SulabhENVIS Centre

Hindustan Times, Seema Hakhu Kachru, Press Trust Of India
Houston, April 06, 2010

The report also warned that poor sanitation affects education of children as well.

"Millions of children in the developing world go to schools which have no drinking water or clean latrines – basic things that many of us take for granted," said Sigrid Kaag, UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, at the publication’s launch today in Dubai.

Produced in collaboration with the UN World Health Organisation (WHO) and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), the report notes that 1.5 million children under the age of five die every year of diarrhoea due to unsafe water, inadequate sanitation and lack of hygiene.

Better water, sanitation and hygiene – collectively known as WASH – will prevent students from missing school days due to diarrhoea, it states. Improved hygiene will lead to less risk of disease, which in turn will result in better school attendance and ultimately nation's growth.

WASH also enhances girls' continuation of education, notes the report titled "Raising Clean Hands: Advancing Learning, Health and Participation through WASH in Schools".

Kaag pointed out that improving sanitation in schools will help to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), notably the targets of reducing child mortality and halving the number of people without access to safe water and basic sanitation.

After showcasing India through the Incredible India campaign, actor Aamir Khan will be creating awareness about urban sanitation and hygiene issues among schoolchildren.

The government has approached Aamir to be the brand ambassador for the Urban School Sanitation project, a joint initiative of the Human Resource Development Ministry and the Urban Development Ministry, and help save children.

“Yes, we have been approached and have said yes to the initiative,” a spokesperson at Aamir’s office said.

According to Unicef, diarrhoea, which is directly linked to poor sanitation and hygiene, kills more than 1,000 children in India every day.

The project aims to generate awareness among schoolchildren about two key issues — the need for hygienic sanitation, its impact on health and environment and the importance of waste segregation.

The campaign will initially target schools affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education. Municipal school students will be next.

As part of the programme, the children will be told about hygienic sanitation practices and the ills of defecating in the open. They will also be taught waste segregation. Every student will be given a project on sanitation.

“Children are the best ambassadors of change. Through these children, we hope to take the message across to a wider audience,” the official said.

An urban development ministry official said Aamir was their natural choice for the campaign to be unveiled on Apri 27. “Children would associate with him very easily. He has done acclaimed films such as Taare Zameen Par and 3 Idiots. He would be able to get across the message effectively to children in a way that they can comprehend,” said a ministry official.

New Delhi: An engineering student recently came up with an interesting description of the Yamuna: It is like a supermarket, you can find everything in it. Shiva, a final year student of Faridabad, who spent eight days attempting to clean up the Yamuna, said: ‘‘We have picked out just about everything from the river so far, from plastics to pooja samagri,’’ she said.
   She, along with over 20,000 people, joined the ‘‘Meri Dilli Meri Yamuna’’ initiative, launched on March 17 by the Art of Living Foundation, to clean the river’s ghats and to drive home a point to the government — the Yamuna needs urgent attention if it is to survive.
   And to show the way, it mobilised thousands of citizens to get down to action. While only a whole-hearted and sincere effort by government agencies can really make a difference to the health of the river, this citizens’ effort has drawn urgent attention to the city’s sprawling open drain that was once a glorious river.
   To spread awareness about ways to lessen the burden of waste in the river, public outreach programmes were organised by Delhi Jal Board and the Art of Living with street plays, puppet shows and music to involve even the most disinterested persons in the people’s movement to save the Yamuna.
   From March 18 to March 24, concerned residents, NGOs, corporates and other volunteers covered eight ghats in the city, raking up tonnes of rubbish and silt that took over 200 tractor trolleys to remove. Akhilesh Chhabra, in-charge of the cleaning at the Okhla Dhobi Ghat, and otherwise an LIC employee, said that his worst experience had been at the Yamuna Vihar ghat, where due to its proximity to Nigambodh Ghat, volunteers actually had to dodge dead bodies in their effort to pull out rubbish from the water.
   At the Okhla Dhobi Ghat on Thursday, Rashmi Paliwal, Art of Livings’s north India in-charge, said that with their experiences of the past eight days, they would be developing a think tank along with the government, NGOs and corporates to come up with practical solutions for cleaning the river.
   ‘‘At the dhobi ghat, we started our cleaning work 15 days in advance. About 200 truck loads of muck, including carcasses of dogs etc, were removed from the banks of the river. Through our eight-day journey, we had numerous people and groups, like RWAs, NCC cadets, social clubs and children, join us,’’ she said.
   For those who went ghat to ghat, trying to give the dying river some semblance of dignity, wading into sewage that is ostensibly the river’s water, was no easy task. However, this was a mission to prove a point and they all joined in, from government officials to students and housewives.

