Dear members,

I happy to share a new report entitled: State of Urban Water and Sanitation in India, which is an important milestone emerging from a three-year collaborative program undertaken by TERI University, Coca-Cola India and USAID on ‘Strengthening Water and Sanitation in Urban Settings of India’. This project aimed at creating enabling conditions to achieve the sanitation targets for India and contributes to the Government of India’s Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban). The project has both immediate and long-term impacts on the sector and is useful to sector practitioners and policymakers alike. Please download the attachment.



Warm regards,
Nitya Jacob

Thanks for pointing out that report ("State of Urban Water and Sanitation in India"). It's pretty huge (176 pages). Seems well written and structured. It would be good to know if the intended target audience has been able to use it and move things forward?

I have only browsed it a little bit and came across this statement about a "people's movement" which was new to me:

Although the SBM (U) has launched such
unprecedented initiatives and sanitation is taking
the form of a jan andolan (people’s movement)
for the first time, the mission continues to exert
constant pressure on ULBs to meet the targets set by
the state government.

I wonder if we have anyone on this forum who was involved in this project which was carried out by TERI university? Perhaps they could tell us a bit more about this project?
It said:

The State of Urban Water and Sanitation in India report emerges from a three-year (2014-2017) collaborative program funded by the USAID and undertaken by TERI University, Coca-Cola and TERI on ‘Strengthening Water and Sanitation in Urban Settings of India’ and encapsulates the journey India has undertaken in the urban water and sanitation sector.

(source: sanitationupdates.wordpress.com/2017/10/...tion-in-india-usaid/)

Regards,
Elisabeth

Urban Water and Sanitation in India

Link: sanitationupdates.wordpress.com/2017/10/...tion-in-india-usaid/

The recently (Oct 2017) released report by USAID, Coca-Cola India, and TERI titled “State of Urban Water and Sanitation in India” is a interesting document, reviewing the progress in urban water and sanitation in India over the last 3 years. It provides an opportunity to strengthen two flagship missions of the Government of India, namely the National Skill Development Mission and the Swachh Bharat Mission (Clean India). Swachh Bharat is a popular Indian program, but I haven’t heard about the other one, i.e., National Skill Development Mission.

Giving an outline of progress under Swachh Bharat Mission, the report says that the number of toilets – individual household latrines, community toilets, and public toilets – has increased. The proportion of people resorting to open defecation (OD) in urban India has decreased from 23.5% in 2000 to 7.4% in 2015 (JMP 2017).

Collection of solid waste now covers 43 000 wards (2016), up from 34 000 in 2015/16. More and more of waste is now processed, and the infrastructure to treat waste too is more extensive. Public awareness of, and sensitivity to, cleanliness in the country are now far greater.

The report makes 5 recommendations. These are:

1. Improve the regulatory mechanism
2. Enhance capacities of urban local bodies
3. Undertake strategic planning and implementation of sectoral programmes
4. Foster an enabling environment for financing
5. Improve data management, monitoring, and review

While the above 5 recommendations are important, in the context of Pakistan, the data management, monitoring and review is poor. Accurate data is key to strategic planning to develop water and sanitation services and for managing them in a rational way. Reliable data is Pakistan is lacking, with different agencies reporting varying progress in water and sanitation field.

The progress under Swachh Bharat Mission (number of toilets has increased; and the OD percentage in urban India has decreased from 23.5% in 2000 to 7.4% in 2015) is impressive. Pakistan lacks far behind on this account.

It is said that Bangladesh has made great progress in the field of OD. Figures of OD have been brought down to zero. I’m looking for the Bangladesh reports that give progress on OD.

F H Mughal