FSM for small- and medium-size towns in India (India)

In small- and medium-size towns in India, faecal sludge and septage management is a challenge. Therefore, a comprehensive study has been done in twenty small and medium range towns of Tripura for managing faecal sludge as well as septage. Four major gaps were identified: (i) many of pits /Septic tanks are not accessible due to narrow road lanes, (ii) existing gaps between demand and supply of desludging services provided by the ULBs as the number of cesspool trucks are insufficient to cater to the existing demand, (iii) disposal of faecal matter at improper sites; most of the times, it is disposed of in open drains or in open space in an around solid wastes dumping sites, and (iv) involvement of non- mechanized desludging for cleaning the septic tank/pit because of non- availability of desludging service on time and due to inaccessibility of septic tank/pit with the existing cesspool vehicle because of size restrictions. For implementing the faecal sludge transport and conveyance, developing and adopting appropriate technologies, such as pre-treatment (screen chamber), sludge stabilization (settling tank), sludge drying (unplanted sludge drying bed), liquid wastewater treatment (anaerobic baffle filter), and tertiary treatment (series of two polishing ponds), is considered important.