“We learn that you need to wash yourhands before eating food and after goingto the toilet and after games and aftercleaning the house and before servingmeals,” says Pinki. Her teacher,Sushmadwivebi, adds: “WaterAid’spartner Gramonti Sansthan come twicemonthly and they teach the childrenabout hygiene. They hold competitionsabout hygiene and give the childrenprizes like pens or notebooks. They havequiz competitions and drawingcompetitions. They also built the latrinewhich the children all use.

It is important as people in the villagesshould live hygienically. If there issanitation and hygiene in schools thenthe families can save lots of money andsave themselves from diseases.”

The caste system still holds considerableeffect in India. Hindu’s are born into one offour castes: Brahmin (priests), Kshatriya(warriors), Vaishya (merchants) and Shudra(peasants). Beneath these are the dalits –formerly called the untouchables – who stillinvariably perform the most menial tasks inthe country and make up a large proportionof the country’s poor.

Durga Rao, 23, a lower caste dalit, wastrained by WaterAid’s partner SVDS as thehandpump mechanic in Seetanagaramvillage, Andhra Pradesh. SVDS helps solvecommunities’water and sanitationproblems in a caste-sensitive way, raisingthe status of dalits by giving them essentialskills. “Before we had the pump we used toget frequent diarrhoea. Sometimes wethrew up,” Durga says. “I used to feel veryinferior. I was afraid.”

When SVDS helped Durga access agovernment grant of 2600 rupees for abicycle and toolkit things changed. “Afterlearning mechanical skills I started talkingto the upper-caste villagers”, he continues.“When they installed a borewell I offered tohelp them. Some of them didn’t want me totouch the well. But in the end they agreed.”

£65 pays for 1000 health

education leaflets

£95 can train 10 community

leaders as hygiene educators

£385 pays for a school

sanitation block for 150 boys

and girls

£1150 can train 200 handpump

caretakers

£9600 can train 1000 staff of

Mother and Child Care centres to

influence 50,000 young mothers

and children to adopt good

hygiene practices

Achievements to date

> In 2004/05, through projects

supported by WaterAid and our partners,

almost 325,000 people gained access

to safe water

> Khajapattai slum is now the seventh

slum to be declared 100% sanitised since

the WaterAid project in Kalmandhai,

Tiruchirapalli city was officially declared

the country’s first in 2002

> In 1999, WaterAid helped changed

Government policy to incorporate

WaterAid’s low-cost latrines in their

subsidies. This has led to the

Government now encouraging more

appropriate and affordable toilet models

Country informationCountry information

India

India is a huge country with a population of more than one billion people and an incredible diversityof wealth, religion, language, customs, art, cuisine and landscape. In the world’s most populousdemocracy there are enormous divides between rich and poor, with over 26% of the populationliving in poverty. People from the lowest Hindu caste, known as dalits, women, the elderly anddisabled make up the largest proportion of poor people. Population growth is rapid, particularly in urban areas due to migration from rural villages.

There are vast numbers of people in India living without sanitation and water. For every 1000children, 90 die before their fifth birthday, mostly from preventable diseases like diarrhoea. Just15% of the rural population has access to a toilet – meaning that some 29 million people need togain access to basic sanitation every year if the Millennium Development Goal of just halving theproportion of people without sanitation by 2015 is to be met.

For further information about WaterAid:

WaterAid, 47-49 Durham Street, London, SE11 5JD

www.wateraid.org

T: 020 7793 4500 F: 020 7793 4545 E: wateraid@wateraid.org

Charity registration number 288701 April 2006

WaterAid – water for lifeThe UK’s only major charity dedicated exclusively tothe provision of safe domestic water, sanitation andhygiene education to the world’s poorest people.

WaterAid/Marco Betti

WaterAid/Marco Betti

WaterAid/Marco Betti

Pinki learns about good hygiene while

at the Premnega Primary School, in

Panchat Nathupra, Uttar Pradesh state

Breaking caste barriers

Martin Argles

In rural projects WaterAid and its partners helppeople to gain access to water and sanitationfrom the Government or service providers.They then train villagers to maintain the newinfrastructure and set up village water andsanitation committees to manage the projectsin a way that involves all the community andpromotes good hygiene. WaterAid also helpsthe rural poor to put forward their views invillage governing bodies such as the GramSabha (a village-level forum for decisionmaking) and Panchayats (local government)so that their concerns over water andsanitation are raised.

