Toilets and Urinals

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August 16, 2024 A recent study finds that majority of the poor in India are likely to have open drains or no drainage systems to convey and treat their waste flows, threatening their health.
Open drains, harbingers of illhealth. Image for representation only (Image Source: SuSanA Secretariat via Wikimedia Commons)
November 17, 2023 Women's struggle for sanitation equity in rural areas and urban slums India
A training exercise on water and sanitation, as part of an EU-funded project on integrated water resource management in Rajasthan. (Image: UN Women Asia and Pacific; CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 DEED)
September 27, 2022 This study found that the sanitary quality of neighbourhood drains, in addition to toilets, affected sanitation and hygiene and incidences of ill-health in rural households.
Dirty drainages, harbingers of illhealth. Image for representation only (Image Source: SuSanA Secretariat via Wikimedia Commons)
December 2, 2021 Public toilets and choice of work for women
Separation between women and men’s toilets (Image: Rajesh Pamnani; CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
July 6, 2021 If trends persist, billions will be left without critical, life-saving WASH services, says a SDG monitoring report

Between 2016 and 2020, the global population with safely managed drinking water at home increased from 70% to 74% (Image: Pxhere)
May 11, 2021 Bathing spaces and not toilets alone, aid women in maintaining health and hygiene. It is time the Swachh Bharat Mission pays attention to bathing spaces as well!
A temperory bathing space with no water and privacy in a fishing village in Tamil Nadu (Image Source: India Water Portal)
Practice briefs from TNUSSP to showcase learnings
TNUSSP’s practice briefs give a lowdown on the learning from their research findings on sanitation in urban areas of Tamil Nadu. Posted on 21 Nov, 2017 10:56 AM

The Tamil Nadu Urban Sanitation Support Programme (TNUSSP) has published three practice briefs that present the research findings as well as learning from the various components of TNUSSP. These briefs are targeted mainly at FSM practitioners, researchers and academic institutions.

The practice briefs are:

Several behaviour modifications along with the full cycle of sanitation are important. (Source: IWP Flickr photos - photo used for representation only)
Where there are no sewers: The toilet cleaners of Lucknow
On this World Toilet Day, let's turn the spotlight behind the scenes of the sanitation chain, on those who clean out latrines where there are no sewers to carry away the waste. Posted on 20 Nov, 2017 03:41 PM

November 19th is World Toilet Day. Enormous progress has been made in the global effort to provide safe and affordable toilets for the world's poorest citizens since World Toilet Day was first declared in 2001.

The toilet cleaners of Lucknow (Image source: CS Sharada Prasad)
India ranks low on sanitation index: Report
News this week Posted on 20 Nov, 2017 02:20 PM

India has the highest number of people without access to toilets: Report

Toilets in India (Source: IWP Flickr photos)
Waiting for water
The villagers of Khalabari are hopeful that the overhead tank being built in the village would make drinking water easily accessible to them. Posted on 15 Nov, 2017 05:50 AM

In the early hours, the villagers of Khalabari, a tribal-dominated village in the Dumuripadar gram panchayat of Koraput district in Odisha step out of their houses for bringing wood and drinking water. The road to the forest where the water is available is rocky.

Khalabari village (Source: India Water Portal)
Drinking water: Access does not mean safety
A study from rural Maharashtra finds piped water supply does not guarantee safe drinking water. Water treatment, storage and WASH practices influence water quality. Posted on 11 Nov, 2017 12:36 PM

Concerned with contaminated water sources in rural areas, the Centre plans to provide piped water supply (classified as an improved water source by the W

Better drinking water access does not always mean that the water is safe to drink. (Image source: India Water Portal)
Marta’s toilets relieve villagers of OD shame
An American scholar's effort towards building toilets in Uttar Pradesh villages is bringing dignity to the villagers' life by enabling them to give up open defecation. Posted on 03 Nov, 2017 02:03 PM

“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.

Marta with one of the villagers. (Source: 101Reporters)
WASH with nutrition for better health
Poor WASH practices, undernutrition and infections are closely connected. Posted on 13 Oct, 2017 05:13 PM

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.

Improper WASH practices can compound health problems among the undernourished. (Source: IWP Flickr photos)
Will building toilets solve the problem of open defecation?
Inadequate sanitation has serious health and economic implications. But building toilets alone does not guarantee safe sanitation. Posted on 11 Oct, 2017 01:50 PM

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

Toilets need to be safe and functional for use. (Source: IWP Flickr photos)
Laws are good, implementation not so much
Despite the existence of laws to carefully dispose of faecal sludge in Tamil Nadu, they are not implemented effectively. Posted on 14 Sep, 2017 05:41 AM

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?

Faecal sludge gets illegally dumped in a water body.
What do rural women say about sanitation?
Women, who need safe sanitation the most, are often left out of crucial sanitation-related decisions at households, a study says. Posted on 15 Aug, 2017 10:09 AM

Does gender matter when it comes to sanitation? Apparently, it does.

Women and their unvoiced sanitation needs. (Women in Deogarh morning, Orissa, India. Source: Simon Williams / Ekta Parishad)
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