Archive for sanitation

This story originally appeared in the September 2011 edition of the Searchlight South Asia newsletter created by Intellecap for the Rockefeller Foundation.

By Carlin Carr

Bangladesh’s capital city of Dhaka exhibits South Asia’s rapid urbanization in its most frenzied state. With over 14 million residents and more than one million commuters to the city every day, Dhaka is said to be the fastest growing city in the world. The trend is expected to continue: estimates predict that by 2025, the city’s population could swell to 20 million—that’s larger than Mexico City, Beijing or Shanghai. Concerns over this growth abound. About 32% of the population in Dhaka is considered poor, with about the same percentage living in slums. As the city is estimated to grow, most new migrants will likely move to these informal settlements. » Continue reading “Public Toilet Disaster in Dhaka”

This story originally appeared in the August 2011 edition of the Searchlight South Asia newsletter created by Intellecap for the Rockefeller Foundation.

By Carlin Carr

India’s growing middle class has access to more goods, services and products than ever before. This new consumerism heaped atop rapid urbanization has left municipalities with an issue much less glamorous than the new malls, grocery stores and mega-shops dotting the cities. Massive solid waste accumulation has become an overwhelming environmental, health and aesthetic hazard for urban areas. Mumbai, for example, generates nearly 7,025 tons of waste on a daily basis, according to the Bombay Csommunity Public Trust. Yet, as the study points out, this trash is from officially recognized areas of the city and likely leaves out thousands more tons from informal slums. » Continue reading “Partnering with the Poor for Waste Management in Pune”

Beyond Profit spoke to Sameer Kalwani, Chief Technology Officer of Sankalp 2010 winner Sarvajal, about its technological advancements and measuring social impact.

What has being a Sankalp winner meant to Sarvajal?

Winning Sankalp 2010′s Health, Water, and Sanitation Award for an Emerging Enterprise has aided Sarvajal in two ways. Being a young organization, we wanted to make sure we were moving in the right direction. Gaining the approval of Sankalp’s experienced judging panel reaffirmed our business model. The questions the panel posed also helped us adjust our methodologies, getting us closer to a sustainable, scalable solution that encourages the spread of clean water throughout India. What made the outcome even more beneficial was the network that emerged out of winning the award. After Sankalp we were able to establish a couple of partnerships that have helped us bring our solutions to other parts of India that we were not operating in before.

» Continue reading “Why We Measure Impact”

Nilekani talked to Beyond Profit about her work in education, the next big issue in social enterprise in India and her session at the Sankalp Forum.

What do you hope comes out of your Indian impact investing sessions at Sankalp?

I hope I do a good job, of course. Certainly, I will learn much. Will it impact on creating new impact investors? Well, I hope it can deepen a debate.

In 2007, you said primary education in India was at a tipping point. Has it tipped?

Several milestones have been crossed since 2007. The RTE (Right to Education) is in place, the Ministry of HRD (Human Resource Development) has become active about the next level of education – secondary and tertiary. There is a clear governmental priority for quality of outcomes at all levels. Many nonprofit organizations and also for-profit entities remain very active. Best of all, parents are making smart choices for themselves on education for their children wherever they can. As always in India, you can do all that and there still remain formidable challenges. But I still maintain we have won the battle of ideas on primary education. Almost all children of this and future generations will complete primary school. We have to keep making sure they get their time’s worth and the joy of learning they deserve. » Continue reading “The Battle of Ideas”

This story originally appeared in our March 10, 2011 e-magazine. Click here to subscribe.

Tanclean has developed the first scientific process for ensuring that drinking water tanks in India are sanitary.

When Sunil Uplap saw filthy-looking men smoking cigarettes climb into a drinking-water tank in an up-market residential area of Pune, he was shocked to realize they were actually cleaning the tank.

After that, Uplap immediately began work on developing a safe and scientific way to clean drinking water tanks.

