From Kulwant Singh, UN-HABITAT, New Delhi

Posted 28 August 2007

Dear Members,

Under the Water for Asian Cities Programme, UN-HABITAT is working in four cities of Madhya Pradesh (Bhopal, Gwalior, Indore and Jabalpur) for improvement and expansion of urban water supply, sewerage and sanitation, water drainage and solid waste management. UN-HABITAT has set up a revolving fund for financing small community managed water and sanitation initiatives in the project towns of Madhya Pradesh. A set of guidelines for the revolving fund, duly endorsed by the State Government of Madhya Pradesh, have been developed for this purpose. The revolving funds are so far working quite satisfactorily.

From Gyanendra Mishra, UDAAN, Aligarh

Posted 19 April 2007

Dear Sir/Madam,

I work for an NGO called UDAAN in Aligarh and neighbouring districts. We provide training to Gram Pradhans, motivators, village functionaries and other stakeholders on water and sanitation issues. We also support the Government in the Total Sanitation Campaign in mobilising the community for construction of low cost leach pit toilets at village level. Additionally, we implement force lift handpumps in schools to lift and store water without motor and electricity. This has made many school toilets usable, which had become defunct due to non-availability of water.

From Bhawna Vajpai, The Loomba Trust, New Delhi

Posted 7 July 2008

I work for the UK based Loomba Trust, committed to upgrading and constructing water supply, sanitation and hygiene facilities in schools under its WASH initiatives. We aim to work in 1,000 schools across India (rural areas and small towns) in collaboration with state governments.

Original Query: V. Kurian Baby, Socio-Economic Unit Foundation (SEUF), Kerala

Posted: 3 August 2006

Reforms in water and sanitation (watsan) sector have by now become institutionalized through: (a) pilot testing of alternate service delivery models by donors and GoI in selected locations and subsequent scaling up into programmes such as Swajaldhara and TSC across the country; (b) evidences of community acceptance, confidence and credibility in genuine reforms (c) demonstrated willingness to pay for assured, reliable and quality water services demonstrated at community level and (d) vesting watsan governance as a desirable responsibility to PRIs.

From Aparna Das, UNDP, New Delhi

Posted 11 January 2007

Under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, large investments are to be made for modernizing and upgrading sewage and solid waste management facilities in cities (See http://www.urbanindia.nic.in/moud/programme/ud/jnnurm.htm for details).

“Results-Framework Document” has been developed and published in 2009-10 by the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation (DDWS), Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD), is a manual about the rural households have access to and use safe and sustainable drinking water and improved sanitation facilities by providing support to States in their endeavour to provide these basic facilities and services.

"Turning slums around: The case for water and sanitation ", written by Timeyin Uwejamomere and published in October 2008 by WaterAid, is a  research presents that sanitation and water improvements have always been at the forefront of progressive city authorities and national health, environmental and economic gains.

This paper takes the broader view that slum conditions also affect other groups of urban poor without access to public facilities – small vendors in market places, pavement dwellers, street children and the relatively invisible small town residents etc –, so the term slum is not restricted to those living in the slums.

This report on the assessment of drinking water supply and sanitation in India is the result of a collaborative exercise between the Planning Commission of India, the World Health Organization (WHO), and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) as part of a joint monitoring programme (JMP) for the sector. This country-level report in India comes in the wake of the four global assessments (reports published in 1991, 1993, 1996, and 2000) completed through the JMP process.

“School Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene Education: India”, technical note on water supply, sanitation, and hygiene education has been prepared and published in 2004 by the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD). to help programme implementers in informed decision making and build comprehensive and clear understanding on School Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene Education (SSHE).

The Government of India, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare developed and published the “National Health Policy” in 1983. The document gave a general exposition of the policies. The biggest omission in the draft is the lack of any discussion on comprehensive and universal health care. In contrast the NHP 1983 had said: "India is committed to attaining the goal of ‘Health for All by the Year 2000 A.D.’ through the universal provision of comprehensive primary health care services". The National Health Policy was endorsed by the Parliament of India in 1983 and updated in 2002.