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Sanitation

  • Economics in sustainable water management

    For better management and improved access, there are several tools and instruments available to the water manager. This training manual focuses on economic and financial instruments. Economic instruments provide incentives for more efficient water use, either in terms of reduction of water quantity or increasing

  • Integrated risk management to protect drinking water and sanitation services facing natural disasters

    This report explains the concept of integrated risk management, a strategic and proactive approach to anticipating, assessing and managing natural events. By analysing the main risks and investing in prevention and mitigation, societies become less vulnerable. Financial, social and environmental damage and rehabilitation and reconstruction costs are reduced.

  • Municipal waste generation and socioeconomic drivers - Evidence from comparing Northern and Southern Italy

    Using data sets from Italian provinces that include rich northern and poorer southern regions, this article examines to what extent income and municipal waste generation are linked and at what level of income they become delinked. The analysis shows that the turning point occurs at very high levels of value added per capita (in the range of

  • Beyond construction use by all: a collection of case studies from sanitation and hygiene promotion practitioners in South Asia

    A group of 53 sanitation and hygiene promotion practitioners met in Bangladesh from 29 to 31 January 2008 to mark the start of the International Year of Sanitation (IYS) by sharing and learning from their peers.

  • A development story

    The Guntur Municipal Corporation leaves no stone unturned to ensure the city's all-round growth. THE Municipal Corporation of Guntur dreams big for the residents of the city, which has a more than 200-year-old history. It has achieved many firsts in its relatively brief existence of less than 20 years. The young corporation also has the youngest Mayor in the country, 23-year-old Kanna Nagaraju. The 52-member Municipal Council is guided by the young dynamic Municipal Commissioner Siddhartha Jain. Guntur means the village of tanks. It is believed that this village first came up close to what is known as the Red Tank. The French held Kondaveedu, a nearby village, from A.D. 1732 and built a fort to the east of the area now known as Old Guntur. The French commander constructed houses for himself and for his troopers towards the north of present-day Nallacheruvu (Black Tank) and this area was called New Guntur. One of the fastest developing Tier-III cities in Andhra Pradesh, Guntur has pride of place among municipal corporations in the State. A vibrant city, home to some of the wealthiest traders in cotton, chillis and tobacco, Guntur has fast metamorphosed into a modern city with an array of glittering shopping malls, restaurants and commercial complexes dotting the skyline. Providing basic civic amenities to a growing city with a population of over seven lakh has been a demanding task for the local body. It, however, has achieved many firsts, and dreams of providing 24-hour water supply to domestic and industrial consumers and meet the needs of the industrial corridor that is fast coming up between Vijayawada and Guntur. The corridor is expected to convert these into major Twin Cities of Andhra Pradesh after Hyderabad and Secunderabad. The GMC has achieved remarkable progress in augmenting basic amenities such as drinking water supply, sanitation, street lighting and solid waste management. It also has an efficient system in place to redress public grievances. "The GMC is highly responsive to civic problems and innovative in toning up its administrative machinery,' said District Collector Mohammad Ali Rafath. SANITATION A series of special drives has been launched by the Municipal Commissioner to augment the quality of basic services such as sanitation. The three-bin system has become a reality in many apartment complexes in the city and garbage clearance is 100 per cent. A week-long special sanitation drive in the city identified several issues, and short-term and long-term plans have been envisaged to solve them. For solid waste management, the GMC got a grant of Rs.1.26 crore from the Twelfth Finance Commission, which was spent on procuring dumper bins and tricycles. Today local residents' welfare associations take care of 50 per cent of the house-to-house garbage collection system. The use of coloured plastic bins for waste segregation at source has been introduced in some commercial areas too. Seventy-six acres of land was recently acquired in Yedlapadu mandal for dumping waste. Works such as construction of drains, laying of roads, improvement of road junctions and development of burial grounds were taken up at a cost of Rs.24 crore. Siddhartha Jain said: "People should be proud of the city they live in and be motivated to be part of the planned development. A systematic approach to administration and planning is the need of the hour. Special drives to improve sanitation and provide water supply connections will help in identifying several issues.' MEDICAL CAMP Mayor Kanna Nagaraju. At 23, he is the youngest Mayor in India. The municipal body is going beyond its principal mandate of providing basic amenities to the people; the GMC organises mega medical camps. The camps held on the Sri Patibandla Sitaramaiah High School grounds in December every year witnesses a huge turnout. The latest camp attracted more than 15,000 people. A team of 85 doctors from 20 specialisations attended to 13,400 patients. Medicines costing Rs.8.4 lakh were distributed. As many as 180 paramedical staff, students of nursing colleges and 370 cadets of the National Cadet Corps (NCC) volunteered their services. The success of the camp motivated some private hospitals and clinics to offer follow-up medical service for the patients. They would be treated for a month at a hospital of their choice. One of the most daunting tasks for the corporation is to ensure potable drinking water for the entire city. Guntur, which does not have a raw water source, depends on the Guntur Channel and the Buckingham Channel to supply 80 million litres per day (MLD) against the total ideal assessed demand of 121 MLD. The centuries-old water source at Sangam Jagarlamudi has been renovated thanks to the special interest shown by the Mayor. A water filtration plant of 10 million gallons per day has been commissioned and four reservoirs have been built at L.B. Nagar, Srinivasarao Thota, R.T.C. Colony and Stambalagaruvu. Rise in rEVENUE The corporation saw a turnaround in its finances with a near 100 per cent collection of tax and non-tax revenue from individuals and commercial establishments. Innovative steps taken by Deputy Commissioner N. Yadagiri Rao to boost revenue collection have yielded results; of the total 1.14 lakh assessments, 941 were new assessments. The revenue wing has been trifurcated

  • Centre okays Rs 75-crore grant for Zirakpur, informs Punjab minister

    The Centre has sanctioned a grant of Rs 75 crore for the development of Zirakpur. The Punjab Government had already released Rs 10 crore for the development plan. Punjab Cooperation Minister Capt Kanwaljit Singh handed cheques to the NAC Zirakpur president on Monday. The Minister said that though Punjab's share accounts to about Rs 7.5 lakh, it was contributing higher amount to accelarte the project. He said that the grant would be used for ensuring supply of potable water and sewerage facility to the residents.

  • Proposed sewage treatment plant at Thiruvananthapuram: initial environmental examination

    Kerala Sustainable Urban Development Project (KSUDP) has been launched in Kerala with the assistance of Asian Development Bank (ADB) covering 5 major cities in Kerala namely Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Kochi, Kozhikode & Thrissur. The 5 cities have been grouped into two packages, namely Package-1

  • A pathway to sustainability in urban sanitation for developing Asian countries

    This thesis is concerned with facilitating change leading to urban sanitation that is sustainable. It explores how developing Asian countries might arrive at arrangements for urban sanitation that can feasibly be sustained in the long term, as well as support sustainability in general.

  • Economic impacts of sanitation in Southeast Asia

    This study examines the major health, water, environmental, tourism and other welfare impacts associated with poor sanitation in Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam. The impact measurement reported in the study focuses mainly on a narrow definition of sanitation ? human excreta management and related hygiene practices. The measurement of water resource impact also includes grey water, and the measurement of environmental impact includes solid waste management.

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