A few years later, Tanclean was born. Tanclean is the first scientific method for cleaning tanks that uses cleaning machines and a specially developed anti-bacterial agent which is biodegradable, eco-friendly and safe. The entire process is done within 60 minutes and lasts for 90 days. » Continue reading “Clean the Tanclean Way”

There’s no doubt that improving access to sanitation is one of the most important development efforts in developing countries—nearly half the world’s population does not have access to proper sanitation, and diarrhea kills 5,000 children a day. But a definitive way to achieve that access has yet to be found. What works in one place doesn’t work in another.

A few months ago, I wrote about a city in Nepal that requires residents to carry proof of a functioning toilet to apply for citizenship or to vote. » Continue reading “Does sanitation justify negative consequences?”

This post is part of our ongoing partnership with GOOD Magazine. Post by Alex Goldmark of GOOD Magazine.

Sometimes you can take two problems, add them together, and get a win-win solution. In this case, here are the two problems: First, as cities expand we create more waste and more sewage, and we don’t have any really good plan for it. And second, we keep making more and more plastic that never goes away, filling landfills or swimming in oceanic garbage patches. So, what’s the natural solution? Why not turn the poop into plastic that biodegrades? Simple, right? Actually, yes. It turns out it is.

Ryan Smith is CTO of Micromidas, and he turns poop into plastic for a living. “We take raw sewage from a waste water treatment plant and we convert it to biodegradable plastic.” He says it is “just a series of tanks, nothing complicated or fancy about it. Nothing that is technically too difficult.” That’s because he gets bacteria to do the hard work for him, and that’s the novelty of his product. Finding the bacteria, and mixing them up into the right combination, that’s a different story. » Continue reading “Bioplastic Made from Poop, for a Profit”

After a trip to Pakistan in May, Beyond Profit has created a multi-part series, The Other Side of Pakistan, about a side of the country you may not have heard about before. We look forward to your comments and questions.

If there is a Guinness World Record for Largest Slum in Asia, Karachi would take home a blue ribbon by a technicality—its Orangi Pilot Project (OPP), a “katchi abadi” or squatter camp, on the outskirts of the city, houses 1.4 million, and thus edges out Mumbai’s Dharavi by a few hundred thousand. But, it’s not entirely correct to call it a slum. Over the past thirty years, through the work of the team that runs the OPP, this settlement has transformed into an area with concrete multi-story housing, electricity, and working sanitation systems, all through a bottom-up participatory approach that empowers the local community.

In the early 80s, Orangi was just a squatter settlement of several hundred thousand. Back then, you could have called it a slum, and you would have been right. But, the development folks that took it upon themselves to tackle Orangi noticed that the people were already getting their hands dirty trying to put things in order. Without the help of the government, or anyone else for that matter, the community members were trying to make their own sewer lines. Can you imagine? » Continue reading “The Other Side of Pakistan: Orangi Pilot Project”

For several years, there has been more dialogue about using microfinance institution networks for water and sanitation loans. “WaterCredit,” as it is called, has been pioneered by Water.org (formerly Water Partners). On Friday, in Chennai, WaterCredit experts, users, and facilitators came together to discuss where the WaterCredit space stands, the progress made to date, and the scope for WaterCredit provision in the future.

The Need
There is no doubt about the need. Around the world, 900 million people lack access to clean water; 2.6 billion lack access to sanitation. In India, 130 million people are without clean water and 840 million people lack access to proper sanitation.  Of the total, 90% of the Watsan burden is borne by women. Not to mention, the poor pay an unbelievable 12 times what the rich pay for a single liter of water. Why? The poor often don’t see the benefits of infrastructure improvements, which is where most of the subsidies go.

Piloting the Concept
Several MFIs have been trying out a new product in the hopes of meeting their clients water and sanitation needs. BASIX entered into a partnership with Water Partners several years ago in an effort to gain insight into the technical and financial feasibility of microcredit products to » Continue reading “WaterCredit: Pilot Results Revealed”

A scene from our Big Squat