Punjab Rural Water and Sanitation Project - Baseline

Punjab Rural Water and Sanitation Project - Baseline

CHAPTER III

Sanitation Practices

3.0 Introduction

This chapter presents the baseline information about different aspects of habitation sanitation, with a slightly higher focus on the excreta disposal arrangements and practices. However, the survey has also covered household practices of garbage and waste water disposal and perception of community leaders about their habitation regarding sanitation issues. This survey has found only a few habitations where construction activity of community sanitation facilities has been undertaken, but as most were not in use, the aspect of community level sanitation has not been focused on in this report.

Summary of Findings

• Almost three-fourth of the households in the state had household toilet
• Toilets with septic tank were most common in the state. 42 percent of the surveyed households had toilet with septic tank.
• Majority of the septic tanks had openings leading into open drains, which drained the liquid effluents from the septic tanks. This also leads to a high probability of ground water contamination, as in many cases, the habitation drains are not concrete structures, and low soakage of the contaminated water in the soil.
• Amongst the households having their own toilet, 90 percent of the household members used it on regular basis.
• About one-fourth of the households who did not have toilet facility in the house mainly use the open space in the habitation or field for their defecation
• 96.2 percent toilets were located within a distance of 10 meters from the water source in the house, and therefore having a possibility of introducing contamination of the water sources
• The work for construction of community toilets was undertaken in only 2.8 percent habitations in the state. However, none of the respondent in the state reported usage of community toilets.
• There was water drainage facility available in 94.8 percent habitations.
• On the basis of waste water disposal efficiency, villagers in 18.3 percent habitations rated their habitation as good and 58.8 percent felt that it was average.
• System to collect garbage regularly from households existed in 14.8 percent habitations.
• On the basis of garbage disposal efficiency, villagers in only 2.5 percent habitations rated their habitation as good.

3.1 Access to household toilets

Almost three-fourth of the households in the state had toilet facility in the house. As per DLHS-3 survey, about 70 percent households in Punjab had access to toilet facility. The distribution of households owning toilets segregated by social groups show that more households of the general caste own toilets, and there is a significantly lower proportion of SC and OBC households which was found to own household toilets.

• 90 percent general category households,
• 69.5 percent households in OBC category and
• 57 percent households in Scheduled caste category had this facility.

District-wise distribution of households with toilets show that there are some districts where the toilet ownership is high, and in these districts, the general caste toilet ownership is higher than other castes, except in the districts reporting the non-Hindu households (termed as ‘others’), where the ownership is near 100 percent. The districts where a high proportion of households own toilets include:

• Barnala, Bathinda and Ludhiana have more than 90 percent of households with private toilets
• Fatehgarh Sahib, Moga and Sangrur districts had between 80 and 90 percent households with private toilets

The districts where a comparatively high proportion of households report not having a household toilet are Gurdaspur and Hoshiarpur, where almost half the households report not owning toilets. In these districts also, more SC and OBC households were not found to own private toilets as compared to the General caste households.

