Coimbatore, Jan 25, 2012: Chief minister J Jayalalithaa inaugurated the Rs 96.51 crore Integrated Solid Waste Management project for the Coimbatore city municipal corporation on Tuesday. The project would be carried out in three phases under the Jawaharlal Nehru Nation Urban Renewal Mission scheme.

Pakistan, Dec. 1, 2011: Entrepreneur turns Pakistan’s tons of garbage into a handsome profit while saving the environment.

Clean” and “green” are words not usually associated with the streets of Lahore, but a garbage collecting business is changing the image of the Pakistani city.

And it is making millions of dollars in the process, by turning waste into liquefied petroleum products and fertiliser for farmlands.

Madurai, Nov 24, 2011: The Rural Development Department is going to undertake an Information, Education and Communication (IEC) campaign on solid waste management in rural areas of Madurai under a Central Government scheme by end of November.

Part of the Total Sanitation Campaign, which seeks to accelerate sanitation coverage in rural areas, the campaign would focus on health, hygiene practices and environmental sanitation aspects, officials sources toldThe Hinduhere on Wednesday.

A couple of years ago we featured Peepoo, the Swedish-designed biodegradable plastic bag which, in an effort to tackle sanitation issues in developing countries, turns human waste into fertilizer. Now in Kenya, Sanergy is addressing the same serious problem, by using a waste management model that aims to turn human waste into power and profit.

Even as 54 per cent of India’s total population does not have access to clean and safe toilets (according to a UNICEF finding for 2008), experts have criticised the government for its ‘centralised approach’ towards sewage treatment, a critical aspect of maintaining sanitation.

“It is a matter of shame. India accounts for 58 per cent of those who practice open defecation across the world,” Union Minister of Drinking Water and Sanitation Jairam Ramesh had recently said in a public function while talking about the findings for 2008 by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Kerala, Oct 2: The State Government will provide 50 percent financial assistance for setting up  e-toilets at public places in the state, said Industries and Urban Affairs Minister P K Kunhalikutty. Septage treatment plants will come up in  Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Ernakulam and Kozhikode districts as part of the sewage treatment plants at the corporations. In other districts it will be implemented in PPP model.

From Yusuf Kabir, United Nations Children’s Fund, Kolkata

Posted 15 December 2008

I am Yusuf Kabir, working with United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Kolkata, in the Water and Environmental Sanitation Department. I am involved in demonstrating and scaling up of Solid and Liquid Waste Management (SLWM) under the Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) in rural West Bengal, in partnership with panchayats, the West Bengal State Rural Development Department and several NGOs.