India
India, Kolkatta: shallow wells could provide drinking water to 50,000 households
14 Nov 07
Civic authorities say that the quality of water from shallow wells is good enough to provide drinking water to over 50,000 households. This would be especially welcome for the people in new settlements in east Calcutta, Behala and Jadavpur, which are not connected to the piped-water network.
India: aiming to end open-air defecation by 2012
06 Nov 07
"By 2012, India will be free of defecation in the open and will meet international commitments in this regard," Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad said at the World Toilet summit in New Delhi at the end of October 2007.
India: Second International Learning Exchange programme on WASH
02 Oct 07
Minister for Rural Development Raghuvansh Prasad Singh has observed that around 1,000 children died of diarrhoea every day in India, an average toll of 41 every hour. Singh said this during his address at the second International Learning Exchange programme on water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH).
India, Chattisgarh: women hold key to accepting toilets
02 Oct 07
Getting the people in Chattisgarh - a state with a population of 18 million people and carved out of the larger Madhya Pradesh only seven years ago - to switch to indoor toilet use, abandoning age-old practices and taboos, presented a major challenge for officials implementing the government's total sanitation campaign (TSC) in India.
India: ‘Walk of shame’ triggers toilet consciousness
12 Jul 07
Dabena village in Bilaspur district declared a 'Nirmal Gram' (clean village). The 33 families in the village were provided with latrines under the Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) launched in November 2005.
India: providing water and sanitation services to the urban poor
12 Jun 07
All 63 cities under India's ambitious urban reforms initiative, called the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNURM), are being urged to set up social development units within urban utilities to help focus critical services such as water and sanitation to the poor (28% of the country's urban population, according to the 2001 Census).
India: UN-HABITAT signs partnership with Coca-Cola
27 Apr 07
UN Under Secretary General and UN-HABITAT Executive Director Mrs. Anna Tibaijuka has signed an agreement with Coca-Cola India announcing that they will collaborate to improve community access to water and sanitation in India and Nepal.
India: Unrealistic approach hampers rural sanitation programme
27 Apr 07
A report by the Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking Water Mission estimates 30 million people in rural areas suffer from sanitation-related diseases. In economic terms, these cause a loss of 180 million man-days and Rs 1,200 crore (EUR 213 million), annually. The Indian magazine Down to Earth writes that the government’s focus seems to be on increasing sanitation coverage at the cost of quality and popular involvement.