Table 180: Caste wise availability of toilet facility in the house

District / Caste / Availability of toilet in house /
Yes / No / Total /
% o ̀N o0.0Ѐzzz / % o ̀N o0.0Ѐzzz / N o0.0Ѐzzz /
Amritsar / General / 90.1 / 9.9 / 133
OBC / 83.3 / 16.7 / 42
SC / 54.2 / 45.8 / 225
Total / 69.0 / 31.0 / 400
Barnala / General / 96.5 / 3.5 / 257
OBC / 90.7 / 9.3 / 54
SC / 77.5 / 22.5 / 89
Total / 91.3 / 8.8 / 400
Bathinda / General / 97.5 / 2.5 / 275
OBC / 88.3 / 11.7 / 60
SC / 84.6 / 15.4 / 65
Total / 94.0 / 6.0 / 400
Faridkot / General / 89.0 / 11.0 / 181
OBC / 63.1 / 36.9 / 65
SC / 50.0 / 50.0 / 154
Total / 69.8 / 30.3 / 400
Fatehgarh Sahib / General / 96.5 / 3.5 / 150
OBC / 81.0 / 19.0 / 63
SC / 75.9 / 24.1 / 187
Total / 84.5 / 15.5 / 400
Ferozepur / General / 77.6 / 22.4 / 116
OBC / 74.0 / 26.0 / 100
SC / 47.3 / 52.7 / 184
Total / 62.8 / 37.3 / 400
Gurdaspur / General / 72.4 / 27.6 / 170
OBC / 48.2 / 51.8 / 114
SC / 37.1 / 62.9 / 116
Total / 55.3 / 44.8 / 400
Hoshiarpur / General / 71.7 / 28.3 / 145
OBC / 49.6 / 50.4 / 115
SC / 31.4 / 68.6 / 140
Total / 51.3 / 48.8 / 400
Jalandhar / General / 82.0 / 18.0 / 139
OBC / 65.2 / 34.8 / 92
SC / 55.6 / 44.4 / 169
Total / 67.0 / 33.0 / 400
Kapurthala / General / 86.4 / 13.6 / 162
OBC / 80.0 / 20.0 / 95
SC / 61.5 / 38.5 / 143
Total / 76.0 / 24.0 / 400
Ludhiana / General / 98.9 / 1.1 / 182
OBC / 94.2 / 5.8 / 52
SC / 84.3 / 15.7 / 166
Total / 92.0 / 8.0 / 400
Mansa / General / 85.4 / 14.6 / 205
OBC / 63.3 / 36.7 / 60
SC / 37.0 / 63.0 / 135
Total / 65.8 / 34.3 / 400
Moga / General / 95.5 / 4.5 / 201
OBC / 90.0 / 10.0 / 50
SC / 72.5 / 27.5 / 149
Total / 86.3 / 13.8 / 400
Mohali / General / 98.2 / 1.8 / 163
OBC / 67.5 / 32.5 / 83
SC / 44.2 / 55.8 / 154
Total / 71.0 / 29.0 / 400
Muktsar / General / 90.7 / 9.3 / 183
OBC / 74.2 / 25.8 / 31
SC / 53.2 / 46.8 / 186
Total / 72.0 / 28.0 / 400
Nawanshahr / General / 75.3 / 24.7 / 97
OBC / 61.8 / 38.2 / 131
SC / 57.6 / 42.4 / 172
Total / 63.3 / 36.8 / 400
Patiala / General / 91.9 / 8.1 / 149
OBC / 69.1 / 30.9 / 97
SC / 66.2 / 33.8 / 154
Total / 76.5 / 23.5 / 400
Ropar / General / 91.4 / 8.6 / 175
OBC / 64.8 / 35.2 / 54
SC / 49.7 / 50.3 / 171
Total / 70.0 / 30.0 / 400
Sangrur / General / 97.8 / 2.2 / 186
OBC / 97.2 / 2.8 / 72
SC / 71.8 / 28.2 / 142
Total / 88.5 / 11.5 / 400
Tarn Taran / General / 94.7 / 5.3 / 171
OBC / 51.7 / 48.3 / 120
SC / 36.7 / 63.3 / 109
Total / 66.0 / 34.0 / 400
Punjab
/ General / 90.1 / 9.9 / 3440
OBC / 69.5 / 30.5 / 1550
SC / 56.9 / 43.1 / 3010
Total / 73.6 / 26.4 / 8000

Source: Household questionnaire, Baseline Survey 2009

3.2: Type of toilets available in the house

Most of the toilets in the rural areas have on-site systems of excreta disposal and only 0.1 percent (only from Ludhiana) reported having latrines attached to a sewerage network.

Of the various systems of on-site disposal, it is found that septic tanks account for more than two fifth of the household toilets. The other popular types of toilet that have been constructed are single pit and twin pit latrines. Some of the twin pit latrines have been found to be constructed with subsidy from the rural development department, and built almost as septic tank latrines. The twin pits have been constructed as a concrete rectangular pit with a partition to separate into two chambers or pits. The pipe attached to this pit to drain of excess liquid effluent is generally connected to the habitation (open) drains, and is believed to cause contamination. Since this survey has not asked for the cost of constructing latrines, it is not possible to provide estimates for this kind of latrines (septic tank latrines), and is thus included in the count of double pit latrines.

Figure 24

Across the state, it is found that

• 41.8 percent of the households with toilets septic tanks
• 30.3 percent had toilets having a single pits and
• 26.5 percent toilets had twin pit facility
• 1.2 percent toilets were bore well latrine.

On-site latrines usually are not advised to have very deep pits, but a depth of 1 – 1.5 metres at the most is usually advised, so that the pit bottoms are not near the water table, and is a source of water contamination. In Punjab, it has been reported that some households have borewell latrines, which has very deep and narrow pits, built so that they can accommodate a lot of excreta and can be in operation for a much longer time than the ordinary pit latrines. Some of these deep and narrow pits have also resulted as the households sometimes lack adequate space for a wide and shallow pit in their front or back yards (where the latrine is located). It is found that a small proportion of households (1.2%) in Punjab reported having this kind of latrine, and most of them are located in Barnala and Bathinda.

