Urban Sanitation

This manual has been developed by the Central Public Health and Environmental Engineering Organisation (CPHEEO), a department under the Ministry of Urban Development and aims at assisting the policy & decision makers, planners, managers and technical personnel involved in solid waste management activities, in safe and hygienic handling & disposal of municipal solid waste generated in the urban areas in India.

This paper by AR Shivakumar of the Karnataka State Council for Science and Technology (KSCST), presented at a national seminar organised by ISRO at NIAS Bangalore in 2010, begins by highlighting the increasing problem of scarcity of water that the city of Bangalore has been experiencing in recent years and suggests a required plan of action for a sustainable water supply system in the city.

This link on the Central Public Health and Environmental Engineering Organisation (CPHEEO) website, presents data related to the status of the urban water, sanitation and solid waste management in India. The data includes information on:

• Status of water supply (physical)
• Status of urban water supply (financial)
• Status of urban sewerage/sanitation system
• Status of low cost sanitation
• Status of solid waste management

Data is included from different states in India namely Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Mizoram, Pondicherry, Sikkim and Tamilnadu respectively.

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 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.

The policy paper examines the condition of community toilet in terms of its infrastructure, operation & maintenance, uses and payment of user charges. The paper is a result of a joint collaboration between Water for Asian Cities (WAC) Programme of UN-HABITAT and the Directorate of Urban Administration & Development, Government of Madhya Pradesh.

In Madhya Pradesh, WAC is supporting Asian Development Bank-financed project in cities of Bhopal, Gwalior, Indore and Jabalpur to improve and expand urban water and sanitation services. This study has been taken up to monitor implementation of the water and sanitation related targets.

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 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.

 This report found on the World Health Organisation site has been brought out by the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation, that tracks the progress on target 10 of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which is "To halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and sanitation".

2008 being the International Year of Sanitation, the report highlights the importance of sanitation, as being the crucial stepping stone to health , which offers:

This report by Sulabh International Institute of Health and Hygiene presents a baseline survey on health, hygiene and sanitation in urban slums and villages in Delhi. According to the report availability of basic civic facilities, like potable water, water disposal and sanitation, are vital human needs for health and efficiency of human beings. Inability of the city management and city institutions to provide these facilities to the citizens had led to high incidence of diseases and mortality rates. The problems which the women and children face in these conditions are much worse.