WaterAid has worked in India since 1986 helping the country's poorest people gain access to safe, sustainable water supplies and sanitation.  

We work with local partner organizations, who understand local issues, to implement practical projects as well as campaign locally and nationally to change governmental water and sanitation policies.  

India has a huge and diverse population, with vast divides between rich and poor.  Just 15% of the rural population has access to a toilet - meaning that some 21 million people need to gain access to basic sanitation every year if the UN's Millennium Development Goal of halving the proportion of people without sanitation by 2015 is to be met.

Projects focus on promoting sanitation among the rural poor by creating a demand for latrines. When communities learn a lack of adequate clean water and sanitation facilities fuels disease their raised understanding of basic hygiene inspires them to develop their own solutions.

Achievements to date

• To date WaterAid has helped more than 2.8 million people in India to gain access to safe water
• With WaterAid's assistance 277 villages and 23 urban slums have been declared free of open defecation
• In 2006/7 WaterAid helped more than 1,000 schools provide safe water, sanitation and hygiene education to 80,000 schoolchildren

WaterAid currently works across 10 Indian states, with a combined population of 249 million.

While official statistics show that a high proportion of the population has access to safe water, one of the country's biggest problems is a lack of resources to maintain vital water supplies.

Wherever possible, WaterAid assists local partner organizations and its communities to restore existing water facilities and train community members to become handpump mechanics so they can repair future problems themselves.

In rural projects, WaterAid and its partners assists villages to gain access to water and sanitation from the Government. They then train villagers to maintain the new infrastructure and set up village water and sanitation committees to manage the projects in a way that involves all the community and promotes good hygiene.

WaterAid also helps the rural poor to put forward their views in village governing bodies such as the Gram Sabha (a village level forum for decision making) and Panchayats (local government) so that their concerns over water and sanitation are raised.

The problems in urban areas are more complex.  As cities and towns become more developed the poorer slum and squatter settlements where the majority live are being pushed further to the periphery.  Inhabitants of these areas have no legal right to their land and therefore no legal rights to water and sanitation services.

With the Indian Government increasingly delegating responsibility for utility provision to the Panchayats, whose structures vary greatly from state to state, WaterAid is required to individualize its approach.  Urban governance, management of utilities, bankrupt municipalities in small towns, costly infrastructure and the lack of waste management are all major challenges that need to be faced.

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