The problems in urban areas are morecomplex. As cities and towns become moredeveloped the slum and squattersettlements where the poor live are beingpushed further to the periphery. Increasingnumbers of people live in these settlementson the edges of towns and cities without anylegal right to their land and therefore no legalrights to water and sanitation services.Furthermore, with the Indian Governmentincreasingly delegating responsibility forutility provision to the Panchayats, whosestructures vary greatly from state to state,WaterAid is required to adapt its approach toeach context. Urban governance,management of utilities, bankruptmunicipalities in small towns, costlyinfrastructure and the lack of wastemanagement are all major challenges thatneed to be faced.

A strategy running from 2005 to 2010 sets outthe future plans and activities for WaterAid inIndia. During this time WaterAid will continueto focus on water, sanitation and hygieneeducation working with local partners oncommunity-managed projects.

The key aims are to:

• Ensure at least 245,000 people gain accessto safe water and at least 200,000 peoplegain access to improved sanitation everyyear by 2010, contributing to reaching theMillennium Development Goal (MDG)target of halving the proportion of peoplewithout access to safe water and sanitationby 2015

• Deliver hygiene education to 80% of thesepeople to ensure sustainable good hygienepractices and a consequent 80% reductionin incidences of diarrhoea among childrenunder five

WaterAid is making urban programmes apriority and is currently developing strategicalliances for promoting urban work andincreasing resources in those areas. In itsurban work WaterAid’s partner organisationsamong other things act as intermediaries

Country information: India Country information: India

WaterAid in India

Since 2003 WaterAid has expanded its workfrom Southern India to the poorer states inthe north to target some of India’s mostvulnerable communities. As a result we havenow become national in scope, working inten states. The main office is now based inNew Delhi, bringing WaterAid closer to policymakers in the sector, and three furtherregional offices have opened in Bhopal,Bhubaneswar and Bangalore to coordinatework in the new states WaterAid is nowoperating in. A fourth regional office is due toopen by 2007 in the north of the country tofocus on the poverty-stricken states of UttarPradesh and Bihar, with a combinedpopulation of 249 million.

WaterAid has both rural and urbanprojects to help increase access to water andsanitation. As sanitation coverage is very low,projects focus on promoting sanitationamong the rural poor by creating a demandfor latrines. When members of thecommunity learn that poor hygiene fuels

disease and work out the costs in medicineand lost productivity, their raised awarenesswill inspire them to develop their ownsolutions. WaterAid’s partner organisationsthen support them to build sanitationfacilities. A series of well received trainingmanuals and materials developed byWaterAid have also given hygiene educationa boost. These materials have been used bymajor agencies, including the Government,throughout the country.

By demonstrating cost effective, practicalexamples using appropriate technologiesthat involve communities through self-helpgroups, WaterAid is able to influence theGovernment’s choice of methods. Success has already been had in persuading theGovernment to change its sanitation subsidies to incorporate low-cost latrines.WaterAid works with 50 partnerorganisations in India, all of which carry outday to day project work with WaterAidsupport and technical advice.

India

Area: 3,287,590 km2

Capital: New Delhi

Other main cities: Bhopal, Kolkata,Bhubaneswar, Mumbai, Trichipalli

Population 1.1 billion

Infant mortality 87/1000

Life expectancy 63 yrs

Water supply coverage 86%

Sanitation coverage 30%

Below poverty line 28.6%

Human development index 127

Adult literacy 61%

Sources: World Development Report 2005 and

the Human Development Report 2005.

NB. Official statistics tend to understate theextent of water and sanitation problems,sometimes by a large factor. There are notsufficient resources available for accuratemonitoring of either population or coverage.Varying definitions of water and sanitationcoverage are used and national figures masklarge regional differences in coverage.

Since 1986, when WaterAid began working in India, ithas developed practical techniques to help ensure thecountry’s poor gain access to safe, sustainable andaffordable water, sanitation and hygiene educationthrough project work, research and advocacy.

between the communities and the city waterauthorities to negotiate connections to thecity’s supplies. Communities are helped toestablish communal, self managed waterpoints and sanitation blocks which offerseparate latrines and washing facilities formen, women and children. The blocks are run on a cost recovery basis; users pay a feeto the community management committeeand the money collected covers the initialcapital cost, water bills, attendants’ wagesand maintenance.

WaterAid India will continue to seekinnovative ways to enable communities towork together to improve their water andsanitation situation. In 2004 a cash prizescheme was initiated to provide prizes andcertificates of appreciation to those villagesor schools which become free from opendefecation, maintain a functional and reliable water supply system and adopt safehygiene practices. Three villages and threeschools were short-listed for the award in the first year.

