Sanitation

From September until December 2009, I completed an internship with Arghyam through my master's studies at Oregon State University to better understand gender, water, and sanitation in rural locations in South India.

This article shows how women are catalysts for advocating widespread improved sanitation and – at the same time – reap substantial benefits in a program promoted by an NGO called Gandhigram Trust. The empowerment of women and marginalized populations is a vital step in realizing gender equality – equal access, planning, and management – for water and sanitation.

Through a maze of winding, curving roads off a main highway in Tamil Nadu, one must travel to reach the small, agrarian village of Muthampatti.

Priyadarshini, or Priya to friends, wanders inquisitively around a large cement pad where a group of about thirty women and men are gathering to create a map of their village using a colored chalk powder called Rangoli.

This report describes the proceedings of a workshop organised on the 5th of August 2009 at New Delhi, by the Freshwater Action Network South Asia (FANSA), the Forum for Policy Dialogue and Water Conflicts in India (FORUM), India WASH Forum and WaterAid.

The crisis of providing safe and affordable drinking water, as well as meeting the water requirements for livelihoods and infrastructure for rural and urban sanitation in India, is becoming acute by the day. In this context, ensuring the right of citizens to drinking water and sanitation, can be an important policy initiative to help improve the overall situation.

The India WASH Forum (IWF), a coalition of individuals representing an independent credible voice in the water and sanitation sector that is aligned to the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC), supported the launch of the Global Sanitation Fund (GSF) in India, to assist the people of the country, who do not have adequate access to clean water and sanitation.

A launch workshop of the Global Sanitation Fund was organised on 4th August 2009 in New Delhi, by the India WASH Forum, to discuss GSF programme priorities and its implementation structure for India. Representatives of national and international organisations, Government of India, as well as sector experts participated in the workshop.

The newsletter explores the ways in which national laws, court pronouncements and judgements and international commitments can be interpreted to imply a right to water and sanitation.

Specific articles cover:

-Individual court cases and Supreme Court pronouncements

The special track on Sanitation today was the best part of the whole series of sessions. Insightful and sometimes funny, like this one. Here is a story about the "WC" as meant by a british woman intending to travel to india, and as understood by her probable indian host.

Ashok Jaitly, Water Resources Department, TERI
Policy issues in water conservation

Habil Attarwala, Furaat Earth Ltd., Gujarat