Sanitation

Article and Image Courtesy: Consortium for DEWATS Dessemination Society

The July edition of e-Disha published by the Consortium of DEWATS Dissemination Society (CDD) has the following highlights:

The Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) of the Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking Water Mission (RGNDWM), Govt of India was launched to cover all households with water and sanitation facilities and promote hygiene behaviour for overall improvement of health of the rural population. Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) were involved in scaling up the TSC to promote large scale social mobilisation to bring about behavioural change.

The Water Supply & Sanitation Collaborative Council's (WSSCC) Global Sanitation Fund (GSF) calls for Expressions of Interest for a COUNTRY PROGRAMME MONITOR for a Sanitation and Hygiene Programme in India

WSSCC invites suitably qualified firms/organisations to express interest in the role of Country Programme Monitor (CPM) for the GSF grant programme in India. The initial contract duration is for 2 years, extendable up to 5 years upon satisfactory performance of services.

Some recent news items from the news feed that India Water Portal maintains at Newsrack: (http://newsrack.in/stories/arghyam/Water/55) :

• Six sewage treatment plants coming up in tsunami-affected areas of Nagapattinam, TN : http://www.thehindu.com/2010/05/31/stories/2010053157650600.htm

This discussion paper by ADB, examines the current state of sanitation in India in the context of the Millennium Developmental Goals, which call for a 50% reduction in the proportion of people without sanitation by 2015 and India's goal of providing Sanitation for All by the 2012.

The paper targets policy makers, governmental ministries, state and local governments, non-governmental organisations, developmental agencies and all those who are involved in the planning and implementation of sanitation policies in India. It makes a few recommendations for the successful implementation of sanitation efforts in India.The focus of these recommendations is on household sanitation, which includes safe disposal of human excreta, as measured by household ownership of a sanitary latrine and household access to drainage facilities.

This document by Water for People, emphasises the importance of appropriate sanitation coverage in schools that is gender sensitive and culturally acceptable to the needs of both boys and girl students, rather than the exclusive focus on adequacy of facilities.

It discusses the case of schools in rural areas in West Bengal where it was found that although the coverage of sanitation facilities was reasonable, lack of adequate availability of water, lack of consideration to student differences in terms of age and gender in the construction of latrines and drinking water facilities, poor systems of maintainence and disposal of wastes made the sanitation facilities inappropriate for use.

In order to get a sense of the current status of sanitation in India's cities, a survey was initiated by the Ministry of Urban Development as a part of the National Rating and Award Scheme for Sanitation for Indian Cities. The methods used for the survey can be found on the Ministry of Urban Development website.

The findings and the rankings of the cities according to the survey found that the situation was grim with only 25 cities topping the list, while majority of the others lagged behind in terms of a number of sanitation parameters.

The Sankalp 2010 Awards and Investment Forum is an annual Intellecap initiative committed to catalyzing entrepreneurship in the social enterprise space. Sankalp actively facilitates collaboration between established and budding entrepreneurs, investors, thought leaders and sector stakeholders interested in contributing effectively towards this fledgling yet fast-growing industry.

With a strong focus on double bottomline (social and commercial) enterprises Sankalp, in its second edition, aims to accelerate investment in this space through the showcase of pioneering, sustainable and innovative enterprises capable of long term social impact. Sankalp's primary goal is of bringing together various stakeholders sharing a common conviction that capital should be invested to create multiple bottom-line returns (financial, social and environmental) and not exclusively financial (profit-maximizing) or social (philanthropic) returns.

Thus having successfully established a niche for itself; Sankalp has taken the lead in recognizing those businesses that have mastered the balancing act between the profit and social objectives. Sankalp 2010 Forum and Awards shall recognize, award and connect the most investible social MSMEs (Micro, Small and Medium enterprises) operating in 5 high impact sectors:{C}

Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) is an innovative methodology for mobilising communities to completely eliminate open defecation (OD).

This document by WaterAid India, India highlights the poor water and sanitation situation in the urban slums in India, in the context of rapid urbanisation and the increase in the number of slums and slum dwellers in the cities.