These days, China's fast development is well-documented. But there are growing gaps such as in access to sanitation, where some 460 million rural Chinese people are without improved sanitation. The Central Government wants to reduce this figure, as WSSCC representatives discovered when visiting the country in October 2009.

'China's experiences with its rural sanitation programme can provide interesting and important lessons to share with the wider international sector,' said Mr. Jon Lane, WSSCC Executive Director, 'but the Chinese stakeholders also made it clear that they are very interested to learn from other experiences, especially on issues of sanitation and hygiene promotion, and the balance between software and hardware.' These learning and sharing opportunities, he added, could benefit both China and other countries where WSSCC is active.

The WSSCC delegation also included Networking and Knowledge Management Carolien van der Voorden, and former WSSCC regional representative for South East Asia, Ms. TV Luong. They visited stakeholders and sites in and around Beijing, in the Eastern part of the country, and Xi'an, toward the centre.

Sanitation coverage today

According to China's Ministry of Health, sanitation coverage is 60%, but of this 37% are not sanitary latrines as per the government's definition. The additional 40% of non-covered households do not defecate in the open as such, but use latrines amounting to not much more than holes in the backyard. The Central Government plans to increase coverage to 65% by 2010, and to 75% by 2015. This involves the construction of several million toilets each year that need to meet the minimum standard of , namely that they cause zero pollution and facilitate treatment/digestion on the household's premises. Six pre-selected toilet models are available, ranging from basic to more advanced.

The big rural sanitation push was started by the Ministry of Health in 2004 and confirmed by the Central Government in 2009. Some 1.6 billion Yuan (approx USD 234 million) will be allocated per year from the Central Government and augmented by provincial and local governments. Subsidy levels from the Central Government have been set at 400 Yuan (58 USD) per latrine to the poorest households, and 300 Yuan (400 USD) for the slightly better off. The average price of a sanitary latrine (except biogas latrines) is about 1,000 Yuan (146 USD). The remaining 600/700 Yuan (88/102 USD) need to be contributed by provincial or local governments, as well as the households. The latter can contribute cash or in kind contributions such as labour. For households that cannot provide labour (such as those with only elderly and children - a common feature in Chinese rural areas as the parents migrate to urban areas for work), a solution is generally found whereby the local Technical Unit of the Provincial Patriotic Health Campaign Committee Offices (PPHCCO) provides the labour for them.

In brief: China's Rural Sanitation Programme

The main components of China's rural sanitation programme are the following:

• Hygiene and sanitation promotion and demand creation components
• Household choice of six types of “non polluting” latrines (double urns, biogas, three compartments, alternating twin-pit latrine; eco latrine with urine-faeces separation, and flush latrine)
• A partial hardware subsidy scheme
• Targets set at levels from the Central Government down to villages; officials are measured against achievement.
• A strong monitoring system, focusing both on quantity and quality (construction and use)

Demand and sanitation promotion

Each year, an allocation is determined per county, and the county officials carry out promotion and assess demand. Households can register their demand, and will then be served in that year. In general not enough funds are available to help all households in a given area, so it is accepted that not all households will express demand at the same time. Some households may change their mind when seeing the sanitary latrines being installed at their neighbours, and so the county officials will then come back at the end of the year to ask whether they want to register for the next year's programme. In the counties around Xian in Shaanxi province, the county officials do try to cover whole villages (in one or a few years), and then spread the programme village by village rather than building a few toilets here and there.

Hygiene and sanitation education and promotion are also components of the programme. The PPHCCO spreads leaflets and materials widely; the government TV and radio channels air sanitation and hygiene messages; and the local women's and youth groups campaign door-to-door. Also, once households have had the sanitary latrines installed, representatives from the local Technical Unit will come back every three months for three years, to see that the households are using them appropriately, and if not provide them with additional information and education.

Each level up is responsible for monitoring progress of the level below, and the PPHCCO collects data on all households covered in the province and sends this to the National Patriotic Health Campaign Committee Office (NPHCCO), which is responsible overall for the implementation of the national rural household sanitation programme. If a county or a province is not progressing as expected, its allocation for the next year is lowered. There is strong pressure on each level to perform, and officials at each level personally commit themselves to achieving the targets by co-signing the plan with the official from the level above them. This 'contract' goes both ways, as the higher level therewith also commits to make available the agreed allocations. County governors and official are urged to carry out their programmes even ahead of receiving Central Government allocations.

More information: Ms. Van der Voorden, e-mail

Dave Trouba, Programme Officer Communications, WSSCC

Tags: advocacy, east asia & pacific, ecological sanitation, financing, on-site sanitation, participatory management