"Sanitation
is more important than independence," Mahatma Gandhi may have
said at one point. Today, more than a half century after independence,
India is still struggling with the question of how to provide
sanitation and clean drinking water to its people. According to
a Planning Commission (2003) report, between 400,000 and 500,000
children under the age of five die due to water-borne diseases
such as diarrhoea, hepatitis and typhoid in India, and there are
fears that these numbers are grossly underrepresented. According
to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 80 per cent of diseases
in this country are caused by water-borne diseases, a result of
poor sanitation and far from adequate sewage disposal methods.
Less than 40 per cent of India's population has access to a proper
toilet, and those who don't have no choice but to relieve themselves
in the open, be it on railway tracks, river banks, agricultural
land or public parks, posing grave health risks by contamination.
On top of that, many Hindus believe that constructing a toilet
in or near a dwelling is a matter of grave impurity, and so even
the residents in those villages that do have toilets built by
the government rarely use them, preferring to go nature's way
instead. These toilets are instead utilised for storing tools
and utensils. Clearly, if timely and adequate action is not taken,
then chances are that India might sink under its own waste.
At
a micro-level, lack of sanitation can affect by direct contamination
as in urban slums. As toilet facilities are virtually non-existent,
residents relieve themselves in open areas. This germ-carrying
fecal matter can transmit itself into the water and food in
nearby households.
At a much larger level, the main cause of the spread of diseases
is water pollution.
Water pollution
Water pollution can be of two types:
a. Groundwater pollution (chemical)
b. Surface water pollution (organic and chemical)
Groundwater pollution 
can
be caused by pesticidal residues on agricultural land, or industrial
effluents that are not adequately disposed off. These chemicals
seep into the lower reaches of the soil, contaminating the groundwater.
This groundwater, when used for drinking purposes, can cause
serious health hazards, sometimes even cancer.
Surface water pollution is the main source
of water-borne diseases. It is caused by discharge of untreated
sewage, directly or indirectly, into rivers and lakes. It is
also caused by chemical effluents from industries. Few towns
in India have adequate sewage treatment facilities, and even
those that 
do
are so severely overstressed due to rising populations that
they can barely take care of even half the sewage that is generated.
As a result, most of the sewage is dumped untreated into the
rivers. Most of India’s rivers are heavily polluted with
fecal coliform rendering them unsuitable for anything at all.
The Ganga today is the most polluted river in the world, and
the fact that it has the distinction of being the holiest river
for Hindus has made its situation only more precarious, with
thousands of pilgrims visiting its banks and bathing in its
waters everyday, from Haridwar to Gangasagar, where it meets
the Bay of Bengal. At Varanasi, half-burnt bodies are tossed
into the river from the cremation ghats as most families cannot
afford the cost of a full cremation.
At first glance, the most
obvious solution is to ensure that every household has access
to a toilet. But the problem is much more deep-rooted than that.
With more toilets comes the need for a well-developed and fully
functional sewage network and sewage treatment system, which most
Indian
towns are lacking at the moment. Advocates of dry and composting
toilets claim their method bypasses the sewage system entirely
and thus is ecologically more suitable. However, these toilets
require regular clearing, which becomes the owner's responsibility,
and since rich people are unlikely to do this work, the manual
scavenging system that the government is working so hard at banishing
may just be revived.
The National River Conservation
Plan: A washout?
