India

India is a huge and diverse country with a population of more than one billion people and an incredible diversity of wealth, religion, language, customs, art, cuisine and landscape. There are vast divides between rich and poor with almost 30% of the population living in poverty. People from the lowest Hindu caste, known as dalits, women, the elderly and disabled make up the largest proportion of poor people. Population growth is rapid, particularly in urban areas due to migration from rural villages. 

In a country so large, there are vast numbers without sanitation and water. For every 1000 children, 87 die before their fifth birthday, mostly from preventable diseases like diarrhoea. Just 15% of the rural population has access to a toilet - meaning that some 21 million people need to gain access to basic sanitation every year if the Millennium Development Goal of just halving the proportion of people without sanitation is to be met.

WaterAid in India

Since 1986, when WaterAid began working in India, it has developed practical techniques to help ensure the country's poor gain access to safe, sustainable and affordable water, sanitation and hygiene education through project work, research and advocacy.

WaterAid has shifted from its traditional focus in Southern India to the poorer states in the north to target some of India's most vulnerable communities. As a result we have now become national in scope, working in ten states. The main office has now moved to New Delhi, bringing WaterAid closer to policy makers in the sector, and three further regional offices have opened in Bhopal, Bhubaneswar and Bangalore to coordinate the six new states WaterAid is now operating in (bringing the total number of states to ten). A fourth regional office is due to open by 2007 in the north of the country to focus on the poverty stricken states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, with a combined population of 249 million.

Doddi Chintalli collects water from the Sarada river. In India over 170 million people don't have access to safe water.

Credit: WaterAid / Somesh

WaterAid has both rural and urban projects to help increase access to water and sanitation. As sanitation coverage is very low, projects focus on promoting sanitation among the rural poor by creating a demand for latrines. When members of the community learn that poor hygiene fuels disease and work out for themselves the costs in medicine and lost productivity, their raised awareness will inspire them to develop their own solutions. A series of well received training manuals and materials developed by WaterAid have also given hygiene promotion a boost. These materials have been used by major agencies, including the Government, throughout the country.

By demonstrating cost effective, practical examples using appropriate technologies that involve communities through self help groups, WaterAid is able to influence the Government's choice of methods. Success has already been had in persuading the Government to change its sanitation subsidies to incorporate low cost latrines. WaterAid is focusing on making the new rules people friendly so that even the poorest can benefit. WaterAid encourages its local partner organisations to take the lead in all its work and they in turn ensure that all members of the community, including the poorest and most marginalised, are involved in the projects.

In rural projects WaterAid and its partners help people to gain access to water and sanitation from the Government. They then train villagers to maintain the new infrastructure and set up village water and sanitation committees to manage the projects in a way that involves all the community and promotes good hygiene. WaterAid also helps the rural poor to put forward their views in village governing bodies such as the Gram Sabha (a village level forum for decision making) and Panchayats (local government) so that their concerns over water and sanitation are raised. 

Children at one of the child-friendly water and toilet facilities that WaterAid has helped to build.

Credit: WaterAid / Steve Bainbridge

The problems in urban areas are more complex. As cities and towns become more developed the slum and squatter settlements where the poor live are being pushed further to the periphery. Increasing numbers of people live in these settlements on the edges of towns and cities without any legal right to their land and therefore no legal rights to water and sanitation services. Furthermore, with the Indian Government increasingly delegating responsibility for utility provision to the Panchayats, whose structures vary greatly from state to state, WaterAid is required to adapt its approach to each context. Urban governance, management of utilities, bankrupt municipalities in small towns, costly infrastructure and the lack of waste management are all major challenges that need to be faced.

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