Access to safe water and sanitation are among the ten top global public health achievements in the first decade of 21st century identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

CDC asked experts in global public health to nominate noteworthy public health achievements that occurred outside of the United States during 2001–2010. CDC selected ten of these achievements and published an overview in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) of 24 June 2011.

Rapid urbanisation combined with rapid economic growth has led to urgent requirement of various urban infrastructures namely roads, water & sanitation, solid waste management etc. But years of under investment in these sectors have reached a point where there are capacity constraints in these sectors and due to lack of maintenance nearly 100% investments need to be made in these sectors.

There is ongoing concern that governments at many levels are not devoting enough attention and resources to sanitation services, particularly when compared to spending on water supply and other infrastructure services. Additionally, existing sanitation investments and service provision are not often pro-poor. Efforts to increase access to sanitation infrastructure often benefit better-off urban residents at the expense of the urban poor, slum dwellers, or rural populations.

The rapid scale-up of rural sanitation in Bangladesh using the total sanitation approach is starting to be adopted by many countries. Countries in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Africa are looking for solutions to address the issue of basic access to rural sanitation, and it is important to learn from early pioneers (such as the GoB) who have applied the total sanitation approach at scale.

The Consortium for DEWATS Dissemination (CDD) Society is a not-for-profit organisation working in the field of Decentralised Basic Need Services (DBNS) across India. For the past 10 years the Consortium has successfully promoted and implemented DBNS with community participatory approach.
 
CDD Society and its partner network have ground experience in implementing Community Based Sanitation projects in India. The training programme has been developed based on this experience, for up-scaling efforts to improve access to sanitation in India.

The urgency for action in the sanitation sector is obvious, considering the 2.6 billion people worldwide who remain without access to any kind of improved sanitation, and the 2.2 million annual deaths (mostly children under the age of 5) caused mainly by sanitation-related diseases and poor hygienic conditions.

The conference is envisaged to:

• To bring all the key sector players / practitioners together to share their success stories and approaches in promoting sustainable sanitation in the country to overcome some of the key challenges.


• To define the strategy to scale-up good practices in an efficient and effective ways towards making open defecation free nation. The proposed national meet would be a mini sanitation conference before SACOSAN IV in Sri Lanka next year. Read More