It is encouraging to note that the state has mostly done away with manual scavenging, as only 0.1 percent of the households have been found to have a service latrine.

Districts have reported very noticeable differences in the type of latrines owned by the households.

• Districts which can be classified as largely with septic tank kind of latrines include Hoshiarpur (93.2%), Nawanshahr (87.4%), Gurdaspur (85.5%), Kapurthala (84.5%) and Barnala (70.7%).
• Twin pit and single pit latrines are promoted by the Central Government, and the districts that report a high proportion of the same can be said to be the areas, where the State Government has been active in promoting the sanitation programme.

o  The districts with a high proportion of households reporting ownership of single pit latrines are Ferozepur (68.5%), Muktsar (68.1%), Faridkot (52%) and Moga (49.9%).

o  The districts with a high proportion of households reporting ownership of twin pit latrines are Mohali (67.3%), Sangrur (53.1%) and Tarn Taran (51.5%).

Table 181: Type of toilet facility available

Districts / Type of toilet
Bore well Latrine / Single pit toilet / Twin pit toilet / Toilet with Septic tank / Toilet attached to a sewerage system / Service latrine / Total
% / % / % / % / % / % / N
Amritsar / .0 / 15.2 / 34.1 / 50.7 / .0 / .0 / 276
Barnala / 9.6 / 13.7 / 6.0 / 70.7 / .0 / .0 / 365
Bathinda / 4.0 / 37.5 / 18.9 / 39.4 / .0 / .3 / 376
Faridkot / .4 / 52.0 / 35.5 / 12.2 / .0 / .0 / 279
Fatehgarh / .0 / 42.6 / 39.9 / 17.5 / .0 / .0 / 338
Ferozepur / .0 / 68.5 / 29.5 / 2.0 / .0 / .0 / 251
Gurdaspur / .5 / 4.5 / 9.0 / 85.5 / .5 / .0 / 221
Hoshiarpur / .0 / 1.0 / 5.9 / 93.2 / .0 / .0 / 205
Jalandhar / .0 / 19.0 / 14.9 / 66.0 / .0 / .0 / 268
Kapurthala / .3 / 5.3 / 9.9 / 84.5 / .0 / .0 / 304
Ludhiana / .0 / 32.1 / 30.4 / 36.4 / 1.1 / .0 / 368
Mansa / .0 / 41.8 / 8.7 / 49.4 / .0 / .0 / 263
Moga / .6 / 49.9 / 22.6 / 26.4 / .0 / .6 / 345
Mohali / .0 / 15.8 / 67.3 / 16.9 / .0 / .0 / 284
Muktsar / 1.7 / 68.1 / 25.7 / 4.2 / .0 / .3 / 288
Nawanshahr / .4 / .4 / 11.9 / 87.4 / .0 / .0 / 253
Patiala / 1.6 / 27.1 / 11.8 / 59.5 / .0 / .0 / 306
Ropar / .4 / 40.0 / 35.0 / 24.6 / .0 / .0 / 280
Sangrur / .6 / 30.5 / 53.1 / 15.8 / .0 / .0 / 354
Tarn Taran / .0 / 25.0 / 51.5 / 23.5 / .0 / .0 / 264
Punjab / 1.2 / 30.3 / 26.5 / 41.8 / .1 / .1 / 5888

Source: Household questionnaire, Baseline Survey 2009

3.3: Type of building material of latrine pit

Toilets having single pit or double pit should ideally be lined with brick and sand or be pucca brick and cement structures as in the case of septic tanks, with necessary liquid effluent outlet channels packed with materials like charcoal to filter contaminants. This is to prevent lateral and vertical percolation of contaminated water and thereby avoid ground water contamination. This question of whether a leaching pit of a latrine is earth lined of Kutchha or brick/brick and cement lined or pucca is only relevant to be asked for the leaching pit latrines – i.e. the single and double pit latrines.

Two-third of the households in the state having single pit or double pit latrine informed that the pit was lined with just brick or with brick and cement. Although not specifically asked, it is understood through qualitative discussions that some households with pucca leaching pits have the bottom of the pits without any lining, so that the leaching occurs through downward percolation. Districts where most toilets have pucca leaching pits include Muktsar (93.7%), Mohali (87.7%), Amritsar (86%), Ropar (85.2%) and Jalandhar (82.4%).

About 34 percent of the households had Kutchha leaching pits, and their proportion was found to be high in the districts of Mansa (92.7%), Barnala (66.7%) and Bathinda (62.7%).