The Indian Government’s commitment tothe MDGs entails a huge task and major gapsexist between the goals and the resourcesavailable. It is estimated that to reach thewater and sanitation targets 29 millionpeople need to be reached each year until 2015, for which there is a shortfall of aroundUS$34 billion. In addition, incomplete

decentralisation has meant that localgovernment, which is meant to be responsiblefor water and sanitation provision, often lackthe finance and capacity to carry out theirwork fully.

WaterAid believes local government andservice providers should be accountable tothe communities they serve. WaterAid will besupporting civil society organisations tomobilise communities to demand improvedwater and sanitation services from their local government agencies. In Bangalore andin rural districts in Jharkand and UttarPradesh WaterAid’s Citizens’ Action project isworking to support communities to holdlocal authorities and service providers toaccount. People themselves gather evidenceof their circumstances through methodssuch as waterpoint mapping and buildpartnerships and alliances with othercommunities or organisations. Thisexperience of mobilising themselves, raisingmoney, developing a water user group andso on gives them experience of the processthey would need to go through to demandother services such as health and educationimprovements. In this way communitiesbecome active agents of change.

WaterAid/Libby Clarke

Plans: 2005-2010

WaterAid/Marco Betti

Sheela Singh is a handpump mechanic in

the Mahoba region, Uttar Pradesh state.

“Women face big problems with no propertyrights, no housing and lower literacy rates.After the 8th grade of school girls aren’tencouraged to study but the boys are toldto carry on. If a woman gets to 20 and isn’tmarried she is sometimes asked to leavethe village. There is also dowry debt andharassment. By becoming a mechanic andworking in a group we have more controland this helps change people’s attitudes.”

Another woman in the group, Uma Deviadds: “We became mechanics because wewanted to break an age-old tradition ofthis work only being done by men. Bybecoming mechanics we have broken thetradition and shown that women can alsodo this kind of work.”

Key to states where WaterAid is currently working1 Madhya Pradesh 2 Uttar Pradesh 3 Chattisgharh 4 Jharkhand 5 Orissa 6 Bihar 7 Tamil Nadu 8 Andhra Pradesh 9 Karnataka 10 Maharashtra

In rural projects WaterAid and its partners helppeople to gain access to water and sanitationfrom the Government or service providers.They then train villagers to maintain the newinfrastructure and set up village water andsanitation committees to manage the projectsin a way that involves all the community andpromotes good hygiene. WaterAid also helpsthe rural poor to put forward their views invillage governing bodies such as the GramSabha (a village-level forum for decisionmaking) and Panchayats (local government)so that their concerns over water andsanitation are raised.

The problems in urban areas are morecomplex. As cities and towns become moredeveloped the slum and squattersettlements where the poor live are beingpushed further to the periphery. Increasingnumbers of people live in these settlementson the edges of towns and cities without anylegal right to their land and therefore no legalrights to water and sanitation services.Furthermore, with the Indian Governmentincreasingly delegating responsibility forutility provision to the Panchayats, whosestructures vary greatly from state to state,WaterAid is required to adapt its approach toeach context. Urban governance,management of utilities, bankruptmunicipalities in small towns, costlyinfrastructure and the lack of wastemanagement are all major challenges thatneed to be faced.

A strategy running from 2005 to 2010 sets outthe future plans and activities for WaterAid inIndia. During this time WaterAid will continueto focus on water, sanitation and hygieneeducation working with local partners oncommunity-managed projects.

The key aims are to:

• Ensure at least 245,000 people gain accessto safe water and at least 200,000 peoplegain access to improved sanitation everyyear by 2010, contributing to reaching theMillennium Development Goal (MDG)target of halving the proportion of peoplewithout access to safe water and sanitationby 2015

• Deliver hygiene education to 80% of thesepeople to ensure sustainable good hygienepractices and a consequent 80% reductionin incidences of diarrhoea among childrenunder five

WaterAid is making urban programmes apriority and is currently developing strategicalliances for promoting urban work andincreasing resources in those areas. In itsurban work WaterAid’s partner organisationsamong other things act as intermediaries

Country information: India Country information: India

WaterAid in India

Since 2003 WaterAid has expanded its workfrom Southern India to the poorer states inthe north to target some of India’s mostvulnerable communities. As a result we havenow become national in scope, working inten states. The main office is now based inNew Delhi, bringing WaterAid closer to policymakers in the sector, and three furtherregional offices have opened in Bhopal,Bhubaneswar and Bangalore to coordinatework in the new states WaterAid is nowoperating in. A fourth regional office is due toopen by 2007 in the north of the country tofocus on the poverty-stricken states of UttarPradesh and Bihar, with a combinedpopulation of 249 million.

