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These trucks with a built in pump suck out septic tanks and pit latrines for a fee of Rs 1300/- ( 33 US $). They do the job cleanly and in 15 minutes. The waste is then deposited at a sewage treatment plant or for farmers to compost and use as fertilizer. A protocol for safe handling of the manure needs to be quickly developed as well as to tell farmers how much manure to use.

Forwarded by Water Aid Safe Drinking Water in Rural Areas: Community Based Approaches April 08-10, 2008 India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road, New Delhi Click here for Conference AgendaThere are many organizations, individuals, experts and NGOs that are working with great dedication and energy, on different aspe

We are trying to find the right person(s) to grow the Portal team.

"Water MOVES"is a quarterly newsletter from Society for Promotion of Wastelands Development. This issue contains an article on Integrated Water Resource Management by N.C.

Drop by drop ACCESS & HUL in Base of Pyramid Partnership for Safe Drinking Water for Rural Poor:

Yakalakshmi lives in Nekkunda village, Telengana region in Andhra Pradesh with her husband and two children. Though she has water piped to her house by the village panchayat, her entire family fell ill for a month last monsoon season by drinking water directly from the tap. "We all got high fever and severe diarrhea", she says, "we had to spend around Rs. 4000 on health care, which was very difficult for us". So when she got the opportunity this January to buy an effective water purifier through her Self Help Group (SHG) on an installment basis she was one of the first to sign up. Yakalakshmi is just one of the beneficiaries of a unique tie-up between ACCESS Development Services, a microfinance technical services non-profit organization, and Hindustan Unilever Limited, one of the country's largest producers of fast-moving consumer goods, to provide safe drinking water to rural poor. "Most of these villages have piped water or boreholes", says Padma, Project Coordinator at a local NGO, PEACE, "the problem is that tests by UNICEF in this district show that up to 70 percent of these sources are contaminated."The contamination gets even worse during the rainy season, especially due to poor sanitation and waste-management practices.

Forwarded by CSE, Center for Science and Environment The Department of Drinking Water Supply and Rural Development, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India is organising a two days National Workshop on Sustainable Sanitation on 15th and 16th of April 2008, at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi.

Last date for contest submissions is March 26th 2008 The Global Water Challenge (www.globalwaterchallenge.org) and Ashoka's Changemakers (www.changemakers.net) have launched a global collaborative competition to find the most innovative community-based water and sanitation solutions.

The Nov 2007 edition of "Himalaya: Man and Nature", a newsletter about ecological issues of the mountain areas of Uttarakhand and neighbouring areas is available here : http://www.himalayanwater.org/media/download_gallery/Himalaya%20Man%20&%20Nature,%20Nov-07.pdf The newsletter c