Access denied to access granted: Solutions to provide sanitation to all

< 8 mins read. Approx. 740 words

Today is World Toilet Day celebrated by UN Water all around the world.

The context:

Growing up as a little girl in India, I accompanied my uncle during many of his business meetings, during summer vacation in Delhi. Those meetings invariably ended in a trip to McDonalds or one of my favorite ice-cream places. During one of those trips, my uncle’s meeting lasted much longer than expected. I was waiting for him, in his car, with my 5 year old cousin and we needed to use the bathroom. I was about 11 years old, however can remember that day like yesterday, because of the urgency/desperation that I felt due to the absence of a toilet. Most of us take access to a functioning toilet for granted. Unfortunately, this is not true for approximately 4.2B people in the developing as well as developed nations globally. Unavailability of a clean, working toilet presents its own sets of challenges for both rural and urban settings worldwide. I have seen first hand how in rural and urban regions in India, the lack of access to a toilet put communities, especially women and children at risk. Women and children become vulnerable to attacks by stray and wild animals in the rural areas, and prone to accidents by cars and trains, as open defecation mainly takes place near the railway tracks or secluded roadside.

Present Day:

India’s massive 5 year Swachh Bharat Mission aka Clean India Mission to construct latrines for all ended recently. The Government claims that 100 million additional toilets have been constructed via this campaign. Most of these systems are not connected to any water based sewer systems. Only 30% of India’s urban population has access to sewers, though most city plans include elaborate plans for sewerage systems. These sewer systems are supposed to be underground and inconspicuous. They should not need any manual labor to dispose of the waste, if built properly. However, sewers get blocked and need to be unblocked, they overflow and have to be cleaned out, and break down and have to be repaired. Several cities have introduced mechanization to fix major blockages and to avoid people having to jump into the sewer system when problems arise, still sewer management remains a big challenge.

Earlier this year, Indian Government has also pledged to provide piped drinking water to every rural home by 2024. It’s great that WASH is coming up high on the political agenda of India’s government. However, upon observing closely, this plan will mean that a lot of resources will be spent on people living in densely populated (urban) areas, where piped networks are feasible. Many of these people have access to at least basic level of water services already. However, at the same time some 8 million people (around 1% of the rural population) still rely on surface water. It is very unlikely that piped networks will reach these people. This is where unconventional and non-traditional technology, such as the one by Gravity Water comes into play. 

In conclusion:

India has shown impressive progress with a government led initiative in sanitation. That approach has focused on lifting the ones left behind (the ones practicing open defecation as mentioned above) to at least basic level (mainly by constructing their own pit latrines). A push for universal coverage with sewered sanitation system has achieved impressive results so far. However, just focusing on piped coverage for water and wastewater might not be a one size fits all solution for India (or for the US) for that matter. This is where the solutions in the form of services and products in Engineering for Change’s Solutions Library can provide alternatives to “Leave no one behind.” Ecosanitation is one such solution, which is closed concept of sewage treatment that employs the planet’s natural hydrological cycle to close the gap between sanitation and agriculture. This type of solution can work particularly well in places where piped supply is not possible and people still use surface water for water and wastewater supplies, e.g. in rural India or the US. Such solutions can not only help solve the sanitation problem but also aid in establishing a circular economy.

Providing more than 4B people with sanitation sounds like a tall order at first glance. However innovative solutions such as the ones in E4C’s Solutions Library, combined with political will and policy instruments, can go a long way in fulfilling that goal and provide sanitation as a human right for all in the future.

Disclaimer: This article originally appeared on Engineering for Change’s website under the title ‘No More Access Denied: Providing Sanitation to India and 4.2 Billion Worldwide’. To read the original article, please click on the title. To read all articles by me on E4C, please click here.