Chapter: Gist of Press Information Bureau Articles

Topic: National Urban Sanitation Policy

Q. What are the data of urban sanitation situation which grow concern about it?

• 12.04 million (7.87 %) Urban households do not have access to latrines and defecate in the open. 5.48 million (8.13%) Urban households use community ones and 13.4 million households (19.49%) use shared latrines.

• 12.47 million (18.5%) households do not have access to a drainage network and 26.83 million (39.8%) households are connected to open drains.

• The status in respect of the urban poor is even worse. The percentage of notified and non-notified slums without latrines is 17 percent and 51 percent respectively. In respect of septic latrines the availability is 66 percent and 35 percent. In respect of underground sewerage, the availability is 30 percent and 15 percent respectively.

• More than 37% of the total human excreta generated in urban India, is unsafely disposed. This imposes significant public health and environmental costs to urban areas that contribute more than 60% of the country’s GDP. Impacts of poor sanitation are especially significant for the urban poor (22% of total urban population), women, children and the elderly.

• The loss due to diseases caused by poor sanitation for children under 14 years alone in urban areas amounts to Rs. 500 crore at 2001 prices (Planning Commission-United Nations International Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF), 2006).

• Inadequate discharge of untreated domestic/municipal wastewater has resulted in contamination of 75 percent of all surface water across India.

Q. What is National Urban Sanitation Policy?

• The Government has adopted the National Urban Sanitation Policy with a view to addressing the above mentioned issues in October 2008.

• The vision of the policy is that All Indian cities and towns become totally sanitised, healthy and liveable and ensure and sustain good public health and environmental outcomes for all their citizens with a special focus on hygienic and affordable sanitation facilities for the urban poor and women.

Q. What are the initiatives under the NUSP?

• The initiatives under the NUSP are as under:

• Rating of Cities: The rating of Cities covers all Class I cities of the country which account for 7 2% of the urban population. The rating was carried out using a methodology which focussed on output, process and outcome indicators and was conducted in consultation with the cities.

• The purpose of the rating was to create awareness regarding the critical state of sanitation in the country with a view to mobilising action. Cities were classified under four colour categories i.e. Red, Black, Blue and Green.

• The rating of cities creates a baseline which can be used to measure progress in respect of sanitation in our cities. Based on the results of the rating, the best performers will be recognized with a National Award- “The Nirman Shahar Puruskar”.

• State Sanitation Strategies and City Sanitation Plans: The NUSP requires each state to formulate its own State Urban Sanitation Strategy to achieve the policy goals set out in the NUSP taking into account its local urban context. So far, 24 States are engaged in the preparation of State Sanitation Strategies. Cities will operationalise the state strategy by preparing and implementing City Sanitation Plans. The City Sanitation Plan’s main purpose is to support local bodies, NGOs, CBOs, Citizens to take concrete steps to achieve 100% sanitation in their cities.

• Awareness Generation: An awareness generation campaign was launched with the broadcast of audio spots and jingles on Radio/ FM channels with a view to sensitizing citizens regarding the importance of sanitation, negative impacts on health and the environment due to lack of sanitation and most importantly the need to eliminate open defecation. The jingles have been developed in twelve languages.

• National School Sanitation Initiative: A one day event on launch of National School Initiative was organized by the Ministry of Urban Development & Ministry of Human Resource Development to sensitize younger children on the issue of sanitation, ecologically important issues such as energy efficiency, conservation of natural resources, segregation of waste etc. Mr. Aamir Khan, noted Film star participated in the event as Brand Ambassador for School Sanitation to spearhead the efforts towards awareness generation for better sanitation.

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