Sanitation

This paper begins with the slow rate of progress in achieving the millennium development goals of environmental sustainability, especially in the areas of water and sanitation. This is due to the disconnect between the global rhetoric (which often focuses on water as an economic good) and social realities (such as the cultural attitudes towards water)

It also deals with the efforts made by the Government of India to revolutionise sanitation services in the state of Kerala, with the aim of improving public health. Earlier experience had shown that significant governance problems had hindered water and sanitation reforms in local and national programmes in the state.

Content courtesy: India WASH Forum 

Author: Mohanasundar Radhakrishnan 

This study by Udayvani and Arghyam describes the findings of case studies undertaken by Udaywani to get a clear picture of the drinking water and toilet facilities in 8 Gram Panchayats of the 6 Districts of Karnataka following the ASHWAS survey conducted by Arghyam that included a survey of Household Water and Sanitation in 172 Gram Panchayats across 28 districts of Karnataka (all except Bangalore Urban).

This report by the Water and Sanitation Program (WSP), The World Bank analyses primary and secondary data from the Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) of the Government of India, which has been in operation for over a decade (1999 to date).

The audience for this report includes policy-makers and implementers at national, state and district levels, and the broader sanitation and hygiene community. The report aims at gaining an understanding of the processes, outputs and outcomes of the campaign at a national level and across the states as compared with the inputs that have gone into the program.

The report draws on these indicators, which are then compared individually and in combination to benchmark the states, to understand the relative performance of the states. This benchmarking, based on a combination of eight indicators, is undertaken for both states and districts across the country.

This working paper by the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC), UNICEF and WaterAid highlights the fact that a staggering 716 million men, women and children defecate in the open every day, in South Asia, contributing to the most appalling concentration of poverty and disease and the poorest standards of hygiene in the world.

This report by Asian Development Bank (ADB) deals with sanitation in India, in particular the progress, differentials, correlates, and challenges. Improved sanitation is essential to reduce ill health, child mortality, lost income associated with morbidity, and to improve environment, human dignity, and quality of life. Goal 7, target 3 of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) stipulates decreasing the proportion of population without sustainable access to basic sanitation by 50 per cent in the year 2015.

This discussion paper by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) examines the current state of sanitation services in India and offers recommendations that can help key stakeholders work toward universal sanitation coverage in India.

Providing environmentally-safe sanitation to millions of people is a significant challenge, especially in the world’s second most populated country. The task is doubly difficult in a country where the introduction of new technologies can challenge people’s traditions and beliefs.

This discussion paper examines the current state of sanitation services in India in relation to two goals—Goal 7 of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which calls on countries to halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without improved sanitation facilities (from 1990 levels); and India’s more ambitious goal of providing “Sanitation for All” by 2012, established under its Total Sanitation Campaign.

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.