Rurality as a vehicle for Urban Sanitation Transformation (RUST)

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Delivering basic services, for example, water, sanitation and energy, to urban populations remains a significant public policy and planning challenge in India. This is especially the case for the 65 million people living in informal settlements or slums, as well as over 300 million people living in areas which have urban-like features but are administratively classified as rural. A significant proportion of these people were recently living in rural dwellings whilst some may still seasonally migrate back to rural areas for livelihood. In such cases, they retain strong socio-economic and cultural ties to rural areas.This project believes that this rurality can be a driving force for sustainable urban transformation, especially in the area of improved and productive sanitation, which is an area of particularly acute need in India.Rural communities have been shown to be more closely connected to their natural environment, partly because their livelihoods are often more dependent on it, as compared to urban communities. This relative closeness to the natural environment has been connected to more sensitivity around appropriate resource use as well as preferences related to open defecation. Building on that thinking, this research will try to understand whether there are major differences in urban, newly-urbanised and rural populations in relation to sanitation and human waste management. For example, it will examine whether there is potential for more circular sanitation systems that views waste as a resource i.e. as a fertiliser in agriculture, recycled products etc in newly-urbanised communities as compared to more settled urban areas.We will approach this research through developing three spatial transects of a Tier A1 megacity: Hyderabad. Each transect will cover the different zones of Hyderabad from the centre out into the rural areas of Telangana. This study will use a combination of participatory, qualitative and quantitative methods to assess ecosystem services, sanitation and human waste reuse perceptions and practices, and economic and institutional factors along each of these transects. A key feature of the research will be the integration of this data onto interactive maps through the ESRI Story Maps platform. These will be used to structure co-analysis sessions with policy and planning stakeholders to examine spatial differences in sanitation across the city. Through these exercises we will co-design new policy and planning frameworks that will bring together urban and rural sanitation into a holistic system. Ultimately, the project is designed to help develop workable solutions that will enable urban planners, managers and policy-makers to provide better services to urban populations with safer (improved public health) and productive (improved economic benefits) sanitation systems.