Voluntary Citizen or Civil Society Sector

Drishtee Foundation is a social organization working with and for rural communitites. They are looking for a passionate candidate for an interesting opening in Saurath, Bihar. With a presence of over seven years in the Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) domain, Drishtee Foundation (DF) has undertaken numerous initiatives to ensure holistic development of communities in its areas of operation. 

This paper by Ajit Seshadri, Vigyan Vijay Foundation highlights the poor sanitation situation in India and argues that centralized approaches to wastewater treatment have had limited success and there is a need to make wastwater treatment people centric and effective through the use of decentralized systems such as DEWATS (Decentralized Wastewater Treatment Systems). DEWATS are locally organized and people driven systems that typically comprise a settler, anaerobic baffled tanks, filter beds of gravel and sand, and an open pond. The open pond or the polishing tank recreates a living environment for the wastewater to clean itself, naturally.

Watershed Management Group (WMG) has opened its doors near Panchgani, Maharashtra in western India where it has partnered with a local organization, Grampari, to provide health and environment services to rural communities. Grampari conducts livelihood and local governance programs such as skills development and entrepreneurship training.

WMG and Grampari are jointly developing several programs including sanitation & hygiene and community-based watershed management.