Making Rural Sanitary Marts viable and more effective – Experiences, Exa

Published on India Water Portal (http://indiawaterportal.org)

Making Rural Sanitary Marts viable and more effective –

Experiences, Examples
By ramamani
Created 16/09/2009 - 12:41

From Ajit Saxena, UNDP, New Delhi

Posted 26 April 2007

While working as an engineer in the water and sanitation (watsan) projects in Madhya Pradesh, I
have seen that successful implementation of watsan programmes depends on balanced use of both
software and hardware components. Thus, in addition to successful behaviour change
communications, hardware support for implementation of watsan programmes is crucial. This ideally
includes low cost construction material such as toilet pans, pit covers, squatting plates, drains, and
material for superstructure.

A crucial concept for making such material available is the Rural Sanitary Mart (RSM), for which
about Rs. 35 lakhs per district has been earmarked under Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC). RSMs are
to be set up by NGOs, cooperatives, local bodies, etc. and are to provide a range of sanitary items
for the different economic classes in villages. In some cases, RSMs also serve as contact points for
village people to contact masons for construction and quality control.

However, RSMs are currently facing a number of problems :

1. The initial surge in demand for sanitary material following Information, Education and
Communication (IEC) programmes tapers off when villages surrounding the RSM are saturated.
Also, RSMs have so far been focused on sanitary material and have not been able to diversify
into other building products for sustainability.
2. RSMs are not able to meet the demand for support to Swajaldhara, where 5 to 6 motivators per
Panchayat will be identified and trained for periodic testing of chemical and bacteriological
contamination and for maintaining local structures for safe and cost-effective water provision.
3. RSMs are unable to provide technical support to school sanitation and hygiene education
programmes, and for setting up technology for reuse of water.

In the above context, I request the Water Community to please share experiences and insights on
the following:

1. Examples and learnings of successful RSMs in different parts of India, which have been able to
achieve regular all-year-round production and a viable business model.
2. Information on the different schemes which can be dovetailed to RSMs, so that they can
achieve an economically viable scale of production.
3. Suggestions for strengthening RSMs so that they operate sustainably, economically and provide
all-year-round employment through mechanisms such as :

Social marketing of sanitary material

Product diversification (e.g. by using different building material such as cement concrete, fibre,
mud-based products, etc.) and types of machines available that can make such diversification
possible.
Using the same machinery for providing material for larger building industry (e.g. pressed
bricks, tiles, etc.).
Functional diversification – providing a complete package of watsan services through a
single-window (e.g. trainings and material for water quality testing, masons for new
construction or for plumbing, credit linkages, maintenance support to schools, etc).

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 Making Rural Sanitary Marts viable and more effective – Experiences, Exa
Published on India Water Portal (http://indiawaterportal.org)

This information will help NGOs and other stakeholders to better replicate the concept of RSM and
will make RSM an option for sustainable employment generation and providing sustainable watsan
services.

Please see attachment below for the responses.

Attachment Size
cr-se-wes-26040701-public.pdf [1] 138.39 KB

Drinking Water
Rural
Rural Sanitation
Sanitation
Society
Swajaldhara
Waste
Wastewater
Water Quality
Water Supply

Links:
[1] http://indiawaterportal.org/sites/indiawaterportal.org/files/cr-se-wes-26040701-public.pdf

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