Nature's subsidy

Bio-toilets in trains are either unavailable, non-functional or misused: CAG report

The audit team identified 199,689 cases of deficiencies or complaints about bio-toilets

No toilet built in Delhi under Swachh Bharat Mission; Rs 40 crore remains unused: CAG

The implementing agencies ignored toilet requirements in unauthorised colonies, showing scant concerns for public convenience, says the report

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

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

Clean public toilets: A matter of national honour

A survey by the Union housing ministry showed that 55% of public washrooms were either dirty or completely unusable in Delhi

Odisha needs to make apposite effort to have toilets in all its school

Who cares for toilets in school? 34% of schoolchildren in Odisha do, finds new study

Only 71.3% rural households have access to toilets, shows NSSO data

The report's findings trashes the grand claim of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that India is now open defecation free

Swachh Bharat Mission: another futile toilet chase?

Swachh Bharat Mission is blindly chasing toilets-a private good and not behavioural change – a public good essential to secure sanitation

The world needs more toilets – but not ones that flush

The invention of the flush toilet was probably one of the most unsustainable innovations in human history

Open-defecation-free Kandhamal: Only if the toilets would work

Toilets built under Swachh Bharat Mission did not have twin-pits for excreta collection or water supply, claimed villagers

Common sense when nature calls

The morning after

Human excreta is rich in soil nutrients. In a year, one person craps 4.56 kg of nitrogen (n), 0.55 kg phosphorus (p) and 1.28 kg potassium (k)&…

Urban ladder: How ODF India tries to manage faecal sludge

In the absence of adequate rural treatment plants, a few states rope in underutilised urban facilities 

Undercover activity

Marvel at toilets

Emerging alternatives

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

Open defecation in Nigeria: Faecal sludge is country's clicking time bomb

The country, which has the largest number of people defacting in the open, needs to frame a safe toilet technology and treat its faecal sludge, …

Half the public places do not manage waste water and litter

A government survey of 16 states in India finds that 51% and 53% public spaces in hills and plains respectively have unhygienic surroundings

Begging to whistling, rural India doing everything to end open defecation

Several villages in India are coming up with out-of-the-box ideas to discourage open defecation

Flush and forget

IIT Kanpur develops zero-waste toilets that reuse flushed water and recycle waste

Pundamental change

Toilet talk

A Vidarbha village innovates toilets where women chat freely

On green track

Railways has fitted more bio-toilets this year than the total number fitted in the last three years

New evidence emerges on how Mayas fortified maize, built indoor toilets

Scientists find maize starch spherulites , a unique byproduct of nixtamalisation, as well as tapeworms at a Maya archaeological site