Sanitation and Hygiene

Featured Articles
December 13, 2022
Mobilising communities for WASH
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
Evaluating WaSH conditions spatially at the panchayat level
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
The loo loop
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
Hand hygiene, a public policy issue
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
Understanding the thinking behind IEC in large programs
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
Billions lack access to WASH services
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)
Simhastha leaves farmers fuming
The festival has hordes of Ujjain farmers broke and the mighty Kshipra river troubled. Swift government action is needed to set things right.
Makarand Purohit
Posted on 12 Jun, 2016 07:38 PM

Ramesh Mali, a farmer in his late thirties, looks at his farmland nervously. It has been 13 days since the Simhastha Maha Kumbh festival, 2016, concluded. The district administration had acquired his four bigha land (approximately 0.64 hectares) for the festival. The barricades and the concrete left on his land give us the idea that the land is not fit for farming this season.
Kshipra at Mangalnath Ghat, Ujjain
Mahila Milan's toilets stand out in Wadala
Posted on 07 Jun, 2016 09:27 AM
Mahila Milan collective seeks to ensure proper housing and sanitation in Mumbai slums
Leaders of Mahila Milan collective in Mumbai understand the importance good sanitation and have taken it upon themselves to ensure that women in slums have a hy
Young professionals lead the way in water and sanitation
A fellowship placed young people in villages for a year, implementing good water & sanitation practices.
Priya Desai
Posted on 31 May, 2016 12:22 PM

Open drainHirehandigola village in Gadag district of North Karnataka is an unsurprising picture of rural India.
Hirehandigola village, North Karnataka
Breaking the silence: World Menstrual Hygiene Day
Posted on 30 May, 2016 08:43 PM
World Menstrual Hygiene Day - May 28
Aimed at breaking myths and taboos surrounding menstruation, May 28 is celebrated as Menstrual Hygiene Day across the world.
Subarnarekha is dying. Who’s responsible?
The pitiful state of Subarnarekha stands testimony to the changing times. The river is being slowly killed by the greed of the rich and the apathy of the powerful.
Amita Bhaduri
Posted on 28 May, 2016 05:46 PM

It would not be an exaggeration to say Subarnarekha (Line of gold) is a film that left an indelible mark on Indian cinema. The film, by Ritwik Ghatak, is inspired by a river by the same name and narrates the reality around the river which flows through the present day Jharkhand, West Bengal and Odisha, before draining into the Bay of Bengal.
India’s steel city dumps its waste into Subarnarekha, the river of gold
Towards a trash-free period
Posted on 27 May, 2016 08:11 PM
For centuries, women have fashioned receptacles from locally available absorbants to soak up menstrual discharge. Softened papyrus was used by women in ancient Egypt, while in other parts, materials like wool, paper, vegetable fiber, grass, animal skin, and moss were used to create makeshift tampons and pads [1].
Breaching barriers towards better menstrual hygiene
Efforts have been on to spread the message of menstrual hygiene. But we are not even half way into achieving it fully
Seetha Gopalakrishnan
Posted on 27 May, 2016 04:06 PM

The female menstrual cycle is the intricate work of hormones. Usually, girls start their cycle anywhere between 12 and 17 years of age when a series of changes prepare their uterus for child-bearing. The body produces the hormone oestrogen which stimulates the growth of a protective lining inside the uterus to cushion the baby in preparation of pregnancy every month.
An IWP fellow talks to girls about menstrual hygiene at the Nirmal Bharat Yatra in Gorakhpur
Economic losses close to 6% of India's GDP mainly due to sanitation deficit: World Bank
Posted on 23 May, 2016 11:00 PM
India's all-round sanitation deficit results in overall losses worth close to 6% of GDP 
With India contributing 60% to the world’s open defection, the World Bank has estimated that the country’s sanitation deficit leads to losses worth roughly
Changing seasons and diarrhoeal diseases
This study in urban and rural areas of Vellore, Tamil Nadu found that seasonal fluctuations had an effect on water quality and diarrhoeal disease risk.
Alexandra V. Kulinkina et al
Posted on 19 May, 2016 09:07 AM

Access to safe drinking water and diarrhoeal diseases in India
Water quality, seasonality and diarrhoeal diseases (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
"SWM-ing" against the tide
While solid waste management is largely ignored by Panchayats and citizens, Goa manages to go against this trend. How does it do this?
Chicu Lokgariwar
Posted on 16 May, 2016 10:37 AM

The road to hell, they say, is paved with good intentions. A visit to almost any village or small town in India today will serve to confirm that statement. In an undoubtedly laudable attempt to keep the village clean, gram panchayats tend to dump waste in a convenient patch of land on the outskirts.
A roadside wetland remains a biodiversity haven instead of being clogged with trash in Vernem,Goa
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