Facing water sanitation practices in rural India

- Nearly 200000 children die each year due to water sanitation illnesses.

- Heeals is implementing several WASH programs in Uttar Pradesh, New Delhi and Gurgaon.

When we speak of an inadequate state of water sanitation and sanitary conditions in schools and health centers, we speak of the great example of India. The largest democracy in the world (1300 million inhabitants) where nearly 200,000 children die each year due to severe diarrhea. The World Bank estimates that 21% of communicable diseases in India are related to unsafe water and lack of hygiene practices.

Currently, 1 out of 7 people, or 946 million people in the whole world, practice open defecation. Of those who do, 9 out of 10 live in rural areas. Globally, India has the largest number of people in the world still defecating in the open: almost 600 million people.One of the TARGETS of the Sustanaible Development Goals (SDG’s) by 2030, is to achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and end open defecation, paying special attention to the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations.

                                                                                 ©Heeals

Despite the fact that the number of schools with separate toilet facilities for girls has increased from 0,4 million in 2005-2006 to 1,36 million in 2012-2013, the number is still very low.According to the United Nations, women and girls are responsible for water collection in 80% of households without access to water on premises.

Improving sanitation is a key priority of Heeals Developing Community Network, which is implementing several WASH programs in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Haryana, encouraging the community to practice proper hand wash patterns to decrease illnesses caused by unhealthy water conditions. Heeals will launch a campaign of crowdfunding for distributing hand soaps in some schools in western Uttar Praddesh.

Join us to reach our target, we need your help!

Jorge Latorre

Source : 

 United Nations report about “SDG nº6: Clean Water and Sanitation”. http://in.one.un.org/page/sustainable-development-goals/sdg-6/

2 World Bank report about “Waterlife: Improving Access to Safe Drinking Water in India”. Madhapur, Hi Tech City, Hyderabad, India 2017. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/586371495104964514/pdf/115133-WP-P152203-PUBLIC-17-5-2017-12-28-1-WaterlifeCaseApril.pdf

3 United Nations report about “Sustainable Development Goal 6”. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg6