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| The recently concluded National conference on Sanitation brought together over 250 delegates, speakers and other participants from a wide range of disciplines from difference parts of the country, including state TSC coordinators. Ministry of Rural Development, Plan India, UNICEF, Water Aid, WES-Net India, SPHERE India and Water for People (WFP) partnered with WASH Institute and successful completed the conference. The participants were a blend of Water & |
| Sanitation professionals, academicians, researchers, government officials and, interestingly, many retired professionals and laypersons. Though practitioners and researchers represented the majority, the blend clearly reflected the growing interest in sanitation amongst people of all walks of life and an increase in the strength and momentum of the sanitation movement in India. |
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| As the conference was held in the capital, the conference witnessed the presence of officials from Urban, Rural and Health ministries and heads of International NGO’s. Quite a few of them had come there to stay for a few hours and ultimately stayed on for the entire duration of the conference. Needless to say, the sessions were absorbing and very interesting. |
| The objective of the conference is to bring all the key sector players / practitioners together to share their success stories and approaches in promoting sustainable sanitation in the country to overcome some of the key challenges. Also to define the strategy to scale-up good practices in an efficient and effective ways towards making open defecation free nation. The proposed national meet would be a mini sanitation conference before SACOSAN IV in Sri Lanka next year. |
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The conference offered a good blend of plenary sessions, workshops, paper presentations and panel discussions. Smt Bhagyashri Dengle, Executive Director, Plan India welcomed the gathering and then the conference witnessed a flying start with the presence of the Honorable Chief Minister Smt Sheila Dixshit who kick started with the traditional lightening the lamp. The special address by Mrs Lizette Burgers, Deputy Country Representative, UNICEF, Sri T M Vijay Bhaskar, Jt Secretary, MoRD, Lt, Gen J R Bhardwaj, Hon’ble Member, NDMA, GoI in the inaugural session set the tone for the conference. |
| Delivering the keynote address at the meet, Dikshit said to combat the problem of waste removal in big cities like Delhi, there was a need to adopt the principle of “use, re-use and recycle”. She referred to a project launched by her government recently to produce power from waste as well as the Yamuna interceptor scheme under which sludge removal will be under taken to make the river water cleaner. Dixshit also said while the job of the municipalities is to ensure that cities remain clean, educating people about changing their “habit” is also a key factor. She also requested Plan and Wash Institute to train the municipal engineers in low cost sanitation practices, which is the need of the hour. UNICEF deputy country director Ms Lizette Burgers observed that 840 million children in the world lack access to sanitation and dwelt on how problems like open defecation lead to diseases like diarrohea as well as malnutrition among children. |
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| While the theme of the conference was “Cost Effective Sustainable Sanitation”, 45 papers were presented in the following seven themes :
1) Rural Sanitation
2) Urban Sanitation
3) School Sanitation
4) Ecological Sanitation
5) Sanitation in emergency response
6) Solid and Liquid waste
7) Demand Creation through Effective Hygiene Promotion
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| In addition to the above seven topics, a session dedicated allotted to review progress based on SACOSAN III declaration and the way forward for SACOSAN IV in Sri Lanka next year.
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| In the first plenary session on 28th at Stein Auditorium was addressed by Vijay Mittal, Director, Total Sanitation campaign, GoI. While elaborating on the goals of his ministry he said that the ministry is going for universal sanitation coverage in rural areas by 2012. 100 percent coverage of Govt schools in rural areas with sanitation facilities by March, 2012. At least one toilet block to be available in each rural school and a separate toilet block for girls in co-educational schools. |
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And 100 percent coverage of Anganwadis in Govt buildings with toilet facilities by March, 2012. The second key note address in this session was delivered by Ms Cecilia Ruben, EcoSanRes Programme at Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI)., while speaking on the Importance of an Enabling Environment for Policy Reform and Institution Strengthening, stressed on the importance to Protect and promote human health, Minimize environmental degradation & depletion of the resource base and also stressed the importance of technically and institutionally appropriate, socially acceptable and economically viable in the long term sustainable sanitation systems. |
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The keynote speakers on the second and third day, too, represented disciplines ranging and key players in the sector like Kumar Alok, Government of Tripura addressed on “Squatting with dignity”, Mr S N Singh, UNICEF, Patna on “ School WASH program of UNICEF”, Ms Bharati Chaturvedi, Director, Chintan on “People, Place, Policy - What creates frameworks for Low Cost Solid Waste Management? And Dr T Sunderaman, National Health Systems Resource Centre (NHSRC) on “Health and Hygiene- towards an operational plan for achieving convergence”.
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| The conference provided a platform for sharing views, research findings and expertise on a wide variety of issues inherent in sanitation, public health, and school sanitation and research as well as health policy. The participants also witnessed key sector players in the form of Chairperson in various session, some of the key players who chaired the sessions are Ms Sumita Ganguly, UNICEF, Ms Usha Raghupathi, National Institute of Urban Affairs, Ms Cecilia Ruben, SEI, Sweden, Mr. Vijay Mittal, Dept of Drinking Water Supply, Dr Lucas Dengel, Auroville, Ms Nafisa Barot, Uttan, Gujarat, Dr. Bansal from NDMA etc. Mr. T.M. Vijay Baskar, Joint Secretary, DDWS chaired the thematic session on school WES and highlighted in importance of school WASH program. |
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The valedictory address during the concluding plenary was rendered by Mr. Christopher Juan Costain, Regional Team Leader WSP- World Bank, Ms Rajashi Mukherjee, Water for People India and Ms Urvashi Prasad from Department of Drinking water supply. Based on the paper presented in seven themes and issues raised, with a detailed deliberation and involvement of the participants, good and recommendation was drafted. Overall, the deliberations at the conference successfully sensitized participants to the spectrum of issues inherent in sustainable low cost sanitation options and policies. The sessions also enabled them in acquiring skills to recognize dilemmas and constructively deal with them. The discussions were greatly enriched by the variety of disciplines represented.
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