"The West now understands that waste can be a resource"

Sweden's UNO WINBLAD was not a sanitation engineer but had trained as an architect in London in the late '50s. Those were the days of mounting …

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India even behind Somalia when it comes to safely managing sanitation services

The JMP report also shows significant inequalities in basic drinking water and sanitation services within regions

Down To Earth wins Indian Sanitation Coalition-FICCI award for its coverage on sanitation

Besides sustained campaigns on sanitation, Down To Earth has been exploring the connection between sanitation and health in order to trigger a …

Sanitary insights

January 2, 2017, is the 15th death anniversary of Anil Agarwal, founder of the Centre for Science and Environment and Down To Earth. This year, …

World Toilet Day: So far, we have overlooked sanitation in the climate resilience discourse

Safe and inclusive sanitation solutions can play a pivotal role in safeguarding against risks imposed by climate change 

Swachh Bharat Mission 2: Way ahead for a long-term urban sanitation strategy

State governments need to develop an urban waste water management strategy: A mix of waste water treatment solutions for different towns based on …

Swachh Bharat Mission 2: The pitfalls — and the lure — of centralised urban sanitation system

Tapping nullahs, setting up one-STP without sewerage connectivity is neither a short-term nor a long-term solution for urban towns

Sanitation woes cost Africa 115 lives every hour

New UN study urges African countries to pay special attention to invest in sanitation systems for faecal sludge management

How to sustain municipal sanitation: Delhi’s Aya Nagar offers some lessons

The pilot project is a prototypical model for evolving a sanitation management programme in a high density settlement

Is the Ganga basin drowning in shit?

A slew of loopholes means that the Ganga and its tributaries will continue to receive wastewater and faecal sludge

Smells like green spirit

Swachh Bharat Mission 2: Why centralised sanitation will not address urban problems

SBM 2 introduces a one STP nalla-based waste water treatment system, without a town sewerage system for small and medium …

Treat sanitation as public good: UN at launch of hygiene fund

The initiative aims to accelerate funding to countries with the heaviest burden of diseases stemming from lack of sanitation services 

Exploring the ‘public’ in public sanitation services

A look into whether our toilet infrastructures promote gender inclusion or exclusion

Budget 2018: To make India open defecation-free, Centre must invest less in building toilets

The focus should be on educating people and building capacity for effective implementation of Swachh Bharat Mission

Slums on rent

Dhaka has seen a sharp rise in privately owned slums. Are these a better alternative to 'squatter settlements' common in India?

Stormwater channels

Alitalia apologies to wastepicker but that is not enough

Revision of regulation of EIAs for what?

2.1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water at home; rural-urban gap persists

The WHO and UNICEF report finds significant inequalities in basic water, sanitation and hygiene services

Swachh Survekshan 2017 results on May 4; government says signs are ‘encouraging’

Besides covering larger number of cities and towns, this year’s survey also gives more importance to citizen feedback  

Swachh Bharat gets a thumbs up

According to the Budget document, SBA for rural sanitation has received Rs 9,000 crore while for urban sanitation, the scheme has a plan outlay …

Where do we dump it?

An environment engineer shows how sanitation safety planning helped Kochi Municipal Corp

Nearly 4.2 bln people do not have access to safe sanitation; sanitation safety planning is a risk-based technique that can help mitigate health …