URBAN SANITATION IN INDIA

URBAN SANITATION IN INDIA

Sanitation is defined as safe disposal of human excreta including its safe confinement treatment disposal and associated hygiene practices. Sanitation is also depend on other elements like environmental sanitation along with the management of drinking water supply.

Sanitation in India is becoming more and more problematic . There are so 

many attributable factors responsible for this situation . 

• Sanitation it self is in crisis ,its not only in India this is through out the world . 

• 2.6 billion people worldwide - 40% of the world's population - do not have a toilet. Yet, despite the fact that 5,000 children die every day from diarrhoeal diseases, there has been no political action on the issue.

• the millennium development goals clearly stated the importance of water and sanitation the fact is water and sanitation is the most neglected and most off-track of the UN millennium development goals

• Developing countries like India and sub Saharan African countries the cost 

of not investing in sanitation and water are huge - infant deaths, lost work 

days, and missed school are estimated to have an economic cost of around 

$38 billion per year, with sanitation accounting for 92% of this value3. In the 

world for every 15 seconds a child was dyeing of water related diseases.

What is the situation in India?

India stands second place amongst the worst places in the world for sanitation.

• Around 40 million people reside in slums, without adequate water and 

sanitation

• India will have 41% of its population living in cities and towns by 2030 i.e. 

over 575 million people from present 286 million. But they can't have water 

and sanitation till we recognize their existence.

• 27.8% of Indians, i.e. 286 million people or 55 million households live in 

urban areas - projections indicate that the urban population would have 

grown to 331 million people by 2007 and to 368 million by 2012. 12.04 

million (7.87 %) Urban households do not have access to latrines and defecate 

in the open. 5.48 million (8.13%) Urban households use community latrines 

and 13.4 million households (19.49%) use shared latrines. 12.47 million 

(18.5%) households do not have access to a drainage network. 26.83 million 

(39.8%) households are connected to open drains. The status in respect of the 

urban poor is even worse6 

• The overall sanitation coverage in India in 2005-2006 is 44.6% . The rural 

sanitation is 26% and urban sanitation is 84.6% only .however field studies 

shown that very low usage of latrines in both rural and urban areas . 74% of 

people in rural India still don't have a toilet and in urban it is 16%7. There is a 

gradual change in sanitation coverage in India and the trend is increasing over 

the past two decades . But if it will take place in the same pace it may take 

another 200 years to get a toilet for every Indian.

The real situation may even worse than the above facts. Water and sanitation 

are basic amenities and responsibility of the government.

Factors that are responsible for poor sanitation in India

India is a unique country with different geographic and climatic conditions. 

This is the major factor to impact any decision or policy implementation at 

central level.

India is urbanizing very fast and along with this, the slum population is also 

increasing. India's urban population is increasing at a faster rate than its total 

population. 

With over 575 million people, India will have 41% of its population living in cities 

and towns by 2030 AD from the present level of 286 million and 28%. 

However, most of them are not having basic facilities like drinking water and 

sanitation. Among the urban poor, the slum dwellers are the poorest. 

The very definition of slums points at acute drinking water and sanitation crisis for the 

slum dwellers. 

As per the 2001 census of India, 640 towns spread over 26 states and union territories 

have reported existence of slums. This means one out of every four persons reside in 

slums in our cities and towns.

• This growing slum population and the lack of basic facilities will badly 

impact on India's overall target achievement in water and sanitation sector4 

in view of the above situation Govt. of India had launched The National 

sanitation policy .

The specific goals of the policy were

• Awareness Generation and Behaviour Change

• Open Defecation Free Cities

• Integrated City-Wide Sanitation

Key Sanitation Policy Issues

In order to achieve the above Vision, following key policy issues must be 

addressed:

• Poor Awareness: Sanitation has been accorded low priority and there is poor 

awareness about its inherent linkages with public health.

• Social and Occupational aspects of Sanitation: Despite the appropriate 

legal framework, progress towards the elimination of manual scavenging 

has shown limited success, Little or no attention has been paid towards the 

occupational hazard faced by sanitation workers daily.

• Fragmented Institutional Roles and Responsibilities: There are considerable 

gaps and overlaps in institutional roles and responsibilities at the national, 

state, and city levels. Lack of an Integrated City-wide Approach: Sanitation 

investments are currently planned in a piece-meal manner and do not take 

into account the full cycle of safe confinement, treatment and safe disposal.

• Limited Technology Choices: Technologies have been focused on limited 

options that have not been cost-effective, and sustainability of investments 

has been in question.

• Reaching the UN-served and Poor: Urban poor communities as well 

other residents of informal settlements have been constrained by lack of 

tenure, space or economic constraints, in obtaining affordable access to safe 

sanitation. In this context, the issues of whether services to the poor should 

be individualized and whether community services should be provided in 

non notified slums should be addressed. However provision of individual 

toilets should be prioritized. In relation to "Pay and Use" toilets, the issue 

of subsidies inadvertently reaching the non-poor should be addressed by 

identifying different categories of urban poor.

• Lack of Demand Responsiveness: Sanitation has been provided by public 

agencies in a supply- driven manner, with little regard for demands and preferences of households as customers of sanitation services.