India

WaterAid has worked in India since 1986, developing practical techniques to help the country's poor gain access to safe, sustainable and affordable water, sanitation and hygiene education through project work, research and advocacy.

India is a huge and diverse country with a population of more than one billion people and vast divides between rich and poor. Nearly 30% of the population lives in poverty. 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. Of every 1000 children, 87 die before their fifth birthday, mostly from preventable diseases like diarrhea. 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 UN's Millennium Development Goal of halving the proportion of people without sanitation by 2015 is to be met.

WaterAid's work targets marginalized, vulnerable communities and is carried out in collaboration with local organizations.  We currently work with more than 40 organizations on interventions assisting people living in urban slums or rural areas in nine states, predominantly in the north of the country.

WaterAid's rural projects help people to gain access to water and sanitation from the Government.  While official statistics show that a high proportion of the population has access to safe water, a big problem in India is a lack of resources allocated to the maintenance of water sources, with dysfunctional pumps and other hardware often taking months to fix.

Wherever possible, WaterAid and its local partner organizations restore existing water facilities and train community members to become handpump mechanics so they can repair future problems themselves, rather than constructing new facilities.

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

Credit: WaterAid / Somesh

Village water and sanitation committees are set up to manage the projects in a way that involves all the community.  Saving schemes are often established so that funds are built up to cover the operation, maintenance and ultimate replacement costs of water and sanitation facilities.  Contributions are set at a level which is affordable to even the poorest households.    

WaterAid 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.

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, this awareness inspires them to construct their own low-cost latrines, making use of Government subsidies where available. 

WaterAid has developed a series of well received training manuals and materials to promote good hygiene practices, such as handwashing, that maximize the health benefits of the new water and sanitation facilities. These materials have been used by major agencies, including the Government, throughout the country.

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

Credit: WaterAid / Steve Bainbridge

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 ensuring that even the poorest people can benefit from the new rules.

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.

Solutions include the construction shared blocks of latrines, with special areas for children, and water points where users contribute towards costs by paying a monthly fee or a fee per bucket of water collected.

Across India, a growing problem is the rapid depletion of groundwater supplies.  WaterAid is devoting increased resources to water resources management initiatives, such as groundwater recharge programs and rainwater harvesting, that reduce the pressure on this valuable resource.  We are also lobbying for the Government to implement regulations for large scale water conservation. 

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