Opinions and voices for change
Navigate the blogs from our experts, water, sanitation and hygiene sector colleagues and guests. Narrow down your search by using the filters.
Last week it was World Water Day 2014 , with the topic of "water and energy". I see obvious issues coming by on the water-energy nexus (which by the way is one of those development sector buzz words that I start disliking more every day. I hope the next buzz word is a bit more, uh, sparkling), such... Read more...
When it comes to cost-efficient water provision, evidence is suggesting the issues such as scale economies v small-scale schemes are complex. Read more...
We were here to find out what the water committee does about water supplies, but only a local government official was around to explain it all. Read more...
Community rural water supply in India is being undermined by opposing strategies. Read more...
"Everyone forever" may be ahead of schedule in India, but where is the will to achieve it? Read more...
Why are we are building low-cost latrines which may not be able to isolate harmful faecal matter from humans? Read more...
Independent state regulators will not be able to solve the deep-rooted water governance crisis in India, says India Country Director Dr. V. Kurian Baby. After a decade of failure, a new approach is needed: a bottom-up process of social and participatory regulation. There are enough successful... Read more...
Sagar is an island at the mouth of the river Ganges where it meets the Bay of Bengal. Every year in January, about half a million pilgrims visit the island to worship at the holy Ganges. The hundreds of mobile toilet units standing on the empty festival terrain during the rest of the year are... Read more...
India, a leading economic power capable of launching nuclear missiles, is finding it difficult to provide sustainable drinking water and sanitation services. It took the country's apex auditor, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) to point its finger to the shame of slippage... Read more...
A model where public funds provide the back-end and private funds provide the front-end can fill the gap in sanitation financing in India, writes Anupam Tyagi from the International Management Institute in the Economic Times of February 9th, 2012. According to a recent report by Water and... Read more...
A question from the floor at a Rockefeller Foundation meeting raised some interesting thoughts about MUS vs MDGs. Read more...
Could lack of definition be undermining the impact of effective but costly support? Read more...
The Global Scaling Up Sanitation project of the Water and Sanitation Program (WSP) has developed a performance monitoring and benchmarking model to strengthen outcome-based management of the rural sanitation sector in India. This model has been adopted by the Government of Indian state of Himachal... Read more...
The financial transparency of urban local bodies (ULBs) in the south Indian state of Kerala has increased thanks to an Asian Development Bank (ADB) project. The municipal corporations of Cochin and Trivandrum now publish their financial accounts online. Read more...
The residents of Sudhamnagar, a slum community in Bangalore, made the big leap from defecating in the open until 2007 to having household latrines in 2009, proving that once people understand what they're missing, they will find ways to get it. Read more...
An estimated 20-30% of funds and materials are diverted from sanitation programmes in South India due to corruption, experts have estimated. The Socio-Economic Unit Foundation (SEUF) has successfully employed a number of anti-corruption strategies in a participatory and community-based household... Read more...
A project supported by the Global Partnership on Output-Based Aid (GPOBA) is piloting a project providing safe drinking water to 12,500 poor households in 25 villages in three coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh: Guntur, Krishna, and West Godavari. Read more...
The city of Tiruchirappalli in Tamil Nadu, India shows a way out of the sanitation crisis. The Tiruchirappalli model of community-managed toilets with bathing and washing facilities is an example of a partnership between sensitive city authorities, communities and NGOs, working together to address... Read more...
A field note by the Water and Sanitation Program - South Asia (WSP-SA) documents the evolution of three large, river-based schemes in Aliparamba Gram Panchayat near Kozhikode in the north of Kerala state, India. Read more...
A paper from the Asia Research Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science in the UK examines recent urban sector reforms and their implications for urban governance in India. Read more...