What should and can be done to clean the Yamuna? What is the strategy for business-unusual so that we can spend more money but this time get returns of a living and breathing river.
   One, we need to change the art of pollution control. First, we must understand that rivers need water to assimilate our waste. Today, Delhi takes water from the river, upstream of Wazirabad, and returns only sewage to it. Between the two barrages — Wazirabad, when the river enters Delhi till Okhla, where it exits Delhi — there is no water. There are only some 17 drains that bring sewage into the river.
   Even if we were to treat every drop of waste before it reaches the river, it will do nothing. The river must have water to dilute waste. And to live.
   There are two ways for Delhi to get water in the river. One, it can demand that Haryana should give it more water. But this will be difficult. All cities, up or downstream, do what Delhi does. They take every drop of water the river has and give it only their waste. All cities are desperate for water.
   The second option is that Delhi can begin to reduce its own water demand, so that it can allow water to flow in the river. This can be done. Delhi, today has the highest water availability in the country — already over 250 litres per person per day. The richest cities of the world, like those in Denmark, have roughly 110 litres per person per day.
   Delhi needs so much water because it wastes half the water in distribution. This must be stopped or at least minimized. But importantly, money for river cleaning must incorporate this target — how much will Delhi do to reduce water use. Water is part of the sums of waste.
   This also means we have to use less water in our homes, so that we discharge less waste. We have to be part of the solution to the river. Remember our flush is enjoined to the Yamuna.
   Then we must change the science of river cleaning. We know the river will not be clean till we treat all the sewage of the city. And the only way we can treat the sewage is by making solutions more affordable. In the current situation, Delhi government does not even recover the cost of water supply, forget sewage disposal. We must demand technologies that we all can pay for. This will drive the change in approach.
   The second agenda is to fully utilize the capacity of our sewage treatment plants. Delhi has capacity to clean 2330 million litres of sewage each day —enough to treat 70-90% of current waste, depending on the estimate you take. This will mean bringing waste to the plants, by lifting it from open drains, not just waiting to build new ones or building and repairing more drains. The hardware approach needs to go.
   The third agenda is connected and critical. The treated effluent must not be put back into the same open drain, which carries the untreated waste of the majority. It must be reused and recycled, as far as possible locally so that costs of pumping are reduced.
   Today, we spend huge money in first pumping sewage long distances for treatment and then waste this effort by dumping the cleaned water in unclean drains. In other words, sewage must be reused in gardens, in lakes or in industry. Sewage treatment plants must be built only when they have planned for reuse.
   Just consider. Today, sewage is treated at the Yamuna Vihar plant in east Delhi and disposed of in the drain carrying untreated waste outside the plant. Then the same waste is treated further down in the Kondli treatment plant. Cleaned effluent is then dumped in a drain, which flows past the new growth colonies of Noida with huge discharge. By the time it reaches the river, there is sewage, no water. Get serious, for heaven’s sake.
   Fourth, we must treat sewage directly in the open drains that criss-cross the city. Instead of waiting for every open stormwater drain to go underground and disappear, the system will ensure all waste is treated and cleaned as it flows through the city. This would mean using innovative technologies for bio-remediation green plants and oxidation to decompose and degrade sewage. Get real.
   Fifth, we should build sewage treatment plants as close to the bank of the river to treat what remains in the drains. This will need technologies, which need less land to treat sewage. The design is not to discharge anything but treated effluent in Yamuna.
   All this will require our involvement. We must demand an effective action plan for cleaning our river. Never forget, we all live downstream.

Agenda For Clean-Up

The river must have water to dilute waste
Delhi can demand water from Haryana, reduce its own water demand (availability 250 litres per person daily, highest in country)
Delhi must stop/ minimize wasting half its water in distribution
Delhiites must use less water at home, so that they discharge less waste
Change science of river cleaning by making solutions more affordable. Must demand technologies that we all can pay for Fully utilize capacity of sewage treatment plants. Need to lift sewage from open drains instead of building more infrastructure
Treated effluents must not be put back into open drain which carries untreated waste of majority. It must be reused and recycled as far as possible locally
Treat sewage directly in open drains with innovative technologies
Should build sewage treatment plants close to the bank of the river to treat what remains in the drains