Let Us WASH And Clean India With Some Noble Initiatives

By Jaideep Khanduja @PebbleInWaters
India is a country of varied seasons, cultures and languages. Each state has its own unique way of living, so has each of the communities living in India. The geographic locations contain varied and extreme of the conditions. Kashmir, on the top of North, has an extreme cold during the year. As we start rolling down the map, the chilling weather duration starts decreasing while reaching to Delhi. The coastal cities have different definitions of winter. Then there is the desert of Jaisalmer, a city in Rajasthan where water is scarcity. The cities in a neighborhood of rivers are always under the threat of floods. On the other hand, there are cities where there are tolls every year due to extremities of winter or summer.

Under such varied conditions of India, it is very important to educate locals regarding hydration, importance of water, and sanitation. Water is a valuable natural resource and we all must respect it in terms of proper usage. Drinking water needs to be hygienic, pure and free of impurities. Places with a scarcity of water need rainwater harvesting. Similarly, places with an abundance of water need better water harnessing techniques to save lives. People living in urban areas, especially remote village, still have no proper sanitation. People there still drink unhygienic water. Unhygienic conditions cause so many diseases that spread fast and cause devastating results.

To make families, society on the whole understand the importance of hydration, water and sanitation, it is important for us to learn about the WASH program jointly initiated by TERI (The Energy and Resource Institute) University, USAID (US Agency for International Development), and Coca-Cola. The program focuses on Strengthening Water, Hygiene and Sanitation conditions in Urban India. WASH is nothing but the short form of Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene. The target of this program is to bring awareness among 50,000 individuals or families that fall under low-income segment. It also aims to include 300 professionals to spread the initiative in a faster manner, through WASH governance studies. There will also be around 2,500 students that will get a proper education of WASH. These students will be picked from 20 municipal schools across India. 

To develop and implement the initiative of strengthening water and sanitation in Urban Settings will benefit the low income settlements of slums of Chennai and Kolkata.