Latrine projects in the Indo-Dutch Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Programme : a discussion paper

This discussion paper on sanitation is the second in a series dedicated to Indo-Dutch integrated rural water supply projects which have been carried out by Indian organizations in five states over the past ten years. Gradually the programme has integrated rural water supply, community participation, involvement of women, health education, sanitation, and income generation for women into the overall approach. However, sanitation lags behind water supply with 90% of the approved programme assistance allocated to water, and only 7% to sanitation and 2-3% to hygiene education. At present, Indo-Dutch latrine projects are in their initial programme stages and it was therefore considered useful to prepare this summary and analysis of current projects to provide a basis for further development and to reflect on the scale and direction of the latrine projects and their long-term sustainability. The paper includes a summary of national and state approaches to rural sanitation, a description of the Indo-Dutch latrine programme, and a discussion of key issues which have emerged from the review of current projects. It concludes with a discussion of the future NA-programme since GON and the state Governments are negotiating Frameworks for Collaboration for the coming five years under which 15% of Dutch financial assistance will go to rural sanitation.