Ram Rattan Sharma
About 240 crores people in rural and urban areas today do not have access to adequate Sanitation services of which 1.1 billion still practice open defecation. In 2010 the UN estimated on the basis of Indian statistics that 626 million people practice open defecation, it means more than half of India’s population does not have access to basic structured sanitation facilities. According to the 2011 Indian census, 53 percent of house holds do not use any kind of toilet. The effect of lack of sanitation facilities can be seen much more beyond open defecation. over 28 percent of Indian Children under the age of six suffer from malnourishment and are under weight, it is attributed to poor sanitation. In the developed countries, the standard practice for the sanitary disposal of human waste is sewerage. Due to financial constraints and exorbitant maintenance and operational costs, Sewerage is not the answer at present to solve the problem of human waste management in India. In developing countries neither the Government, nor the local authorities can bear the total capital expenditure , and operation and maintenance costs of Sewerage system. It requires skilled persons and good management for long term operation and maintenance. Similarly, the Septic tank system is also expensive and requires large volumes of water for flushing, they also have other problems, like periodic cleaning and disposal of sludge. In adequate effluent disposal is a source of foul smell, mosquito breeding and health hazards. With in 20 years it is expected that an additional 200 crores will live in towns and cities mainly in, developing countries, demanding sanitation still over 90 percent of sewage in developing countries is discharged untreated, polluting rivers, lakes and coastal areas, conventional sanitation concepts, based on coastal areas, conventional sanitation concepts, based on flush toilets, a water washing technology, are neither an ecological nor economical solution, in both industrialised and developing countries. The water based sewerage system were designed and built on the premise that human excreta is a waste, suitable only for disposal and that the environment is capable of assimilating this water. The lack of access to safe drinking water and sanitation is directly related to poverty and, in many cases, to the inability of Governments to finance satisfactory water and sanitation systems. Direct and indirect human costs of these failings are enormous, including wide spread health problems, excessive use of labour and severe limitations for economic development. Improved water and sanitation facilities, on the other hand, bring valuable benefits for both social and economic development and poverty alleviation. On July 28,2010 United Nations General Assembly explicitly recognized the human right to water and sanitation and acknowledged that clean drinking water and sanitation are essential to the realization of all human rights. The environment directly influences health in many ways, including through harmful exposure, inadequate infrastructure, degraded ecosystems and poor working conditions, such as climate change and house hold air pollution often affect the poor countries. Large number of diseases listed in the global health observatory had significant links with the environment limited access to environment services and infrastructure, such as safe water and sanitation, impact more on women and girls and may limit their access to education. Safe drinking water, liquid and solid waste management, environmental cleanliness and personal hygiene should be ensured, anyone of these can have direct implications on the health of human beings. Rural India lags behind the national average on all socio-economic perameters.
Safe drinking water is essential to sustain life; it is the basis for human health, survival growth and development. Therefore, access to safe drinking water is a basic human right, recognition of this right contributes to the survival of human being and disease prevention, because water is used not only for drinking but for many other purposes. Unsafe water, blended with inadequate sanitation and hygiene, still contributes to large number of deaths every year. Safe water supply is essential not only for health but also for people’s livelihood, economic growth and development. While India has achieved its millennium development goals for drinking water and supply efforts, it shall continue to try achieving the universal coverage and access to adequate potable drinking water with piped water supply to reduce the negative impact of non-potable water on health, it is estimated that at least 90% of the rural population was practicing open defecation in 1990. Both the Indian census and the world health organization UNICEF joint monitoring programme data indicates that in the last 10 to 12 years, the proportion of the people with access to sanitation has almost doubled. However, despite this progress, open defecation is still practiced by a large majority of India’s rural inhabitants, approximately 60 crores indian living in rural areas defecate in open. The concept of sanitation was expanded to include personal hygiene, home sanitation, safe water, garbage disposal excreta disposal and waste water disposal. With this broader concept sanitation, central rural programme was started in 1986. On Oct.2, 2014 to accelerate the efforts to achieve universal sanitation coverage and put focus on sanitation Govt. of India launched the Swachh Bharat Mission. The purpose of the mission is to make rural India healthier by promoting cleanliness, hygiene and eliminating open defecation. There have been sincere attempts to create awareness and infrastructural base for systematic sanitation practices and India is not far behind. There have been several programmes that have been initiated and the main purpose is to reach out to the maximum possible numbers so that there is healthy sanitation environment. A country with commendable sanitation facilities will contribute not only healthy environment but will also constitute to overall growth. In both rural and urban sanitation settings, there is need to chalk out more cost effective methods and increase efficiency in the utilization of resources. A community based approach at rural level especially can generate better health and environment field. The Govt. or the corporate sector alone cannot shoulder the whole responsibility people’s participation is indispensable
( The author is former Dy. Librarian University of Jammu)
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