Improving sanitation services in India: How can a citywide scheduled desludging model for onsite sanitation enable safely managed sanitation

The Swachh Bharat Mission has played a significant role in making India open defecation free. Access to toilets has ensured that people don’t have to defecate in the open. This is where sanitation starts, but not where it ends. The collection, transportation and treatment of faecal waste is crucial to move towards ‘safely managed sanitation’. If the waste is not contained properly, or it is not collected, treated and disposed safely, it might end up contaminating water bodies and soil which can pose severe health and environmental hazards.

In this article , CWAS team members, Aasim Mansuri, Dhruv Bhavsar and Arwa Bharmal, write about the need for scheduled desludging of septic tanks and the leading examples of Wai and Sinnar in Maharashtra for successful implementation. The article titled "Improving sanitation services in India : How can a citywide scheduled desludging model for onsite sanitation enable safely managed sanitation" was published in Times of India.