Assessment of WASH Systems in Indian Cities

Assessment of WASH Systems in Indian Cities

Shreeparna Sahoo

1.   Introduction

The world is rapidly urbanizing, increasing deprived urban settlement populations worsening marginalization and inequality in access to Water, sanitation, and hygiene(WASH) services for the weakest and most marginalized kids. Though kids in urban areas usually have improved access to WASH facilities contrasted with kids in rural areas, serious and acute inequalities within urban areas imply that the poor urban kids are left out behind, frequently with less or no access to WASH services.

A WASH Partnership mutually settled concerning the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) and UNICEF, pursue to contribute towards the accomplishment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) seven, target 10, through an amalgamation of activities focused on influencing policy at the national level and global level, and achieving behavioral transformation at the local level.

UNICEF is increasing its focus on urban WASH as part of its global mandate to advocate for the progressive realization of children’s rights, to work to help meet their necessity and to develop their prospects to accomplish their complete ability.

2.   Need

Around the world, 2.2 billion people still actually need access to safe drinking water. The greater part of the worldwide population doesn't approach safe sterilization. Three billion individuals do not approach handwashing facilities with soaps. Still, 673 million people practice open defecation (United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 2019).

One-third of the total were children, around 300 million of these children were living in – the worst form of unauthorized housing form. The necessity for an improved emphasis on town WASH is propelled by this ever-increasing quantity of susceptible children and their loved ones residing in deprived urban conditions throughout the globe. It is only through an increased emphasis on these populations that the world can hope to achieve the objectives of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and to reach the most vulnerable children, wherever they are. The basic action is accompanied by a current proposal to provide by 2015, safe, affordable, and reliable water, sanitation to around 1.1 billion individuals who do not have access to water supply and to more than 2.6 billion people who have no adequate sanitation (United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 2019).

The effects of polluted water, sanitation, and hygiene on children can be fatal. More Than 700 children below the age of 5 die each day of diarrhea illnesses because of a lack of proper WASH services. In arguments, children are almost 20 times more expected to die from diarrhea infection than from the argument itself (United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 2019).

3.   Aim- Assessing the WASH System in Indian Cities

4.   Objective-

1.     To assess the WASH System in India cities to identify the best possible approach for achieving Sustainable development

2.     To develop the holistic and a comprehensive framework for the WASH System

3.     To promote equitable access to WASH for the poorest and most marginalized populations.

5.   Framework

The Global Framework for Urban WASH has been planned over three assistance areas: sector-level, service-level, and user-level support, along with recommended admittance goals and actions for engagement in urban WASH. The Structure also considers three different urban situations: urban slums, small towns, and urban areas and prolonged disaster settings, concentrating on regions where UNICEF can enhance value, in line up with the organization’s equity program.

‘Sector-level support’ encompasses of UNICEF involvements at the union level, targeted at assisting administration and associating with other organizations’ to reinforce the whole empowering ecosystem for the effective approach, balanced, and broad urban WASH intrusions.

‘Service-level support’ includes UNICEF’s work to enhance the supply of water, sanitation, and hygiene facilities to the urban people, with a strong emphasis on the neediest and most marginalized children and their groups (United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 2019).

‘User-level support’ focuses on priority actions and activities to empower communities and families to claim their rights on WASH; increasing their capacity to actively engage with service providers and policymakers and creating and maintaining social norms that increase access to sustained and inclusive WASH services.


Figure 1 Framework of WASH

Source-  (United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 2019)

6.   Need of WASH in India

India has made rapid progress in ending open defecation across the country which is having a huge impact on improving water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH). Only a couple of years prior, in 2015, almost 50% of India's population of around 568 million people suffered the indignity of defecating in fields, woods, water bodies, or other public spaces because of the absence of access to toilets. India alone represented 90% individuals in South Asia and half of the 1.2 billion population in the world that defecated in the open.

By 2019, as per the most recent valuations, the population having no access to toilets has decreased altogether by an expected 450 million individuals. A huge accomplishment, just conceivable in view of the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) (Clean India Campaign), drove by the Prime Minister. UNICEF has been a glad accomplice of the Swachh Bharat Mission.

7.   Major Group in India as a part of WASH Programme

1. Centre for Environment Education (CEE)

2. TERI

3. Global Rainwater Harvesting Collective (GRWHC)

4. International Federation of Environmental Journalists (IFEJ)

 

8.   Guidelines and Strategy

      I.          THE HEALTH DIMENSION

a.     Diarrhea, worm contaminations, and respiratory diseases are prevalent health concerns and that can be enhanced through executing WASH enhancements.

Diarrhea is an extremely avoidable cause of death for children below five.  Worms are propagated through unhygienic surroundings (such as infected soil or water) and unhygienic behavior. Annually, more than 2 billion people worldwide suffer from worm infections, 300 million people become severely sick, and 155,000 people die (Vavaliya Jaladhi, 2015).

b.     Inhibiting and decreased life expectancy from diarrhea-caused malnutrition

In developing nations, cases of diarrhea vary from 5-12 episodes per child/year, with the highest rates in the most vital first two years of life

    II.          THE EDUCATIONAL DIMENSION

a.     Due to health difficulties and the lack of accessible toilets or water collection functions, children are more apt to miss school.

·       Although diarrhea rarely kills children above the age of five, it continues an essential issue for school-going children: it is the main source of disease and therefore factors into why children are absent from school.

·       Teachers also skip school due to WASH-related diseases and domestic chores such as water carrying.

·       The impact of worm decrease programs in schools has been astonishing. A survey in Jamaica found that children who were nursed against a worm infection performed considerably better in school than children who did not get treatment.

