Eleventh Five Year Plan

Drinking Water, Sanitation, and Clean Living Conditions 179collectors, a lot is left to be disposed off. To keepcities clean, citizen involvement is essential to sortwaste at source and minimize waste that needs tobe collected and disposed. A programme should beimplemented to obtain citizens’ cooperation. NGOsshould be encouraged to provide organizationalsupport and identity to the rag pickers so that betterrecycling occurs. Adequate land should be earmarked/allottedat the planning stage itself by therespective ULBs for setting up of sanitary landfills,compost plants, and other processing units includingprovision for future expansion.• Awareness campaigns on various aspects of waterquality, importance of safe drinking water, its handlingand storage, water conservation in homes,use of sanitary toilets, separate storage of dry andwet garbage and its hygienic disposal, vector control,personal hygiene, etc. should be mounted.PPP IN URBAN SANITATION AND SWM5.80 Though privatization of water supply and sanitationsector could not make significant progress as ofnow, there is substantial potential and urgent need forthe same in near future. By and large, the tariff ratesbeing charged from the consumers are very low andthere is a general reluctance for enhancing the same.Under the circumstances, without aiming at full costrecovery, privatization cannot be a successful proposition.It is felt that it would be easier and convenientto introduce privatization in new areas where theprivate companies will have a free hand to take up thetask of planning, designing, execution, O&M, billing,and collection including tapping of raw water fromthe selected source either on Build Own Operate(BOO) or Build Own Operate Transfer (BOOT)basis. Few examples to infuse confidence in privateentrepreneurs are—the successful award of Chennaiservice contract for O&M of 61 sewage pumpingstations in the city, and of Rajkot and Surat contractingout a number of municipal services to private firmsas well as community groups.5.81 There were some public concerns on PPP projectsin the water supply sector in the country because ofwhich the projects were either stalled or dropped. Ifthe community could be involved in PPP projects therewould be more acceptability to such projects. PPP canbe redesigned as Public–Private Community Partnershipto overcome the hurdle.CLEAN LIVING CONDITIONSINTRODUCTION5.82 Achievement of health objectives involves muchmore than curative or preventive medical care. Manyof the communicable diseases in India can be preventedthrough a combination of health and nonhealthinterventions. We need a comprehensiveapproach that encompasses individual health care,public health, sanitation, clean drinking water, accessto food and knowledge about hygiene and feedingpractice, etc. A direct relationship exists betweenwater, sanitation, and health. Safe drinking water andsanitation are critical determinants, which directlycontribute nearly 70–80% in reducing the burden ofcommunicable diseases. Inadequate provision of safedrinking water, improper disposal of human waste,and lack of adequate systems for disposal of sewageand solid wastes leads to unhealthy and unhygienicconditions. This coupled with overall ignorance ofpersonal and environmental hygiene are the maincauses of a large number of water-borne diseases inthe country.CLEAN WATER SUPPLY5.83 The water supply and sanitation sector will faceenormous challenges over the coming decades. InIndia, the groundwater is consumed directly withoutany sort of treatment and disinfection. Its quality istherefore a cause of concern. The national objectivesof reducing morbidity and mortality largely depend onthe reduction of diarrhoea, jaundice, etc. In fact, nowater supply and sanitation programme can be successfulif water-related illnesses are not reduced. It is amatter of concern that despite the progress made withwater supply, the level of water-related illnesses continuesto be high. Approximately 10 million cases ofdiarrhoea, more than 7.2 lakh typhoid cases, and 1.5lakh viral hepatitis cases occur every year (Annexure5.1). A majority of them are contributed by uncleanwater supply and poor sanitation. Micro-level studiesrevealed that availability of clean water; sanitation, andhygiene interventions reduce diarrhoeal diseases onaverage by between one-quarter and one-third.