Mathur Ritika Passi

sanitation. Regarding the former, the goal
is to ensure safe drinking water access
to 70 litres per capita daily within the
premises of every rural household. 23
Regarding sanitation, the strategy sets
specific goals for creating completely
sanitised environments, adopting improved
hygienic behaviour, and managing solid
and liquid wastes by 2017. 24 Important
additions in these revised strategies include
the focus on changing social norms,
prioritising wastewater management,
executing rigorous impact assessment and
monitoring, and enhancing institutional
capacities.
Recognising the Challenges
Both strategic documents addresses several
challenges that obstruct provision of safe
and clean drinking water to all, and the
creation of fully sanitised environments.
These are well known. The national review
of Eleventh Five Year Plan performance,
assessment and recommendations made by
international and national civil societies
has helped the government recognise and
overcome prevalent problems by broadly
focusing on two inter-related group of
constraints: First, structural and physical,
and second, socio-cultural.
Structural constraints cover infrastructural,
financial and administrative challenges to
meet the twin objectives. The review of
the 11th Plan states the “growing problem
of slipback” in areas with full coverage of
drinking water. Said slipback is caused by
unavailability of water due to decreasing
groundwater tables, pollution and an
increasing demand given a burgeoning
population. 25 Some areas experience
natural contamination due to geogenic
leaching, while others face threats due to
industrial pollution and poorly managed
water sources. 26 Sanitation also suffers
from infrastructural deficits, including userfriendly
toilets as well as waste disposal
systems. Technical inadequacies, such as
poor quality of installation, dysfunctional
toilets, lack of water and improper disposal
or treatment facilities, have discouraged
users in areas with reported full coverage.
Operation and maintenance are mostly
compromised due to lack of capacity and
training. As a result, some of the fully
covered areas have resorted back to open
defecation.
Lack of coordinated management and
unintegrated planning affects both water
and sanitation goals. For instance, in the
absence of proper wastewater treatment or
solid waste disposal processes, groundwater
quality is affected by leaching or open pits/
drains. This, in turn, reduces availability of
water for both drinking and maintaining
toilets. The challenge is convoluted and
requires a pragmatic approach. Dealing
with such technical and infrastructural
discrepancies also requires huge financial
and administrative support. Innovative
models of financing and technological
advancements are needed, along with
other complimentary efforts to sustain the
momentum of change.
Future changes in the demography and
increasing environmental uncertainties
compounded by climate change require
resilient infrastructure and flexible
governance strategies. The size of
households is declining, 27 and may further
reduce with increasing urbanisation
and change in societal structure. Would
this mean more toilets per household?
What would be the infrastructural, land
and financial implications of such a
demographic change? What kind of threat
would a changing climate pose on the
availability of water and the infrastructure
providing water and sanitation?
The second group of challenges relate to
socio-cultural norms, beliefs, entitlements
and distributional politics. As the 11th
Plan review indicates, targets for water
and sanitation have also slipped in the
past due to social exclusion, caste-based
discrimination in access to water, and
age-old norms regarding open defecation.
Special monitoring programmes, dedicated
funds and planning tools, such as
Geographic Information System mapping,
have been employed to cater to minorityconcentrated
districts under the NRDWP.
However, such problems continue to
persist. Technological fixes for social
problems are insufficient and demands
radical socio-political change.
Despite various campaigns and awareness
movements, open defecation in particular
remains a challenge. Coffey et al.’s study,
analysing attitudes towards open defecation
in Northern India, revealed several
“irrational” reasons why people defecate
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