Note by moderator: This post was in another thread before I moved it. It was a response to this post by Mughal:
forum.susana.org/forum/categories/26-hea...likely-culprit#11287

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I know I may be naive, Mughal - but why will it take years for OD problems to be minimised?

What is the problem with all of the sanitation systems available (of which there are hundreds) that means that a massive, replicable, scalable project (or projects) running off the same template cannot achieve massive change in a short period of time?

• It can't be the tech - it's there in abundance (some better than others, but still...).
• It can't be the money - there's plenty of that floating around, and a simple ROI case can be made for this type of investment, whether for straight financing, ODI or even corporate sponsorship.
• And even at 600 million people (or about 150 million households) - at $100 per household (paid for by the household in form or another), that's only $15 billion (less than a cheap war:) - and that's the financed amount with the ROI on micro loans covering that about 3 times in the first 12 months
• It can't be the service or delivery or financing models - there are hundreds of these too.
• Can it be the quantity of expertise involved to get these projects up and running - the scoping, the design, the implementation? This can be resolved with template systems that are customisable at local levels. We have seen many case studies where local activists have made complete turn around from 100% community OD to full toilet use, without large project funders or external support.
• Can it be the will?

Not enough of it at political levels or international levels maybe?

I don't know - it just seems eminently doable to me (to bring India from 50% OD to 0% OD) in a relatively short timescale, if it's broken down into small enough packages (village by village perhaps) and the systems are designed for locals to control the planning, managing, delivery, community participation and buy-in.

Am I just seeing the world through rose coloured glasses?

Maybe you and I can map it out FH - and then I can see where the bottlenecks are - and maybe I can finally understand why there is so much pessimism around this subject