Sanitation and Hygiene

Come November, along with swollen waterways and flooded streets, another prominent image flashed repeatedly on television screens is that of mountains of mixed garbage. Chennai’s solid waste headache is by no means entirely monsoon-related.

The theme for the Conclave this year is “Water Use Efficiency: An Imperative for India” to highlight the imperative of water use efficiency in the industry, agriculture and urban contexts. 

“Earlier, I'd wait till sunset to answer nature's call. In the morning, I'd wait for others to return from the fields so I could go. Quite often, I had to miss school for this very reason. And I'm grown up now; so having a toilet in the house has become a must," says class IX student Jyoti Gaud, a resident of Tiktha Mussallepur village in Jagatpur.

Here’s some news for nature lovers. A dirty drain in Delhi could well be on its way to becoming a bird sanctuary. The Najafgarh drain or nallah that flows through the northwest part of Gurugram is becoming a new habitat for the strikingly tall Greater flamingos, a rosy-white pink billed migratory bird as it passes through southwest Delhi.  

It’s complicated! That should pretty much sum up the relationship between WASH strategies and nutrition outcomes. Obviously, when there are unsafe water, pitiable and inadequate sanitation conditions with woeful hygiene practices, it will inadvertently lead to public health implications.

Sanitation is the name given to the process, facilities and services employed towards the safe disposal of human waste which includes faeces and urine.

Non-biodegradable waste clogs Yamuna river after festival immersions

A whopping $215 billion is lost to floods each year

As a child back in the village, I had always cherished the sight of clear water running below bridges. But moving to Chennai, the car windows are always drawn up and the car zooms across bridges in a bid to avoid the stench emanating from the river. This begs the question, why are we in urban India so deprived of a clean environment?

Centre allocates Maharashtra Rs 60,000 crore to link its rivers