The predecessor of the National River Conservation Plan (NRCP)
was the Ganga Action Plan (GAP), launched by the Rajiv Gandhi
government in 1985 as a centrally-sponsored scheme to be overseen
by the Central Ganga Authority (CGA), which was subsequently renamed
the National River Conservation Authority (NRCA) in 1995. In the
first phase of the GAP, 25 cities in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and
West Bengal were selected, in which a total of 882 million liters
a day of sewage water was to be intercepted, diverted and treated
by the construction of sewage treatment plants. Other remedial
measures that were suggested were the construction of electric
crematoria, handling of industrial waste, and improving the river
biodiversity to enrich its self-healing properties. Slated to
be completed in 1990, GAP I overshot its deadline by 10 years,
and cost Rs 432 crore. While GAP I was still going on, phase two
was launched in 1993, this time including the major tributaries
of the Ganga - the Yamuna, Damodar and Gomti. In 1995, GAP II
was merged with the NRCP, covering 157 towns in 18 states, with
the costs shared between the Central and state governments at
a 70:30 ratio. However, both the GAP and the NRCP have been dogged
by accusations of corruption and inefficiency. The Comptroller
and Auditor General (CAG) of India 2001 report on GAP claimed
there was widespread financial irregularities and mismanagement
of funds. Recently, the CAG has also criticised the Delhi government
for failing to clean up the Yamuna river despite spending Rs 872
crore.
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5. Case Study
Soozhal: Success through community capacity building
Soozhal is a group of seven NGOs
that was launched in 2000 to complement the government of India’s
Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) in Cuddalore district of Tamil
Nadu. By 2002, it had achieved is target of constructing toilets
in 25 percent target household in the district. Soozhal’s
success can be attributed to its working directly with community
organizations, mobilising them both into a behavioral change to
raise demand for sanitation, and also in effectively implementing
the project; an effective optimization of government subsidies
and donor aid; effective delivery mechanisms; and by empowerment
of rural women to unlock a demand for sanitation. The soozhal
campaign has been so successful that the government has implemented
its methodology in other TSC districts as well.
ECAT:
Water and Sanitation was
never ever seen near well or hand pumps. The free flowing water
caused mud and insanitation giving birth to mosquitoes, insects
etc. ECAT made the people realize the issue and project a felt
need to sort out the problem. The organisation guided the villagers
that a hand pump foundation and separate water tank for animals
could be a way out. Finally cooperation & coordination between
ECAT and the villagers resulted in a neat and clean hand pump
foundation and water - tank for animals. Modelled on this association
of ECAT and community people, many other hand pump foundations
came up in other villages also
NGOs and government organisations
dealing with water and sanitation in India
ActionWater India A UK based NGO with worldwide
operations
(
http://www.actionwater.org.uk)
Barefoot College Tilonia
- Drinking Water campaign A rural development organization
that began as the Social Work and Research Centre in 1972
(
http://www.barefootcollege.org/html/resources.htm)
All India
Institute of Hygiene and Public Health A leader in human
resource development in public health, started in 1932 with assistance
from the Rockefeller Foundation
(
http://mohfw.nic.in/kk/95/ib/95ib0y01.htm)
Council for Advancement
of People's Action and Rural Technology (CAPART) Autonomous
body facilitating partnerships between NGOs and government bodies
for sustainable development in rural areas
(
http://www.capart.nic.in)
Central Water Commission
The premier water resources sector organisation in India
(
http://www.cwc.nic.in)
Centre for Health
Training and Nutrition Awareness (CHETNA) An activity
of Nehru Foundation for Development is a support organisation
based in Ahmedabad, Gujarat
(
http://www.chetnaindia.org)
Centre for Science
and Environment One of India's leading NGOs dealing with
health and sustainable living issues
(
http://www.cseindia.org)
Development Alternatives
Promoting sustainable national development
(http://www.devalt.org)
Development Alternatives
Promoting sustainable national development
(
http://www.devalt.org)
Gramvikas
A rural development organization based in Orissa
(
http://www.gramvikas.org)
Gramalaya
Emancipation through entrustment, entitlement and empowerment
(
http://www.gramalaya.org)
Sulabh International
Promoting human rights and waste management
(
http://www.sulabhinternational.org)
Voluntary Health Association
of India (VHAI) Making health a reality for the people
of India
(
http://www.vhai.org)
Like
two sides of a coin, sanitation can complement the access to
clean and potable drinking water. A large number of Indians
do not have access to safe drinking water. Even where there
is access, poor sanitation and lack of hygienic practices and
storage facilities enable transmission of water-borne germs.
Although in recent years the government has successfully been
able to provide potable water to a number of villages, a lot
still needs to be done.