Discussion Guest Moderator: A. K. Singh, Sulabh International, New Delhi

Posted 20 June 2007

I am pleased to be invited to seek the help of the Water Community for my chosen task. At the Visioning Workshop of the Water Community in March 2007, I volunteered to act as a "convener" for engaging the Community in addressing this important topic. This e-discussion continues the conversations on the topic from the workshop towards a possible action group assignment for the Community on Strategies for Scaling up Rural Sanitation Coverage.

From Aniruddhe Mukerjee, Government of Madhya Pradesh, Bhopal

Posted 21 May 2007

Dear Members,

I used to work for the UN-HABITAT on the Water for Asian Cities Programme, which aims to support developing countries in Asia and Pacific to achieve sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation for the poor, particularly in urban areas. In Madhya Pradesh, the programme is working in four cities of the state, viz. Bhopal, Gwalior, Indore and Jabalpur for improvement and expansion of urban water supply, sewerage and sanitation, water drainage and solid waste management.

Original Query: Prema Gera, United Nations Development Program (UNDP), New Delhi

Posted: 22 November 2005

UNDP has been supporting NGOs working in the area of community-based water resources management for some years now. The local communities comprising self-help groups, community-based organisations, water-users groups and federations have been experiencing a range of conflicts over water use both within communities as well as with external stakeholders in the area.

Original Query: Dinesh Kumar, International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Anand, Gujarat

Posted: 9 September 2005

I am Dinesh Kumar working at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) in Anand, Gujarat.

“Profiling “Informal City” of Delhi”, written by Kishore Kumar Singh and Shikha Shuklain in 2005 and published by WaterAid India and Delhi Slum Dwellers Federation, to assess the urban context and provide a framework for long-term urban programmes and projects. It provides, in one compact volume, the features of urban settlements in Delhi, socio-economic trends at macro level and the administrative and policy issues. It may be pointed out that WaterAid India works on limited areas like drinking water, sanitation and hygiene promotion.

Recognizing the need of knowledge and information in the sector of water and sanitation programme, Gujarat-based NGO Utthan set up a People's Learning Centre for Water & Sanitation (PLC-Watsan) which has been raising grass root level awareness and also facilitating lateral spread of information since 2006.

The case study highlights the role of a People's Learning Centre for Water & Sanitation (PLC-Watsan) in generating knowledge and imparting requisite training to the local community is evident in these reactions from residents of the project villages in Bhavnagar district of Saurashtra region of Gujarat - a western state of India.

This report on the assessment of drinking water supply and sanitation in India is the result of a collaborative exercise between the Planning Commission of India, the World Health Organization (WHO), and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) as part of a joint monitoring programme (JMP) for the sector. This country-level report in India comes in the wake of the four global assessments (reports published in 1991, 1993, 1996, and 2000) completed through the JMP process.

The paper highlights various issues relating to sanitation solutions such as reasons for failure septic tanks systems and associated pollute ground water.  On the other hand, flush toilet system and the sewage system, which goes with modern day personal hygiene and cleanliness, are part of the environmental problem and not the solution. Consider the huge amount of clean water that is used to carry a small quantity of human excreta, S.Vishwanath and Chitra Vishwanath titled “Composting toilets – the future of sanitation?” writes that in such a scenario one emerging solution is a dry composting toilet.

Over-exploitation of groundwater resulting in falling water tables in many regions of the country threatens the sustainability of drinking water sources. To address some of these issues, “Evaluation of the Environmental Protection and Water Resources Management Project”, published in 2004 by United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) promoted strategies for Environmental Protection and Water Resources Management (EPWRM), between 1995 and 1998, by supporting demonstration projects in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

Evaluation of the Rooftop Rainwater Harvesting Project.
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Source : UNICEF