with soakage pit. However, many families were still using the sea and jungle around as toilet and were depending on certain common wells for drinking water. Only in some town areas there was pipe born water and in the town most compounds had a kind of toilet.

Due to the Tsunami devastation, new houses had to be built including water and sanitation facilities. In some cases this was done in the original plots, but more often a land was newly planned and divided in plots. The new lands can be seen as urban areas while the plot seize is relatively small (<20 perches) and a complete new set up had to be made. On top of this, many sites exists of relatively low land with high groundwater tables. Therefore just rehabilitation of water and sanitation facilities like the people had before was not always suitable and new plans had to be made [see also Navaratne, 2006]. As long as the permanent structures were not ready, transitional water and sanitation solutions were needed.

4. Watsan solutions

4.1 Watsan – relief

For emergency relief it is important to be able to quickly provide watsan facilities. The Sphere standard mentions that initially one toilet per 50 persons should be the target, which then can be changed to one toilet per 20 persons. However no set timeframe is mentioned. It would be good if an indication of a timeframe was given, like within 3-5 days one toilet per 50 persons and within another 3-5 days 1 toilet per 20 persons. Such a timeframe will prevent agencies from wrong competing after installing toilets and will show that agencies not only have to focus on quality but also on progress. Sometimes donors come after a few weeks and only the final result is visible, however not only the final product should be valued but also the process of implementation.

Very basic solutions, like excavating a ditch are described in several handbooks, however it is questionable whether people will use such facilities or will go to other places. Some agencies have stock of fibre glass slabs that can be used as squatting pan. However also with local available materials, temporary toilets can be set up very fast. One example is shown in the following figure, using normal squatting pans. Half empty barrels are used as foundation for a squatting pan and an empty barrel as soakage pit. In situations with low infiltration capacity (low permeability or high groundwater table), a second barrel can be connected to the first barrel so that if the water overflows, the water can infiltrate through two barrels. The rooms around the toilets are made plastic sheet fixed on jungle sticks. There are many advantages of using these local materials: a water sealed toilet is provided, materials are commonly available at relatively low prices (compared to importing special products and keeping in stocks), labour are familiar to install these materials and toilets can be constructed in short period.

While it is not always known how long people will stay at a certain place in emergencies, the volume of the pit does not need to be very high. If the capacity is not big enough, new toilets can be made or additional pits can be constructed. As long as the toilets are not set up too close to a well, there are no real negative impacts of these temporary toilets. If cleaning materials are provided as well, people can keep the toilets clean or a hygiene promotion committee needs to be organised.

Figure 2a Constructing temporary toilets with local materials

Figure 2b Constructing temporary toilets with local materials

Figure 2c Constructing temporary toilets with local materials

4.2 Watsan – rehabilitation

When the situation improves for the ordinary people, like during the CFA, rehabilitation can start. When people return to their original often also water and sanitation facilities are missing. In general a private (cement block lined) well is not affordable, so for water they depend on common wells. If they build a toilet this is mostly a pour flush toilet with a simple pit. While many households, especially the extremely vulnerable households, are not in a position to construct such toilets, some programmes of the GoSL and NGOs assist with this type of toilets.

Figure 3a Pour flush toilets with soakage pit – complete with room

Figure 3b Pour flush toilets with soakage pit – complete with room

Figure 3c Pour flush toilets with soakage pit – complete with room

Although a septic tank might technically at first impression seem to be a better solution (no direct contact with groundwater), a toilet with simple soakage pit is for many circumstances as part of a rehabilitation programme still the most suitable option. The following reasons are given:

- generally no or limited budgets for expensive options like septic tanks are available in a (post) conflict situation, while for rehabilitation quick impact is required (many toilets in a short period) and therefore less costly options are preferable;

- in rural areas with relatively large plots, large distance between toilets and wells can be maintained and often households do not even have private wells;

- in areas with high groundwater table, the whole construction can be elevated higher above ground level;

- often the groundwater table is only for a short time per year (the raining season) at its highest level, so most of the time groundwater pollution will not take place;

- if wells are in the neighbourhood of a toilet, these are normally designed for the dry period, so groundwater that becomes slightly polluted by pits (at about 6’ below surface) during the raining season will not enter the wells while water enters from the bottom (at 20’ – 30’ depth)

- proved solution, except for some highly populated town areas (Jaffna: groundwater pollution) no negative impacts;

- the construction of the pit is a simple technique and can be done by the beneficiaries (participation / ownership), for a septic tank of reinforced concrete skilled mason have to execute the work

- because of the simple technique, no risk for failure (if a septic tank is not water proof, it actually doesn’t function properly)

- no or very low maintenance (if septic tanks are not cleaned after some years, they will not function properly

In several manuals / guidelines, it is recommended that the bottom of the pit should be 2.5 m or 3 m above the static groundwater level. Based on the points mentioned above, it seems for rehabilitation reasonable to accept (raised) toilets with a soakage pit also if the groundwater level reaches a higher level (f.e. up to about 1.5 m during the raining season) and even a very high level could be for a few days per year acceptable if distances to wells are large and in soils with a low permeability. Therefore, it is recommended not to decide only on the maximum height of the groundwater table but to take into account as well the period of high groundwater level, the difference between the minimum and maximum level, the soil conditions and the population density / plot seize (distances to wells). For example villages with land plots ≥ ¼ acre could be considered as rural areas where a normal soakage pit toilets is acceptable and only in urban, densely populated areas septic tank toilets or other options could be considered.

