(GIST OF YOJANA) The Economics of Water and Sanitation
[APRIL-2020]
The Economics of Water and Sanitation
Introduction:
- The most important differentiating factor which allowed the SBM to
leverage the collective strength of 1.3 crore people was exactly the
political leadership.
SBM: Recognized by African Nations:
- In January 2020, a Ministerial Round Table discussion was held in Addis
Ababa on ‘Scaling up Sanitation in Africa’. It was primarily based on the
major lessons coming from the implementation of the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM).
- They unanimously agreed that the biggest bottleneck they faced in
replicating the SBM model in their countries was that they were not able to
convince their Finance Ministries to invest heavily in sanitation, like
Indian has done since 2014.
Economics of Sanitation:
- UNICEF recently estimated that the investments in sanitation in India
are yielding a 400% return, with each rural household in an ODF village
saving Rs. 50,000 on account of avoided medical spends, time savings and
lives saved.
- Meanwhile, moving ahead, the Toilet Board Coalition has estimated that
the sanitation infrastructure and services market in India will be worth
over $60 billion by 2021, creating many new jobs, even in the most rural
areas of the country.
- It is fairly clear now that investment in sanitation is actually a
facilitator of broader economic, health and social gains.
Budget Provisions:
- The government is committed to ensuring that this success is sustained.
- The finance minister in the budget for 2020-21 has announced about Rs.
10,000 crore for rural sanitation to focus on ODF sustainability,
biodegradable waste management, faecal sludge management and most
importantly plastic waste management for all villages by 2024.
- The government is committed to delivering its piped water supply. The PM
announced the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) with the goal of ensuring piped water
supply for all households of India by 2024.
- Backing its commitment, in the budget for 2020-21, the government has
already allocated a central share of Rs. 11,500 crore for the JJM, with an
additional provision for extra budgetary resources of Rs. 12,000 crore.
- The biggest impetus to the rural water and sanitation sector is the
earmarking of 50% of the Rs. 90,000 crore grant to rural local bodies under
the 15th Commission for drinking water and sanitation.
- This approach will ensure that just like sanitation provision of water
supply and its upkeep will also become everyone's business.
