Book excerpt: This book presents a methodology for preparing scheduled desludging schemes in cities. Opening with a description of its definition and principles, this book outlines step by step the preparation of a scheduled desludging scheme. Coverage of the book includes a feasibility assessment of a city to implement a scheduled desludging program, getting everybody on the same principles, making the general concept, setting targets, designing the operational scheme, building capacity of the service provider, preparing the fleets, and preparing promotion activities for the desludging program. Several fecal sludge desludging options and the implication of each option are discussed in the book, including their financial implications. The book also presents methods to calculate the operational cost and how the cost can be used as the basis to determine the desludging tariff. This book was written based on the experience of USAID - IUWASH (Indonesia Urban Water and Sanitation and Health) program in assisting several Indonesian cities in preparing their mandatory desludging program. Some of Indonesia's specific narratives and terms used in the original book have been adapted for the benefit of readers from other countries.