Drinking and other Domestic Uses

We all know the statistics: 2.6 billion people around the world are without access to a basic toilet. Diarrhoea – the vast majority of it due to poor sanitation and hygiene – is the second biggest killer of children worldwide.

Between us, we also have many of the answers. We have experiences of low-cost technologies that are acceptable and affordable for poor communities in rural areas. We have been involved in designing communications programmes that have contributed to sustained behaviour change.

We have seen governments and civil society working together to set up policies and programmes that ensure access to better sanitation in challenging settings, such as crowded informal settlements in fast-growing megacities. We have also seen businesses grow up around sanitation and hygiene, allowing individuals to make a dignified living and clients to buy the sorts of products and services they want and need.

Content courtesy: India WASH Forum

It does this in the context of the new decentralised  governance structures that are based on the assumption that domestic water supply is the legitimate domain of women and thus power and authority needs to be granted to women to manage water resources.

However, there is a very little understanding of how this has benefited women and what are the challenges experienced during the process of implementation or the outcomes gained from these processes, in the context of the Indian society that continues to propogate patriarchal values and is based on structures that are inherently hierarchical and inequitable.

Some of the papers dwell on and explore the inherent biases in the literature and make an attempt to understand their implications for women in managing water resources, while some of the papers share case studies on the outcomes of the implementation of the decentralised water management policies at the village level.

This report deals with environmental assessment and environmental management framework for the World Bank supported Jalanidhi-2 programme of the Kerala Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (KRWSA), an important player in rural water supply and sanitation sector of the state.

The programme focused on community involvement in assessing and evaluating water quality.

The urban expansion in India has not been met by a similar expansion in infrastructure and basic services. This has severely affected the quality of urban life and economic growth.

Author: Anupam Mishra

"The water in springs of my hills is cool, Do not migrate from this land o my beloved.”

Article and Image Courtesy: Everything About Water  

Highlights from the August edition of Droplets e-newsletter published by the Everything About Water

• India: Per capita water availability to reduce by 2025
• WHO: New guidelines for safer drinking water supply systems