December 2024 The unintended consequences of formalising municipal, faecal sludge emptying services in Bangladesh Michael Poustie, Tanvir Ahmed, Mariam Zaqout and Dani Barrington

However, are these approaches ensuring improvements in sanitation workers’ lives and livelihoods? Or is it possible that formalising the sector could have unexpected negative impacts?

ITN-BUET and Practical Action, in collaboration with sanitation workers’ cooperatives, have been investigating the impact of formalisation on the lives and livelihoods of sanitation workers.  During the first phase of the research, they met with more than 90 sanitation workers from eight cities, each with diverse employment arrangements.

Sanitation workers who were supported by NGOs or employed by a private waste management company were more likely to report positive changes occurring through the process of formalisation.

“I have attained a more stable job than before, and I am accustomed to using mechanical desludging equipment like vacuum tanks. This has enhanced efficiency, allowing me to complete tasks more effectively and earn a satisfactory income. I consistently wear personal protective equipment while working to ensure safety. Now I am satisfied with my working conditions.”

                             (Sanitation worker,  private company employee, recipient of NGO support)

This sanitation workers’ organisation meets at least monthly to collect savings and discuss challenges. They also receive support from an NGO on topics such as health and safety, bookkeeping and accounts, business development, and participation in local governance processes. Credit: PA/ ITN-BUET

However, positive feedback from sanitation workers regarding formalisation was not universal. Unfortunately, this was most evident in municipalities with central government-led faecal sludge management (FSM) projects.

Conventional FSM and sanitation intervention projects in municipalities, implemented through central government programmes, focus more on infrastructure and technology, with less emphasis on workers’ organisations, workers’ rights, and capacity development. 

One sanitation worker reflected:

“A customer now has to pay the Municipality 2000 taka for one trip of a vacuum tanker. From this amount, we get 400 taka and two people share the fee – maybe it takes 4 or 5 trips to empty the tank … It used to be that we were paid 5 or 6 thousand for a septic tank. Our income has decreased now. It would be better to be working like before when we kept the whole fee and emptied the tank manually.”      

               (Sanitation worker, government project municipality, no NGO support)

In some locations, these trucks have also resulted in lower incomes for sanitation workers, which they see as a major negative consequence of formalising the sector. Credit: PA/ ITN-BUET

Following the introduction of municipality-led mechanical desludging, sanitation workers found that their per-job income decreased. As the number of jobs has not increased, this has resulted in an overall decrease in sanitation workers’ income.

Furthermore, in some locations, sanitation workers do not have equitable access to emptying machinery. Another sanitation worker reflected:

“We have no access to the vacutag. The Mayor gives the vacutag to their contacts. Now that it [pit emptying] is cleaner work we are ignored.”

              (Sanitation worker, government project municipality, recipient of NGO support)

Mechanical desludging equipment like this vacuum truck makes sanitation workers’ lives easier, safer and cleaner – if they have access to it! Credit: PA/ ITN-BUET

In these places, increased mechanical desludging has meant that traditional pit-emptiers are squeezed out of the sector, with no access to the very machinery that was meant to support them. The introduction of mechanical emptying has made desludging work acceptable to actors who previously viewed the work as too dirty and undignified for them to undertake. Now that it is cleaner and easier, they have entered the sector.  In the example above, new workers used their connections to the Mayor to gain a monopoly on the vacuum trucks supplied to the municipality; consequently, traditional cleaners are overlooked in the distribution of jobs booked through the municipality system.

Formalising the sector and introducing mechanical desludging was intended to improve both the working conditions and the livelihoods of sanitation workers. However, in many cases, these workers have seen their incomes decrease, and have lost employment, even returning to manual emptying to bypass the municipality systems that have failed them.

These men are ready and eager to work! However, they are not receiving enough septic tank emptying jobs to keep them busy, nor to provide financially for their families. Credit: PA/ ITN-BUET

While formalising the sector is essential for moving forward and providing dignity and sustainable livelihoods, how this is done really matters! Just like ending open defecation in Bangladesh, formalisation has created a second-generation challenge to deliver sanitation. It is critical that governments and donors design and implement projects that adhere to the ‘do no harm’ principle to sanitation workers.

This do-no-harm principle would ensure that:

• pre-existing sanitation workers are not ‘squeezed out’ of employment as working conditions improve and access to machinery increases;
• sanitation workers’ income increases rather than decreases as a result of formalisation;
• sanitation workers are involved in conversations around setting tariffs and pay agreements.

If governments, municipalities, private sector actors and NGOs are not careful and intentional in the process of guiding sanitation workers into formalisation, then there can be unaccounted for consequences, which continue to entrench workers in poverty, shame and vulnerability.

This does not change the need for formalisation, which is still critical to ensure safely managed sanitation in Bangladesh, but municipalities and NGOs need to be acutely aware that without careful implementation, unintended harmful consequences are likely. 

Acknowledgement

We gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided through the Initiative for Sanitation Workers to complete this research, and we thank Tazrina Habib Ananya, Md. Rakib Hassan and Pranta Bhowmik from ITN-BUET for their efforts in completing the field work.

Author Information

Michael Poustie is a Research Analyst at Practical Action in Bangladesh. For any questions, please contact him using the following email address: Michael.Poustie@practicalaction.org.bd

Prof Tanvir Ahmed is the Director of the ITN-BUET Centre for Water Supply and Waste Management, and Professor of Civil Engineering at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET).

Dr Dani Barrington is a Senior Lecturer in Global Health within the School of Population and Global Health at The University of Western Australia.

Dr Mariam Zaqout is an interdisciplinary Research Fellow in Infrastructure and International Development at the University College London (UCL), whose work focuses on improving access to water and sanitation in low- and middle-income countries.