NSDF and Mahila Milan have been working there for over 5 years now, and have constructed several demonstration toilets in the past. Last week, it invited NGOs for putting in bids to construct 46 toilet blocks in areas specified by them through a public advertisement.
SPARC and Nirman jointly applied for these toilets and have won the bid. What this means is that in the next 6 months, along with the projects in Mumbai, the alliance will work in Pimpri Chinchwad. Since the Pune Toilets have been completed and handed over to the Municipal Corporation there will be activities in Pimpri to link up the experience community groups had in Pune, which will be used in this new project.
About 4 years ago, in a sub contract to a study that the USAID commissioned to Kirloskar Consultancy, sparc was asked to explore choices that communities sought in the area of sanitation. The expectation was to do a survey and get response of a "willingness to pay" questionnaire. We call it that because the study of that sort often does not acknowledge any history of non-involvement, indifference by the city as variables, which influence what people, say in response t questions like that.
What we did was to use the money given to us in that study as Consultancy fee to actually locate communities in Pimpri and Pune ready to work with the alliance. Then we began to work with them to develop a model of sanitation in which they would locate roles for themselves and the city, and within that context explore what people were ready to contribute. The response did not surprise us, because the solution that emerged was that if the cost of construction of the toilet block was paid for by the city, communities agreed to manage it. Provided they were involved in the construction and assured of the quality.
But at that time, the communities were not able to define construction and design standards, as they were very unfamiliar with that process. Instead they sought to learn how to do that through those pilot projects. Communities learnt to manage the construction through actually doing it and in both Pune and Pimpri that year several toilet blocks were constructed.
Those blocks has many faults some based on design and others on construction strategies; others were simply found after usage. Based on that NSDF and MM have now taken on board many changes by the communities and in the work in Bombay and Pune.
Now its the turn of the Pimpri Chinchwad federations to take these insights and plough them back into their own projects. In the last two years like all the other federations affiliated with NSDF they too have traveled to these two cities and seen how the communities and professionals and contractors they appoint work on the filed, they see how money gets managed and how they negotiate with the Municipal Corporation . In the next 6 months they will be center stage and will undertake these projects themselves.
