As a country India unfortunately has the single largest number of people defecating in the open at close to 600 million people. About 120 million toilets will be built in rural India in the coming five years , most of them with a single pit . Urban India is also faced with a challenge of less number of community toilets in low income areas and slums as well as the inability of the system to collect and treat waste-water. A large number of sewage treatment plants remain dysfunctional or under utilized. The new government is committed to a Clean India and wants to clean up the mess in as short a time as possible. Great investments will be made and new ideas fructify as policy in the coming days. Sustainable sanitation will be at the heart of the requirement.
A small Facebook page has been opened here www.facebook.com/groups/1471068926475905/ just to bring the discussion to a more wider audience which perhaps has no exposure to water and sanitation issues and may be interested in volunteering or even in engaging on a long term basis perhaps as a career. Those interested and on Facebook are welcome to become part of the discussion which now engages India at various levels starting from the agenda set by the Prime Minister.