  III.          THE GENDER EQUITY AND INCLUSION DIMENSION

a.     Women devote an excessively large amount of time to water-centered actions and suffer significant physical burdens. This harms their health and restricts their entry into the currency economy.

·       In many societies 24hrs water are at the core of women’s traditional responsibilities: collecting and storing water, caring for children, cooking, cleaning, and maintaining sanitation within the home or community. These tasks often represent an entire day’s worth of work as women can spend as much as five hours a day collecting wood for fuel and getting water, and up to four hours preparing food. Delivering access to clean water close to the house can significantly reduce women’s loads and free up time for other monetary activities.

b.     Lack of sanitation obstructs solemnity and social development

·       Regular absent from school for numerous days a month can, even in the small-term, have an adverse impact on girls’ learning and their educational performance in school. Ultimately this can even lead to dropping out entirely.

·       School courses usually do not cover the topic of menstruation and puberty in a girl-approachable way, and therefore often do not help out girls to understand the alterations in their maturing bodies. Girls (and boys) should have access to sexual and reproductive health instruction within formal education courses. However, much biology textbooks instead contain no reference to menstruation or reproductive health, leaving girls (and boys) ignorant about the topic (Vavaliya Jaladhi, 2015).

 

  IV.          THE ECONOMIC DIMENSION

a.     High proportion of budget used on water

There are very few studies on the comparison of price for water between low-income groups living in informal settlements and households who receive water through government-initiated house connections (Vavaliya Jaladhi, 2015).

b.     Reduced income-earning potential because of poor health, time spent collecting water, or lack of business opportunities requiring water inputs

·       The costs and advantages of enhancements to water supply and sanitation are challenging to calculate because many advantages are not direct in terms of substantial changes to economic costs and outputs (Vavaliya Jaladhi, 2015).

     V.          THE ENVIRONMENTAL DIMENSION

a.     Unhygienic sanitation pollutes the environment

·       Improved dumping of human waste safeguards the quality of drinking water resources. At present-day, more than 200 million tons of human being's excreta, as well as big amounts of waste water and solid waste, go ungathered and untreated every single year. This waste contaminates the environment and endangers millions of people from disease and dust.

  VI.          THE FOOD SECURITY DIMENSION

The most referenced and agreed upon description comes as of the 1996 World Food Summit:

Food security, at the person, household, national, local, and global levels [is attained] when all people, at all times have basic and financial access to adequate, safe and nutritious food to meet their nutritional needs and food inclinations for an active and healthy life (Vavaliya Jaladhi, 2015).


Figure 2 Strategy for WASH

Source-  (United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 2019)

9.   Status of WASH Programme in India

The select six cities are from four regions: Mumbai from the West, Delhi from the North, Kolkata from the East and Chennai, Bangalore, and Hyderabad from the South.

Mumbai had 6 percent in poor and 55 percent in wealthy groups of overall WASH performance securing the best performing city in 2011-2012. It was followed by Bangalore with 18 percent for the poor and 49 percent for the wealthy categories in the same year securing the second-greatest position, although Bangalore had better overall performance than Mumbai in 2004-2005 (Shashi Kala Saroj).

The overall performance of WASH was worst in Hyderabad followed by Kolkata for both years. Particularly in Hyderabad, the poor were 60 percent and 53 percent in the subsequent years, and the better-off were 1per cent and 20 percent in the same years. Likewise, in Kolkata, the shares were 37 percent and 43percent in the poor class, which were 26 percent and 30 percent in the wealthy in the same time intervals. There was not much overall variation observed between Delhi and Chennai  (Shashi Kala Saroj). Particular cities status can be found in https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7025195/

10.        Targets

UNICEF will emphasize five solutions areas: water, sanitation, hygiene, WASH in institutions and WASH in emergencies. The scale, scope, and exact nature of UNICEF engagement across these areas will vary from nation to nation based on circumstance, specific requirements and the capability of key stakeholders. The balance of approaches used by UNICEF in each of the results areas will also depend on the maturity of for each sub-sector as implied by coverage condition and power of nationwide systems.
Our core responsibility will be to perform where children do not have at least a basic level of service within each of the results areas and we will also focus on the more ambitious goal of “safely managed” public services implanted in SDG 6. The sense of balance among interventions focusing on a “basic” level of provision and on turning people up the ladder towards “safely managed” services will be well-versed by the specific context and be dependent upon priorities, access levels, capacities, and financial resources available.

11.        Recommendations

 

·       Implementing SDG 6 "clean water and sanitation for all”

·       Affirm the leadership role in managing water resources advancement and administration, including developing greater alliances with the private sector and NGOs.

·       Finance in sets of projects that merge organizations (agencies, rules, and regulations),

·       information techniques (hydro-meteorological, economic, and social) and infrastructure (natural and constructed) in handling water resources and water-related threats.

 


 

12.         References

1.     Sustainability assessment of urban water systems: a case study; Sajed Motevallian, Massoud Tabesh, Abbas Roozbahani; 2014

2.     Global Framework for Urban Water, Sanitation and Hygiene; United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 2019

3.     System Approaches to Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene: A Systematic Literature Review; Nicholas Valcourt, Amy Javernick-Will, Je_rey Walters, and Karl Linden; 2020

4.     Online Performance Assessment System for Urban Water Supply and Sanitation Services in India; Vavaliya Jaladhi, Bhavsar Dhruv, Kavadi Utkarsha, Mohammad Mahroof; 2015

5.     WASH Availability, Accessibility and Inequalities in Select Metro Cities of India; Shashi Kala Saroj, Md Juel Rana, Bikramaditya K. Choudhary,  Srinivas Goli

6.     Mercy Corps Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Guidelines; USAID; 2008-2009

 

 

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WASHWaterwastewatersanitationhygieneUNICEFAnalyisIndiaplanningframeworkservicescities
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