Project

Project Objectives

• Conduct a comprehensive WASH related risk analysis and human health impacts in clusters of slums in Kolkata and in Chennai.
• Develop and implement participatory intervention strategies in select urban areas that engage all potential stakeholders and facilitate adoption of measures to reduce WASH related risks, trigger behavioural changes, and support long-term participatory interaction among stakeholders.
• Build and catalyse requisite capacities in faculty, students, and decision makers to help address the challenges related to sanitation and health and their engagement in action research with the intent of finding replicable solutions to the sanitation problems.

Activities

Activities planned to achieve Project objectives are as under:

Potential benefits of activities proposed in the Project include:

• Comprehensive understanding of the community dynamics and behaviour
• Develop awareness campaigns and training material for teachers (trainers) in nearby community schools
• Increased awareness, excellence in research and practices in India in the WASH area, including expertise, services, knowledge and innovation in sanitation.
• Increased institutional contacts between Universities, several government agencies, NGOs and industry
• Awareness of good WASH practices at home and workplace
• Long-term knowledge transfer gained from student –faculty led research in water and sanitation sector and
• Contribution to providing solutions to a pressing and highly relevant global problem.

Project Dissemination

Project activities with stakeholders (urban community, experts and the policy makers), project process, and the results will be communicated and disseminated variously. For different stakeholders, different kinds of dissemination mechanisms will be utilized. Details are as under:

• Urban Community: Formal and informal interactions, designing and implementing interventions even after the project duration.
• Local Government: Individual and group interactions, training of health care personnel, newsletter articles.
• Policy Makers: Policy dialogues, presentations/participation in workshop, newsletter articles, strategy notes based on results.
• Development Organizations: Technical reports on urban WASH situation; interactions through dialogues, website postings, newsletter articles.
• Scientific Community: Involvement in peer reviews; publish articles in reputed journals; presentation in workshops/conferences; and website postings.

Besides targeted dissemination, the research results will also be widely disseminated through individual websites of the partner organizations. In addition, annual newsletter will be used to disseminate the “learning” from the research processes and findings.

Monitoring and Evaluation

Regular monitoring and evaluation of the Project will be carried out in order to assess the milestones achieved as per the desired plan. During the Project, on-going monitoring and evaluation will be integrated into the strategy as part of an iterative and reflective process.

Expected Outcomes

With support from USAID the Project partners expect to make perceptible change in the thinking of various stakeholders, including policy planners and grass-root level implementers. The change created through the Project will facilitate other universities learn and replicate the coursework in their respective curriculum, thus creating awareness and building capacity catering to a larger audience. Once established, synergies with existing networks and programmes on WASH in the country would be explored and possible linkages would be developed.

Policy Brief : 'Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) towards cleaning India-A Policy perspective'

Faecal Sludge Management: Policies, Practices and Possibilities

Curriculum Development Workshop on 21-23 June 2017

'A Strategy Paper for integrating WASH in Higher education'

Report

State of Urban Water and Sanita