Table_1_Environmental Sanitation Planning: Feasibility of the CLUES Framework in a Malawian Small Town.DOCX

Small towns are growing in size and number, but compared to the big cities that fuel economies, or rural areas that feed nations, small towns are generally less prioritized by governments and donors, both because they appear less immediately troublesome and because they defy easy classification. As such, growth has largely been unplanned for and remains unregulated, which means that responsible governments lack the commensurate tax base and political might to plan for and aquire the services they need to handle the changes that they face. For exactly these reasons, the Community-Led Urban Environmental Sanitation (CLUES) tool was developed to assist small towns with the planning and implementation of environmental sanitation infrastructure and services but we found no documented cases of it being used or evaluated. The goals of this work were to first, document the information obtained from the CLUES process as a case study for the condition of environmental sanitation in a small town in Malawi; and secondly, to evaluate the technical, political, and financial feasibility of the CLUES manual in a Malawian context. As facilitators, we guided the community and government through each of the 7 CLUES steps over the course of 2 years to understand the actual demands of the guidelines from the perspective of the user. Once the process was completed, we were able to critically reflect on our stated objectives and present those results here. The results of the process revealed that water quality was good (no measured E. coli at 45 water points) as was access to a sanitation facility, though water quantity was insufficient and fecal sludge management and solid waste collection required Council attention. However, because baseline data were outdated or non-existent, the data collection activities required to determine the status consumed unexpected amounts of time, and the results were, because of internal movement and politics, difficult to disseminate and leverage. Most importantly, stakeholder participation was limited and relied on participation and transportation payments, which have become a permanent feature of community development in Malawi. Following the CLUES process was expensive, time consuming and politically fraught; it is unlikely that any small town in Malawi would be able to follow the process as outlined. A simplified version, conducted by an in-house planning department should focus on identifying gaps, needs, and priorities, as a way of not only addressing environmental sanitation issues, but as a way to kick-start better data collection and management that can underscore long-term planning activities.

小城镇的规模与数量均呈扩张态势，但相较于拉动区域经济的大城市与维系国家粮食供给的乡村地区，小城镇往往难以获得政府与捐助方的同等重视——这一方面是因为其面临的问题看似不那么急迫，另一方面则是因为小城镇难以被简单归类。正因如此，小城镇的发展长期处于无规划、无监管的状态，这意味着负责任的地方政府缺乏与之匹配的税基与政治资源，无法规划并获取应对自身发展变革所需的公共服务。出于上述原因，社区主导型城市环境卫生（Community-Led Urban Environmental Sanitation, CLUES）工具应运而生，旨在协助小城镇开展环境卫生基础设施与服务的规划与实施，但目前尚未发现该工具被应用或评估的公开记录。本研究的核心目标有二：其一，以马拉维某小城镇的环境卫生现状为研究案例，记录通过CLUES流程收集到的相关信息；其二，在马拉维的本地语境下，评估CLUES手册的技术、政治与财务可行性。作为流程协调方，我们在两年的周期内引导当地社区与政府完成了CLUES工具的全部7个步骤，以期从用户视角洞悉该指南的实际应用需求。流程结束后，我们得以对本次研究的既定目标开展批判性反思，并将相关研究结果呈现在此。本次流程的调研结果显示，当地水质状况良好（45个取水点均未检出大肠杆菌（E. coli）），环境卫生设施的可及性亦达标，但供水量不足，且粪便污泥管理与固体废物收集工作亟待当地市政委员会关注。然而，由于基线数据已过时或完全缺失，确定当地环境卫生现状所需的数据收集工作耗费了超出预期的时间；同时，受内部人员流动与本地政治因素影响，研究结果难以被有效传播与利用。最为关键的是，利益相关方的参与度有限，且参与意愿依赖于参与补贴与交通补贴——这一模式已成为马拉维社区发展的长期固有特征。严格遵循CLUES流程的成本高昂、耗时漫长且充满政治阻力，马拉维境内的任何小城镇恐怕都难以按既定流程完成该项工作。因此，应由本地内部规划部门主导开发简化版流程，重点聚焦于识别现存差距、实际需求与优先事项；此举不仅可用于解决当地环境卫生问题，还能推动建立更完善的数据收集与管理体系，为长期规划活动提供支撑。