Faecal Sludge Management

• Objective 1: Standards
  • Improved quality of sanitation and FSM services during emergencies through widely available minimum standards
• Objective 2: Coordination
  • Improved collaboration, support and information-sharing between humanitarian agencies, especially to emergency WASH clusters 
• Objective 3: Capacity development, research and knowledge management
  • Improved capacities and joint learning in the emergency sanitation sector
• Objective 4: Advocacy
  • Build awareness and commitment to ensure the full sanitation chain is integrated into WASH responses
• Objective 5: Emergency FSM decision support tools
  • Development of the basis (first of three years) for a Humanitarian Sanitation Knowledge Hub, making operational guidance, tools and a helpdesk available for WASH practitioners in emergencies

The Working Group consists of five work streams, each co-chaired by different Working Group members as indicated below:

1. Standards

IHE (Tineke Hooijmans, [email protected]) and British Red Cross (David Thomas, [email protected])

1. Coordination and helpdesk

NLRC (Marij Zwart, [email protected]) and IFRC (William Carter, [email protected])

1. Capacity Development, Research and Knowledge Management

Tufts (Marine Ricau, [email protected]), SI (Claire Papin-Stammose, [email protected], CAWST (Laura Kohler [email protected] and Catherine Bourgault, [email protected]

1. Advocacy Strategy

Oxfam (Andy Bastable, [email protected]

1. Emergency FSM decision support tools

Borda (Tobias Ulbrich, [email protected]) and GTO (Rob Gensch [email protected])

The planning of each work stream can be found under ‘key documents’

The FSM Working Group Coordinator, a representative of the GWC and the co-chairs of the work stream jointly form the FSM Working Group management team.

Find the FSM Working Group - Contact list here

All humanitarian and research organizations active in the field of FSM are welcome to join the Working Group. To become a member of the FSM Working Group, organizations need to be willing to actively contribute to at least one of the seven work streams. Currently, commercial organizations are welcome to join our public meetings, but cannot become FSM Working Group members.

Please contact [email protected] to request membership and more information.

• Sanitation e-compendium
• Octopus
• Shit flow diagram
• SaniPath
• Susana
• Sanitation Quality Standards for Emergencies
• FSM Working Group Factsheet
• African Sanitation Policy Guidelines
• Treatment technologies in practice: On-the-ground experiences of faecal sludge and wastewater treatment
• Compendium of Sanitation Technologies in Emergencies - 1st Edition
• Faecal sludge and septage treatment – a guide for low- and middle-income countries
• Excreta disposal in emergencies a field manual
• Decentralised wastewater treatment systems (DEWATS) and sanitation in developing countries - A practical guide
• A practical guide to available pit-emptying technologies
• Faecal Sludge Management: Systems Approach for Implementation and Operation
• World Health Organization guidelines on sanitation and health

• FSM Working Group work plan
• FSM Working Group meeting documents

The members of the FSM Working Group are available to give remote support to emergency WASH practitioners and clusters facing practical sanitation issues.

The FSM Working Group is available to:

• Share quality resources, such as standard operating procedures (SOPs), example designs and bill of quantities
• Provide direct connects with experts or WASH practitioners with relevant experience
• Guide and facilitate national coordination platforms (NCPs), including local and national actors, to jointly create sanitation plans, relevant for your context, needs and resources.

To request remote support, please contact Marij Zwart, [email protected]