Sanitation represents a sizeable share of the total estimated investment budget for cities and yet historically, investments in UGSS systems have lacked a cogent and efficient investment approach. Thus, it is important to enhance the capacities of cities to make sanitation decisions in an informed and structured way, to ensure contextual decision-making and optimal utilization of funds.

This project was conducted by a team from Johns Hopkins SAIS, in collaboration with Athena Infonomics. Its goal is to build capacity in the Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) and provide technical support, by evaluating existing decision-making support tools and offering recommendations for the development of a new decision support tool which could help cities assess the viability of UGSS vs. Septage systems.

This enhanced tool will contribute to more robust and realistic Service-Level Improvement Plans (SLIPs), which in turn will translate to improved State Annual Action Plans (SAAPs), thereby enhancing the overall value for money of public expenditure on sanitation.

This report includes a review of existing Sanitation Decision Support Tools. It also contains recommendations of ways in which such tools can be better adapted to the Indian context, making it comprehensive and useful for planners.