WaterAid has both rural and urbanprojects to help increase access to water andsanitation. As sanitation coverage is very low,projects focus on promoting sanitationamong the rural poor by creating a demandfor latrines. When members of thecommunity learn that poor hygiene fuels

disease and work out the costs in medicineand lost productivity, their raised awarenesswill inspire them to develop their ownsolutions. WaterAid’s partner organisationsthen support them to build sanitationfacilities. A series of well received trainingmanuals and materials developed byWaterAid have also given hygiene educationa boost. These materials have been used bymajor agencies, including the Government,throughout the country.

By demonstrating cost effective, practicalexamples using appropriate technologiesthat involve communities through self-helpgroups, WaterAid is able to influence theGovernment’s choice of methods. Success has already been had in persuading theGovernment to change its sanitation subsidies to incorporate low-cost latrines.WaterAid works with 50 partnerorganisations in India, all of which carry outday to day project work with WaterAidsupport and technical advice.

India

Area: 3,287,590 km2

Capital: New Delhi

Other main cities: Bhopal, Kolkata,Bhubaneswar, Mumbai, Trichipalli

Population 1.1 billion

Infant mortality 87/1000

Life expectancy 63 yrs

Water supply coverage 86%

Sanitation coverage 30%

Below poverty line 28.6%

Human development index 127

Adult literacy 61%

Sources: World Development Report 2005 and

the Human Development Report 2005.

NB. Official statistics tend to understate theextent of water and sanitation problems,sometimes by a large factor. There are notsufficient resources available for accuratemonitoring of either population or coverage.Varying definitions of water and sanitationcoverage are used and national figures masklarge regional differences in coverage.

Since 1986, when WaterAid began working in India, ithas developed practical techniques to help ensure thecountry’s poor gain access to safe, sustainable andaffordable water, sanitation and hygiene educationthrough project work, research and advocacy.

between the communities and the city waterauthorities to negotiate connections to thecity’s supplies. Communities are helped toestablish communal, self managed waterpoints and sanitation blocks which offerseparate latrines and washing facilities formen, women and children. The blocks are run on a cost recovery basis; users pay a feeto the community management committeeand the money collected covers the initialcapital cost, water bills, attendants’ wagesand maintenance.

WaterAid India will continue to seekinnovative ways to enable communities towork together to improve their water andsanitation situation. In 2004 a cash prizescheme was initiated to provide prizes andcertificates of appreciation to those villagesor schools which become free from opendefecation, maintain a functional and reliable water supply system and adopt safehygiene practices. Three villages and threeschools were short-listed for the award in the first year.

The Indian Government’s commitment tothe MDGs entails a huge task and major gapsexist between the goals and the resourcesavailable. It is estimated that to reach thewater and sanitation targets 29 millionpeople need to be reached each year until 2015, for which there is a shortfall of aroundUS$34 billion. In addition, incomplete

decentralisation has meant that localgovernment, which is meant to be responsiblefor water and sanitation provision, often lackthe finance and capacity to carry out theirwork fully.

WaterAid believes local government andservice providers should be accountable tothe communities they serve. WaterAid will besupporting civil society organisations tomobilise communities to demand improvedwater and sanitation services from their local government agencies. In Bangalore andin rural districts in Jharkand and UttarPradesh WaterAid’s Citizens’ Action project isworking to support communities to holdlocal authorities and service providers toaccount. People themselves gather evidenceof their circumstances through methodssuch as waterpoint mapping and buildpartnerships and alliances with othercommunities or organisations. Thisexperience of mobilising themselves, raisingmoney, developing a water user group andso on gives them experience of the processthey would need to go through to demandother services such as health and educationimprovements. In this way communitiesbecome active agents of change.

WaterAid/Libby Clarke

Plans: 2005-2010

WaterAid/Marco Betti

Sheela Singh is a handpump mechanic in

the Mahoba region, Uttar Pradesh state.

“Women face big problems with no propertyrights, no housing and lower literacy rates.After the 8th grade of school girls aren’tencouraged to study but the boys are toldto carry on. If a woman gets to 20 and isn’tmarried she is sometimes asked to leavethe village. There is also dowry debt andharassment. By becoming a mechanic andworking in a group we have more controland this helps change people’s attitudes.”

