The political economy of defecation

This is a story about Delhi and the Yamuna, about the relationship between one of India's richest cities and one of her most revered rivers. The …

Emerging alternatives

A novel project in Kerala tries to introduce a sanitation technology that promises a cleaner and healthier environment

Could bio-toilets solve India's sanitation problems and save the Yamuna river?

The Indian Railways is now adopting bio-toilets in recognition of their affordability, ease of maintenance and water savings

The torrid charm of being a UP politician

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati has resigned. She's ended, as a newspaper put it, her "third honeymoon" with the Bharatiya Janata Party, a …

"Ecosan is not a second-rate approach"

The Millennium Development Goals (MDG) related to sanitation rely on flushing systems. Uno Winblad, senior adviser, Stockholm Environment …

Govt launches new framework to sustain India’s ‘100% ODF status’

The Centre will proclaim India to be 100% ODF on October 2 and the new framework envisages its strategy to maintain that status

Flushing down its traditions

A good society knows how to clean its rubbish. But instead of setting an example for the world through its traditional handling of human excreta,…

New Age Approach

We need to go back to the drawing board to reinvent a green toilet. If necessary, to go back to our past and find technological innovations that …

Drowning In Human Excreta

Sanitation for urban India means building flush toilets and linking them to sewer systems. But the price of chasing this dream is leading to an …

"Subsidy culture has killed local agriculture"

Thupstan Chhewang, Chief Executive Councillor and chairperson of the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) speaks to Down To Earth.

Ladakh on the move

Ladakh is the one region in India where sustainable development is the only way ahead. Dry toilets, water efficient crops, cooperative farming, a …

Ecologically mindless

The flush toilet system and the sewage system, which goes with modern day personal hygiene and cleanliness, are part of the environmental problem …

Undercover activity

Women, convenience

High-altitude hygiene

Sanitary by 2010

Participatory survey gives Bangladesh the confidence to prepone sanitation coverage target

Politics of sanitation

Toilet rule fails in Karnataka panchayats

Size does matter

Children's toilets are a breed apart from the everyday adult toilet

Dry clean

A Bangalore slum experiments with ecofriendly toilets

Waste, by any other name...

High altitude, high pressure

Ladakh's leadership is alive to many problems. But, challenges are not easy

Panchayati Raj: A good beginning

But will there be a place for traditional institutions in modern local self-governance?

More energy, Less wastage

Solar is Ladakh's way out of the diesel trap

Re-schooling ladakh

Eight years of reforms have turned government schools around in Leh district

An attractive Place to go

Tourism's footprint is too big for Leh's infrastructure