WORK OVERVIEW
Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) entered into a partnership with Department of Urban Development (DoUD), Government of Uttar Pradesh for ‘Support foreffective Septage Management in Uttar Pradesh’ in January 2018. CSE agreed to co-operate with DoUD to provide support for improvement in urban sanitation across the sanitation value chain in state-supported programmes, and provide technical support to select cities in Uttar Pradesh. CSE shall support state functionaries and ULBs plan and implement reforms for achieving effective septage management and city wide sanitation by facilitating the convergence of various national and state policies, plans, programmes and project implementation showcasing improvements across the urban sanitation value chain – containment, emptying, disposal, treatment and reuse/recycle, together with river pollution abatement.
SFD Promotion Initiative
Unreal in pampered India
With NDMC winning the smart city challenge, the contrast between where the government lives and where the rest of the citizens live could not have been more evident and striking
Clean Up Your Act: The State of Sanitation in India
Of the 1 billion people globally who have no toilet, India accounts for nearly 600 million.
How smart is a smart city?
Smart is as smart does. The NDA government’s proposal to build 100 “smart” cities will work only if it can reinvent the very idea of urban growth in a country like India. Smart thinking will require the government to not only copy the model cities of the already developed Western world, but also find a new measure of liveability that will work for Indian situation, where the cost of growth is unaffordable for most.
A tale of two cities
I travelled to two different cities in two different states last week—Indore and Guwahati. I came back with images identified by common distinctions: piles of garbage and glitzy new shopping malls. Is this our vision of urban development? There is no question that cities are imploding; growth is happening faster than we ever imagined. Construction is booming and expansion is gobbling agricultural land.
Public private prank
Growth is back on the agenda, says the government. It is hoping that with pushy announcements foreign and Indian investment will miraculously start pouring in and infrastructure will be the name of the game once again. But this assumption ignores one crucial detail: currently, public-private partnerships (PPPs) in infrastructure are on the cusp of disaster. The country needs a different strategy to build public services infrastructure.