People normally prefer a completed toilet with cement block wall room. However for health and hygiene reasons, a proper base with water sealed squatting pan connected to a (lined) pit with some cheap kind of room around the base would be enough (f.e. cadjan or tinsheet). There are several reasons that agencies assist with a complete toilet: some (local) authorities allow only ‘full assistance’, some donors like to see complete products, only a base and pit doesn’t look professional (no nice photos), etc.

However, if assisted with only the base and pit it is possible to provide with the same budget many more households (2-3 times). Beneficiaries can be mobilised to do some part of this work themselves, while it doesn’t require much skilled work. For example they get cements and sand to make blocks if a pit is excavated and they get a second batch of cement and the other materials to finish the work. So also a higher number of toilets can be implemented in a certain period compared to providing full toilets (probably 3-4 times). The beneficiaries can finish the room whenever they want and according to their own choice. This participation and need to finish the room themselves, will also improve the ownership of the toilet. If it turns out that specific vulnerable households really cannot finish a toilet, the room can be provide as part of a development programme.

The small risk of groundwater pollution by simple soakage pits, is in most situations a much smaller risk than giving no assistance because of lack of funding of expensive options (like septic tanks) or too low progress.

For the transitional phase after the tsunami, also semi permanent watsan solutions have been provided. For example in Vaddamarachchi East and Mullaitivu per 10 families 5 toilets connected to one pit were provided. These toilets had a normal squatting pan fixed in a base of cement and were finished with a room of tinsheet. At certain transitional camps, piped water was provided from an overhead tank for as well drinking water as for bathing places. ZOA Refugee Care decided to provide only water for drinking, while for bathing one well per 20 families was constructed. This proved to be a much more sustainable solution. Less water had to be pumped from the drinking water wells (preventing for capacity problems and salt water intrusion) and the bathing water could be drawn from a larger number of wells by people themselves as they are used to do. Also much less operation and maintenance was needed.

Figure 5a Semi-permanent watsan facilities in Tsunami transitional camp

Figure 5b Semi-permanent watsan facilities in Tsunami transitional camp

Similar as for the Sphere standards for relief, it would be good to set a time target for rehabilitation like 40-50% of the people should be provided with basic facilities within 2 years up to 100% within 4 years. Donors and authorities can based on the targets make together an action plan. Again as example Kilinochchi district is used as it had a high need for rehabilitation after the CFA. If the above approach had been followed it is realistic to state that the watsan facilities of 80 - 100% of the people could have been rehabilitated instead of 10-25%. Assuming in 4 years (2002 till 2005) about 30,000 families should have been assisted that means about 7,500 families a year. With an average of 750 families a year assisted through about 10 channels / organisations (like NEIAP, NECORD, UN organisations, INGOs, LNGOs, etc) this could have been realistically achieved. However, now people are continuing to live without facilities and with more people getting displaced again the situation has only worsened. Besides that such an approach would have at least had a positive impact on the chances for peace.

4.3 Watsan – development

For water and sanitation in development the facilities can be improved or more facilities (like wells) can be provided. If needed, simple soakage pits can be replaced by septic tanks or new technologies like ecosan (composting toilets) can be tested. Also for septic tanks still the effluent needs to be diverted somewhere. An easy solution is a soakage pit or trench, but also an evaporation bed or sewerage system can be used.

In situations with high groundwater table, the problems for a normal soakage pit toilet or septic tank are more or the less similar. The water level in the soakage pit needs to be somewhat higher than the groundwater level to be able to infiltrate and therefore the toilet and pit have to be raised (see figure 4). The effluent from the septic tank also needs to infiltrate and therefore also a toilet with septic tank needs to be raised completely (base, tank and soakage pit). For (urban) situations with high groundwater levels it is in fact the best solution to lower the groundwater level for the whole area in combination with raising the ground level and / or a sewerage system. Further improving the operating of the septic tank is possible by introducing secondary treatments before the water drains into the ground or surface water, like a biofilter, lined / unlined wetland or seepage bed.

In the development phase, more attention can be paid to community mobilisation, to be able to introduce common systems like water pipeline and / or sewerage. The time frame can be longer, while people already should have the basic facilities, so that funds can be arranged and proper planning / designing can be done.

