Planning at Scale: Bringing Sanitation and Water Services to the City, 2012. | Source: WSUP
Following a successful networking event at the World Urban Forum, we have put together a list of key points which arose:
- Plan early, plan ahead, plan big and leave plenty of public spaces; this allows for future infrastructure as needed;
- Plan for future population growth – assume a doubling of the population;
- Plan constantly; planning should be going on even while urban improvement programmes are underway;
- Carry out sanitation, water and hygiene (WASH) planning in close collaboration with urban and land use planners – not in isolation. This is essential to ensure that WASH investments are appropriate to the future development plans of each city area and will therefore not be wasted;
- Coordinate WASH planning with energy sector plans as water services are heavily dependent on a reliable energy supplies;
- Integrate water and sanitation planning with flood protection planning to achieve more resilient, city wide systems;
- Have a clear vision of full service coverage and commit to achieving it;
- Segment cities into zones with different characteristics of income levels, topography, housing density, water supply, and access to sewerage. Build up service development plans and wider urban development plans to suit each area;
- Develop specific plans for low income areas, as these are likely to be distinct from those in higher income areas. Use innovative models (such as the micro-water systems in Lagos) and test their viability. Where appropriate, cross-subsidise low income users with revenues from higher income users; make specific plans for city wide faecal sludge management, including the full sanitation value chain;
- Use the planning process as a means of convening stakeholders and building collaboration between Ministries, departments and ensuring the participation of non-government stakeholders.
- Especially in cities with scare water resources, maximise supply by developing all sources of water possible, including where possible: rain water, groundwater, surface water, recycled water and desalination. On the demand side, make every effort to reduce non-revenue water as this is like to deliver a very high return on investment; implement campaigns to reduce consumption;
- Support local governments to perform their key role in urban sanitation, as they have many other responsibilities such as health, education and transport. Help the different departments of local government to plan in an integrated way to ensure a properly coordinated urban development;
- Demonstrate political leadership, as this is needed to ensure that effective and participatory planning is achieved – it will not happen without this;
- Make use of one of the planning tools available, such as IWA’s Sanitation 21 city wide sanitation planning framework.