Another woman in the group, Uma Deviadds: “We became mechanics because wewanted to break an age-old tradition ofthis work only being done by men. Bybecoming mechanics we have broken thetradition and shown that women can alsodo this kind of work.”

Key to states where WaterAid is currently working1 Madhya Pradesh 2 Uttar Pradesh 3 Chattisgharh 4 Jharkhand 5 Orissa 6 Bihar 7 Tamil Nadu 8 Andhra Pradesh 9 Karnataka 10 Maharashtra

“We learn that you need to wash yourhands before eating food and after goingto the toilet and after games and aftercleaning the house and before servingmeals,” says Pinki. Her teacher,Sushmadwivebi, adds: “WaterAid’spartner Gramonti Sansthan come twicemonthly and they teach the childrenabout hygiene. They hold competitionsabout hygiene and give the childrenprizes like pens or notebooks. They havequiz competitions and drawingcompetitions. They also built the latrinewhich the children all use.

It is important as people in the villagesshould live hygienically. If there issanitation and hygiene in schools thenthe families can save lots of money andsave themselves from diseases.”

The caste system still holds considerableeffect in India. Hindu’s are born into one offour castes: Brahmin (priests), Kshatriya(warriors), Vaishya (merchants) and Shudra(peasants). Beneath these are the dalits –formerly called the untouchables – who stillinvariably perform the most menial tasks inthe country and make up a large proportionof the country’s poor.

Durga Rao, 23, a lower caste dalit, wastrained by WaterAid’s partner SVDS as thehandpump mechanic in Seetanagaramvillage, Andhra Pradesh. SVDS helps solvecommunities’water and sanitationproblems in a caste-sensitive way, raisingthe status of dalits by giving them essentialskills. “Before we had the pump we used toget frequent diarrhoea. Sometimes wethrew up,” Durga says. “I used to feel veryinferior. I was afraid.”

When SVDS helped Durga access agovernment grant of 2600 rupees for abicycle and toolkit things changed. “Afterlearning mechanical skills I started talkingto the upper-caste villagers”, he continues.“When they installed a borewell I offered tohelp them. Some of them didn’t want me totouch the well. But in the end they agreed.”

£65 pays for 1000 health

education leaflets

£95 can train 10 community

leaders as hygiene educators

£385 pays for a school

sanitation block for 150 boys

and girls

£1150 can train 200 handpump

caretakers

£9600 can train 1000 staff of

Mother and Child Care centres to

influence 50,000 young mothers

and children to adopt good

hygiene practices

Achievements to date

> In 2004/05, through projects

supported by WaterAid and our partners,

almost 325,000 people gained access

to safe water

> Khajapattai slum is now the seventh

slum to be declared 100% sanitised since

the WaterAid project in Kalmandhai,

Tiruchirapalli city was officially declared

the country’s first in 2002

> In 1999, WaterAid helped changed

Government policy to incorporate

WaterAid’s low-cost latrines in their

subsidies. This has led to the

Government now encouraging more

appropriate and affordable toilet models

Country informationCountry information

India

India is a huge country with a population of more than one billion people and an incredible diversityof wealth, religion, language, customs, art, cuisine and landscape. In the world’s most populousdemocracy there are enormous divides between rich and poor, with over 26% of the populationliving in poverty. People from the lowest Hindu caste, known as dalits, women, the elderly anddisabled make up the largest proportion of poor people. Population growth is rapid, particularly in urban areas due to migration from rural villages.

There are vast numbers of people in India living without sanitation and water. For every 1000children, 90 die before their fifth birthday, mostly from preventable diseases like diarrhoea. Just15% of the rural population has access to a toilet – meaning that some 29 million people need togain access to basic sanitation every year if the Millennium Development Goal of just halving theproportion of people without sanitation by 2015 is to be met.

For further information about WaterAid:

WaterAid, 47-49 Durham Street, London, SE11 5JD

www.wateraid.org

T: 020 7793 4500 F: 020 7793 4545 E: wateraid@wateraid.org

Charity registration number 288701 April 2006

WaterAid – water for lifeThe UK’s only major charity dedicated exclusively tothe provision of safe domestic water, sanitation andhygiene education to the world’s poorest people.

WaterAid/Marco Betti

WaterAid/Marco Betti

WaterAid/Marco Betti

Pinki learns about good hygiene while

at the Premnega Primary School, in

Panchat Nathupra, Uttar Pradesh state

Breaking caste barriers

Martin Argles