In sandy areas with shallow groundwater, private wells can be relatively easy provided by using hume pipes. This can also be considered for rehabilitation as shared wells (f.e. 4 families). Although not popular in Sri Lanka, shallow tube wells with hand pumps could be a good alternative to open wells. Some misunderstand the use of hand pumps, while they think that this has a negative impact on the groundwater, however if water is taken from the same aquifer as by the open wells, the impact is same or even less (less wastage, less chance for pollution). While families are not used to hand pumps awareness and explanation will be needed. Also maintenance issues have to be taken into account.

5. Conclusion & recommendations

For proper water and sanitation solutions it is important to consider the particular situation for which these solutions are provided, like for relief, rehabilitation or development. In general more attention is paid to technical standards, but less to progress and impact. Even the international Sphere standards (emergency) do not focus on the progress, although it would be good if an indication of a timeframe was given like within 3-5 days one toilet per 50 persons and within another 3-5 days increased up to 1 toilet per 20 persons. In this paper it is advocated that solutions also should be based on quick impact and do no-harm.

Similar for rehabilitation it is impossible to provide within a short time the best water and sanitation systems and to expect people in the mean time to live without water and sanitation facilities at all. Likewise as after the tsunami as it was widely accepted that people first got a transitional shelter and after that a permanent house. It is suggested to provide as soon as possible all families with basic facilities, that do no harm and can be further developed / improved in future. As for the Sphere standards for relief, it would be good to set a time target for rehabilitation in (post) conflict areas like 40-50% of the people should be provided with basic facilities within 2 years up to 100% within 4 years. Donors and authorities can based on the targets make together an action plan. If the above approach had been followed in for example Kilinochchi district, it is realistic to state that the watsan facilities of 80 - 100% of the people could have been rehabilitated instead of 10-25% during 4 years of the CFA. Besides that, such an approach would have had at least a positive impact on the chances for peace.

For the choice of type of toilets in general the groundwater level is used as an indicator. However, it is recommended to also include other indicators as whether it is for rural or urban areas, soil conditions, whether the highest ground water level occurs only for a short time and the difference between high and low groundwater level (sometimes more than 20 to 30 feet) and whether distances to wells are large. Based on such indicators it seems for rehabilitation most adequate to provide in rural areas (land plots ≥ ¼ acre) normal soakage pit toilets and only in urban, densely populated areas septic tank toilets or other options.

To be able to have high progress for the rehabilitation, to improve the participation and ownership of the people it is recommended to provide only a proper base with squatting pan and pit, but to let the families finish the toilet room. In this way more families can be assisted with a technical good solution in a short period and the rehabilitation phase finished early. In the development phase specific families can be assisted further or systems improved to f.e. septic tanks or sewerage systems.

Special attention is required for areas with high ground water level (also this occurs only for a short period) to ensure that the toilets can be used always. Normal soakage pit toilets can be completely raised but same is needed for septic tank toilets.

In (post) conflict areas like the rural areas in the north east, many people live without basic water and sanitation. For them it is important that they can live as soon as possible with basic facilities and therefore rehabilitation is needed. Without basic facilities being restored, it is difficult for them to think about peace and future developments. In the guidelines for water and sanitation not only the technical aspects need to be included, but the solutions should also be based on quick impact and do no harm. The solutions should not cause any direct harm (f.e. drinking water pollution), but also no indirect harm like preventing people from getting assistance by raising the standards and required budgets to too high levels. For development more time can be used and funds can be arranged to introduce more sophisticated systems or new technologies.

Herald Vervoorn (M.Sc. Civil Eng. Technical University of Delft) Civil Engineer, ZOA Refugee Care, 2003-2006

REFERENCES

1. Achieving sustainable sanitation: Lessons from tsunami reconstruction in Sri Lanka M.A.I.B. Navaratne, 32nd WEDC International Conference, Colombo, Sri Lanka, 2006

2. Ecological Sanitation Compost Toilets in Sri Lanka: An Appropriate Solution? Constanze Windberg, Germany, Philippe Barragne-Bigot, 32nd WEDC International Conference, Colombo, Sri Lanka, 2006

3. Draft Sri Lanka Standard, Code of Practise for the Design and Construction of Septic Tanks and Associated Effluent Disposal Systems (First Revision), SLS 745 : 2003

4. Standards for the Provision of Water and Sanitation Services in Development Programme; INGO Water and Sanitation Group Kilinochchi, draft v1.1

5. Minimum Standards for the Provision of Water and Sanitation Services in Emergency, Water and Sanitation Group Trincomalee – Sri Lanka, Trincomalee, 11th March 2005

6. Water, sanitation and hygiene for populations at risk, Action Contre la Faim, 2005

7. Infrastructure Manual, Designs and Specifications, 2004-2008 Draft, ZOA Refugee Care