Toilets and Urinals

Featured Articles
September 26, 2022
Dirty drains 'drain' health
This study found that the sanitary quality of neighbourhood drains, in addition to toilets, affected sanitation and hygiene and incidences of ill-health in rural households.
Dirty drainages, harbingers of illhealth. Image for representation only (Image Source: SuSanA Secretariat via Wikimedia Commons)
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)
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)
May 11, 2021
Bathing spaces for women - crucial for WASH!
Bathing spaces and not toilets alone, aid women in maintaining health and hygiene. It is time the Swachh Bharat Mission pays attention to bathing spaces as well!
A temperory bathing space with no water and privacy in a fishing village in Tamil Nadu (Image Source: India Water Portal)
December 20, 2020
Putting faecal sludge management on track
The cost and revenue projections for both on-demand and scheduled desludging scenarios were elaborated upon in the faecal sludge management plan for Dhen­kanal Municipality.
Faecal Sludge Treatment Plant at Dhenkanal, Odisha
December 18, 2020
Faecal sludge management policy environment for small towns: Taking a wider view
Project Nirmal helped Odisha to become a front runner among states with a comprehensive policy framework on faecal sludge management.
Odisha is trying to fa­cilitate adoption of FSM by Urban Local Bodies so that sewage, septage/ faecal sludge, and liquid waste is safely managed, treated, and dis­posed. (Image: SCI-FI, CPR)
Beyond the death toll: The everyday violence of Assam’s floods
Mitul Baruah from Ashoka University narrates personal experiences of people affected by floods in Majuli, Assam.
Mitul Baruah
Posted on 19 Aug, 2019 12:53 PM

Floods are an annual phenomenon in Assam. They are as integral to the state as the Brahmaputra River is, and each monsoon, we are reminded that Assam exists (or is drowning). As I write this piece, Assam is slowly recovering from the first wave of flood this monsoon.
Floods in Majuli Assam. Photo credit: Mitul Baruah
3rd Indian National Groundwater Conference (INGWC-2020), CWRDM, Kozhikode
18-20 February 2020, Kozhikode Kerala
Posted on 02 Aug, 2019 01:26 AM

Centre for Water Resources Development and Management (CWRDM) is organizing the Indian National Groundwater Conference (INGWC-2020) to discuss 'Groundwater Resources Management for Sustaina
CWRDM INGC
Budget 2019 talks big on water
But have the crucial schemes received more money than last year? We talk to some experts in the water sector to find out.
Amita Bhaduri
Posted on 10 Jul, 2019 02:04 PM

Nirmala Sitharaman, Finance Minister alluded to gaon, garib and kisan as the centre of all policies of this government, while announcing a clutch of schemes aimed at the rural and urban poor.
Indian children tapping water (Image: Global Water Partnership, Flickr Commons, CC BY NC-SA 2.0)
Women hold the key to water for food security and nutrition
Study reveals women are central to both food production and preparation, as well as to domestic water provisioning.
Amit Mitra
Nitya Rao
Posted on 01 Jul, 2019 12:34 PM

The water sector remains male dominated at different scales, from engineers and technocrats responsible for designing irrigation systems, to upper caste and upper class men who decide on the location of canals, borewells, tanks, and other water systems at the grassroots level.
A woman from the Ahir tribe at Chapredi village, east of Bhuj with cotton husks. (Image: Meena Kadri, Flickr Commons, CC BY-ND 2.0
UNICEF lauds SBM for reducing groundwater contamination
News this week
Swati Bansal
Posted on 12 Jun, 2019 12:09 PM

Swachh Bharat Mission reduced groundwater contamination: UNICEF
SBM reduced groundwater contamination in many villages. (Source: IWP via Flickr photos)
What women want
As India votes this month in the Lok Sabha Elections, WaterAid India takes a look at how water and sanitation are still top of mind for many female voters across the country.
Nirma Bora
Posted on 08 May, 2019 04:02 PM

As the world’s largest democracy is all geared for its biggest test - for voters to select their Members of Parliament and the Prime Minister, the top issues that dominate the electoral agenda at the national level have been increased jobs opportunities, controlling inflation, and reducing farmers’ distress.
Image credit: WaterAid/Prashanth Vishwanathan
Breaking period taboo
A sanitary pad manufacturing unit in a Rajasthan village brings women together and breaks taboo around menstruation.
Amita Bhaduri
Posted on 06 May, 2019 11:18 AM

Leela Patel (19) explains how women at Wali, a tribal gram panchayat in Kurabad block, just 30 km away from Udaipur, manage menstruation by using old scraps of cloth. She’s aware of cases when women have had to use ash, dust and soil to soak up their periods. Buying a pack of sanitary pads is a luxury in this poverty-stricken belt.
Women at a manufacturing unit in Wali village that produces biodegradable sanitary pads at a low cost. (Image: India Water Portal)
Safai karmacharis release manifesto
Manual scavengers release manifesto to ensure right to a dignified life.
Amita Bhaduri
Posted on 08 Apr, 2019 10:36 AM

Hundreds gathered to release the Safai Karmachari Manifesto ahead of Lok Sabha elections 2019 at the Indian Social Institute, Delhi on April 4, 2019.
The toilet cleaners of Lucknow (Image source: CS Sharada Prasad)
Dumping waste effectively
Three environment-friendly ways of disposing of human waste have proven effective in various districts of Chhattisgarh.
Makarand Purohit
Posted on 16 Mar, 2019 03:51 PM

According to the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) website, access to toilets has improved in India and 28 out of 36 states and Union Territories are now open defecation free (ODF). While that’s good news, managing faecal sludge in ODF states in an eco-friendly way continues to be a big challenge. 
Evapotranspiration community toilet at Shankarnagar, Kumhari (Source: India Water Portal)
Income support: Budget 2019 showstopper
Will direct income support boost agriculture and shift focus from country’s food security to farmers’ income security?
Amita Bhaduri
Posted on 11 Feb, 2019 07:04 PM

The decline in public, as well as private investment, has led to a slowdown in the growth of agriculture and allied sectors in the last five years. The crisis in the agrarian sector had intensified over the last few years. It is now the political talking point with many farmers' rallies, marches and protests being held all over the country.
For doubling farmers’ incomes by 2022, the slew of measures proposed under the budget is inadequate. (Image: Azhar Feder, Wikimedia Commons-CC-BY-SA-3.0)
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