With rapid urbanization in Asian, small to medium cities, have a huge gap in the demand and supply of water and sanitation services. Moreover, in many Asian cities there is rarely clear demarcation between rich and poor neighbourhoods creating the need to identify poor households for equitable distribution of services within society. In addition, designing service delivery should also be gender sensitive with special attention given to the environmental impacts.

In this context, tools for mapping the poor, gender assessment and Initial Environment Examination (IEE) have been developed as part of a model sanitation master plan for low-income settlements in South Asia. These tools will be widely used in other cities participating in the Water for Asian Cities Programme. The tools have been pre-tested in a peri-urban poor community called Tigni in Madhyapur Thimi Municipality. Additionally, the tools have been applied in the Integrated Siddhipur Water and Sanitation Improvement Programme.

Integrated Approach to Improve Sanitation System and Increase Agricultural Productivity in Selected Communities

Khokana is a traditional Newar farmers' village located about 7 km south from Patan city. Wards 1 to 8 of this settlement are situated together in a closed cluster and are known as Thulo Khokana whereas ward 9 is separated from the other wards and is locally known as Sano Khokana. There are a total of 655 households in Thulo Khokana and 37 households in Sano Khokana. More than 90% of the land area is still used for agriculture. The main source of income is agriculture which 92% of the population is dependent o followed closely by business and service. Agriculture is mainly of subsistence type. The well-being ranking shows that only 2% of the total households have food sufficiency for a year and almost 88% have food sufficiency for less than six months.

Two activities are being undertaken in these two clusters:

Construction of Irrigation Canal: Thulo Khokana has numerous ponds which hold historical and cultural significance. With receding groundwater table, six major ponds have dried up and are highly polluted due to connection of drains from the nearby houses and dumping of solid waste creating a nuisance in the neighbourhood. By diverting the water from the main irrigation canal through the branch canal into these ponds will help restore these ponds by recharging them. The ponds will revive and once again replenish the groundwater table retuning to the natural cycle on the long run. In addition, farmers will also benefit by irrigating their fields from this branch canal.

Implementation of Biogas Plant: Almost 80% of the total households in Sano Khokana are being forced to use pit latrines which get filled frequently due to the high groundwater table. Thus to improve the sanitation situation here, pit content will be diverted into a community scale biogas plant along with the animal waste. Excess black water from the pits will be treated in a Reed Bed Treatment System (RBTS). Moreover, the local traditional pond will be rehabilitated to provide safe drinking water to the inhabitants of this settlement.