National Urban Sanitation Policy
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
16:56 IST
Government has identified 100% sanitation as a goal during the 11th Five
Year Plan. The ultimate objective is that all urban dwellers will have access
to and be able to use safe and hygienic sanitation facilities and arrangements
so that no one defecates in the open.
The vision of the policy is that all Indian cities and towns
become totally sanitised, healthy and liveable and ensure and sustain good
public health and environmental outcomes for all their citizens with a special
focus on hygienic and affordable sanitation facilities for the urban poor and
women. The focus of the Policy is on Awareness Generation and Behavioural
Change by generating awareness about sanitation and its linkages with public
and environmental health amongst communities and institutions and also
promoting mechanisms to bring about and sustain behavioural changes aimed at
adoption of healthy sanitation practices;
In order to achieve this goal, the following activities shall be
undertaken:
Promoting access to households with safe sanitation facilities (including
proper disposal arrangements);
Promoting community-planned and managed toilets wherever necessary,
for groups of households who have constraints of space, tenure or economic
constraints in gaining access to individual facilities;
Adequate availability and 100 % upkeep and management of Public Sanitation
facilities in all Urban Areas, to rid them of open defecation and environmental
hazards;
Integrated City Wide Sanitation
Re-orienting Institutions and mainstreaming Sanitation by
Mainstreaming thinking, planning and implementing measures related to
sanitation in all sectors and departmental domains as a cross-cutting issue,
especially in all urban management endeavours;
Strengthening national, state, city and local institutions (public, private and
community) to accord priority to sanitation provision, including planning,
implementation and Operation & Maintenance (O&M) management;
Extending access to proper sanitation facilities for poor communities and other
un-served settlements;
Sanitary and Safe Disposal
100 % of human excreta and liquid wastes from all sanitation facilities
including toilets must be disposed-off safely. In order to achieve this goal,
the following activities shall be undertaken:
Promoting proper functioning of network-based sewerage systems and ensuring
connections of households to them, wherever possible;
Promoting recycle and reuse of treated waste water for non-potable
applications, wherever possible, will be encouraged.
Promoting proper disposal and treatment of sludge from on-site installations
(septic tanks, pit latrines, etc.);
Ensuring that all the human wastes are collected safely confined and
disposed-off after treatment so as not to cause any hazard to public health or
the environment;
Proper Operation and Maintenance of all Sanitary Installations:
Promoting proper usage, regular upkeep and maintenance of household, community
and public sanitation facilities;
Strengthening Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) to provide or cause to provide,
sustainable sanitation services delivery
For achievement of the above goals, the government will support
the following:
States will be encouraged to prepare State Level Sanitation Strategies within
a period of 2 years. Cities will be urged to prepare model City Sanitation
Plans within a period of 2 years. Each state shall formulate its own State
Urban Sanitation Strategy taking into account its local urban context. Cities
will operationalize the state strategy by preparing and implementing City
Sanitation Plans. The states will also be encouraged to formulate State Reward
Schemes. A state level apex body will monitor the implementation of the state
strategy, and a nodal agency will be appointed for planning and implementation.
Each state and its cities would need to devise effective institutional
arrangements at the city level. However, the ULB's (or their equivalent
structures) must be at the centre of all urban sanitation activities.
Providing assistance for the preparation of Detailed Project Report (DPR) as
per city sanitation plan as and when requests for funding are received;
Promote public-private partnership in respect of key projects/activities
identified in the city sanitation plan;
Provide technical assistance and support for awareness generation and capacity
building to states and cities within this financial year;
Periodic rating of all Class 1 cities (423) in respect of Sanitation and
recognition of best performers by instituting a National Award within this
financial year; The award scheme will take into account output related
parameters such as complete elimination of open defecation, elimination of open
scavenging and personal protection to sanitary workers, safe collection and
disposal of total human excreta, recycling and reuse of treated wastewater for
non-potable applications, efficient and safe management of storm water and
solid waste management, process related parameters such as monitoring and
evaluation, observance of proper O&M practices, clear assignment of
institutional responsibilities, sanctions for deviance on the part of polluters
and outcome related parameters such as improved quality of drinking water,
reduction in water borne diseases etc. On the basis of the rating scheme,
cities will be classified as Red, Black, Blue and Green which would denote and
increasing level of achievement of good environmental and health outcomes.
A National Advisory Group on Urban Sanitation (NAGUS) will be
convened by the Ministry of Urban Development. It will be broad based and will
include representatives of the Ministries of Health, Social Justice and
Empowerment, Housing and Urban Poverty alleviation, Water resources, external
experts and representatives of State Governments National Advisory Group on
Urban Sanitation will assist the Ministry of Urban Development in implementing
the National Policy.Ministry of Urban development will set apart resources to
the extent of Rs 50 crore over a five year period for activities such as
National awareness generation campaign, Rating and National award scheme,
Capacity building and training ,State level strategies and sample City
Sanitation Plans (CSPs) and the National Advisory group on Urban sanitation
The year 2008 has been declared the International year of
Sanitation by the United Nations. The focus will be on raising awareness of the
importance of sanitation and its impact on achieving the millennium development
goals from three perspectives i.e hygiene, household sanitation and waste
water, encouraging state governments and districts to promote and implement
policies and actions for meeting the sanitation target and mobilising
communities towards changing sanitation and hygiene practices through
sanitation and health education campaigns.
30.66 million urban households which form 35.49% of the urban
households suffer inadequate access to sanitation facilities. 7.87% households
defecate in the open, 5.48% use community latrines and 19.49% use shared
latrines. More than 37% of the human excreta generated is unsafely disposed.
The percentage of notified and non-notified slums without latrines is 17% and
51% respectively. The National Urban Sanitation Policy approved by the Cabinet
on last Friday has been conceived taking these factors into consideration.
TFK/Hb/46
