Validating Sammaan

If we are to identify effective, replicable solutions that address the design, management and operational challenges of communal sanitation facilities, it is imperative that we rigorously test out the impact of the various interventions and understand the causal mechanisms along the way. Thus, research is a crucial aspect of Project Sammaan, where a mix of software and hardware interventions will be evaluated using a randomized controlled trial (RCT) methodology.

There are two hardware interventions that will be studied: the provision of a basic package of design, infrastructure, and operational improvements, as well as additional infrastructure above the basic package, such as spaces for bathing and washing clothes. We will study if this provision of complementary services is cost-effective and whether this drives adoption. In terms of software at the facility-level, we will study the appropriate management system to ensure sustained maintenance. Facilities will be assigned to either community management or private contractor management, to study the effect of toilet management systems on usage rates.

There will be a range of pricing interventions at the household-level to increase household usage of sanitation services. For example, examining users’ reactions to price variation by offering discount coupons to subsets of households. Effects of pricing structure (e.g., monthly passes versus pay-per-use) will also be studied across users of the same toilet facilities. Additionally, there will be habit formation experiments, the idea being that we can design a set of interventions that “reward” community toilet usage, thereby forming a habit loop.

At the community level, we will introduce a set of community mobilization activities for demand generation for sanitation services, which is a variant of the popular Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) concept. These demand generation activities will be implemented amongst communities surrounding the new toilet facilities, as well as in other slums to look at the interactions between the demand for and supply of sanitation facilities.

Prior to the interventions, J-PAL will collect baseline data from households living in communities surrounding each toilet block. We will also conduct detailed audits of the baseline toilet facilities. After the hardware and software interventions are introduced, we will monitor toilet use at each facility at a high frequency, collect ongoing monitoring data on open defecation practices, and on the management challenges and financial health of the toilet operators. We will have two further rounds of intensive household survey work: a midline survey for a subset of sample households, and a detailed end-line survey at all sample households at the end of the project period.

Throughout the intervention period of one year, facility audits and a process evaluation will be conducted. These audits will provide objective measurement on toilet hygiene (such as fecal coliform counts on water taps and door knobs, and field olfactometry to quantify odor intensity, amongst others). Monthly measurements at traditional open defecation sites will also be conducted. As is customary with all J-PAL projects, the program implementation and data collection will be accompanied by rigorous process evaluation and monitoring. In particular, field staff will monitor the progress of any field activities: from the construction of toilets, to the proper implementation of software interventions, to the accurate collection of baseline and end-line surveys. These monitors will act independently of J-PAL field staff engaged in actual data collection, as well as local partner staff involved in the interventions themselves.

The experiments will be designed to identify both “successes” (large reductions in open defecation) and “failures” (precisely estimated small or no reductions), and will, ultimately, inform future discussion of urban sanitation issues, regardless of the outcome.