Sanitation and Hygiene

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December 13, 2022 WaterAid India’s partnership with USAID and Gap Inc. benefits 2400 villages across 7 districts of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra

WaterAid has focused on establishing community-led water quality monitoring & surveillance (Image: Anil Gulati/India Water Portal Flickr)
October 15, 2022 Synthesis of water, sanitation and hygiene (WaSH) spatial pattern in rural India: an integrated interpretation of WaSH practices
People in rural areas lack potable water, and use unsafe sanitation and hygiene facilities (Image: Sebastian Dahl)
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)
October 15, 2021 Interventions to promote hand hygiene should be designed based on an understanding of what people care about, says report on ‘State of the world’s hand hygiene’
Girls learn the value of hand-washing (Image: Kristen Kelleher, USAID, Pixnio)
October 4, 2021 Lessons from the Swachh Bharat Mission experience
Pop culture icons like Gabbar Singh are painted on the walls of a toilet complex in New Delhi (Image: Project Raahat, Enactus)
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)
Water quality status of historical Gundolav lake - Kishangarh - South Asian Journal of Tourism and Heritage
Urbanisation and population explosion has moved Gundolav from a freshwater lake to a wastewater drainage Posted on 25 Aug, 2010 09:44 AM

Gundolav Lake RajasthanThis paper published in the South Asian Journal of Tourism and Heritage describes the water quality status of Gundolav Lake in Rajasthan, which was once used for drinking water as well as for recreational activities under the tutelage of the princely state of Kishangarh. This has now become a site of wastewater disposal and facing a critical threat for its sustenance. 

Recent years have led to an increasing awareness of the importance of water bodies and  the need for conservation of water bodies, especially freshwater wetlands. The Ramsar Convention (2002) identifies wetlands as the starting point for integrated water management strategies. This is because they are the source of fresh water, maintain the health of the water course and water bodies, have the capacity to supply water to meet the human needs and are a key to future water security.

Seven Steps to Hygiene - An educational booklet by Utthan
Seven steps to sanitation and hygiene Posted on 25 Aug, 2010 09:22 AM

BookletThis document is an educational booklet on sanitation and hygiene published by Utthan, which works towards empowering women's groups to seek clean and adequate quality of water for all.

The booklet includes the details of seven steps that can be undertaken to attain sanitation and hygiene. The details have been explained in a manner that is simple and understandable and includes illustrations that are self explanatory and easy to follow.

The seven steps include:

  1. Use and protection of water sources
  2. Managing drinking water
Emerging groundwater crisis in urban areas – A case study of Bangalore city
Urbanisation and its toll on the groundwater recharge; Bangalore losing in the bargain Posted on 16 Aug, 2010 07:14 AM

The paper by the Institute for Social and Economic Change documents the case of Ward No. 39 situated at the outskirts of the Bangalore city to understand the emerging groundwater crisis due to overdraft in urban areas. Bangalore has no perennial river, which resulted in the growth of many lakes, acting as a source of groundwater recharge earlier.

UN General Assembly s resolution on water and sanitation as a human right
Water and sanitation is a human right but waits to be implemented and made 'available to all' Posted on 13 Aug, 2010 05:00 PM

The recent UN General Assembly Resolution on declaring water and sanitation as human right is or can be a powerful impetus to securing universal access to water and sanitation for people everywhere. This is the most recent in a string of initiatives to advance the provision of these essential services. Beginning with the UN Decade of Water in the eighties, then the declaration of the Millennium Development Goals, and later the adoption of General Statement 15 by the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations in 2002 the recognition of the fundamental importance of water (and more recently sanitation) to life, health and well being has been accepted at the international level. In India, while there is no specific mention of the right to water in the Constitution, the Supreme Court in its judgement(s)has upheld this as part of the right to life. Some organizations are working to make this a fundamental right, to remove any ambiguity.

Child drinking water - Madhya Pradesh

Boy drinking water from handpump in Guna, Madhya Pradesh - Handpumps and wells are still one of the major source of drinking water in India.

Photo credits: Anil Gulati 

Water Jobs via DevNetJobsIndia.org dated August 11th, 2010
Posted on 11 Aug, 2010 04:21 PM

Content Courtesy: DevNetJobsIndia

  • Program Associate (Drinking Water and Sanitation)

Coastal Salinity Prevention Cell

Location: Ahmedabad
Last Date: August 11, 2010

Status of urban water supply, sanitation and solid waste management - CPHEEO data (2005)
Data related to the status of the urban water, sanitation and solid waste management in India Posted on 06 Aug, 2010 11:11 AM

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.

Deaths due to water pollution
Safe water is a far-longed dream in this country. Everyday thousands are consumed by diseases caused by contaminated water Posted on 02 Aug, 2010 02:38 PM

Deaths due to water pollution occur mainly as a consequence of drinking of contaminated water. The common diseases caused by consumption of contaminated water are Cholera, Viral Hepatitis, Enteric Fever (Typhoid) and Acute Diarrhoeal Diseases (ADD).
 
The number of deaths reported State-wise on account of Cholera, Viral Hepatitis, Enteric Fever (Typhoid) and Acute Diarrhoeal Diseases (ADD) for the years 2007, 2008 and 2009 are given in      Annexure – I-III.  

India WASH forum e-newsletter - Update 13 July 2010
WaSH newsletter brings together critical news and information with analysis in the water and sanitation sector. Posted on 02 Aug, 2010 11:56 AM

Water Sanitation Hygiene

We see this newsletter as a platform for independent credible voice in the water and sanitation sector. Our emphasis is on bringing together critical news and information with analysis. In this issue we share news and analysis on topical issues and developments.

The Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation(DDWS) has simultaneously invited inputs to Discussion Papers on Drinking Water and Sanitation, circulated on Solution Exchange. Inputs given by India WASH Forum, on this, is enclosed in this Update. We have pointed out the missing elements of sanitation improvement strategy that include, criticality of providing water as an inseparable component to household sanitation, the tendency to see behavior change as a lifestyle issue and not linked to the hardware components, peoples livelihoods and living conditions. Suggestions for what needs to be done to strengthen the implementation mechanism of the flagship sanitation programme(TSC) and partnerships.

Step by step: Achieving sustainable sanitation - Lessons from civil society experiences - A report by Arghyam
This document highlights the outcomes of Arghyam's research and discussions on the experiences of civil society organisations involved in implementing sustainable sanitation campaigns. Posted on 29 Jul, 2010 02:19 AM

Several concerns were raised during the discussions on the the manner in which the Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) was being implemented, followed by identification of steps that were needed to ensure social, technical, institutional, financial and environmental sustainability of the programme.

The discussions revealed that:

  • The TSC indeed led to the mainstreaming of sanitation in India. However, more emphasis was placed on hardware targets, while social mobilisation had been largely ignored. Thus, inspite of increase in the coverage of toilets, their usage and sustainability had remained low.