Tiruchy, 3 other Indian cities, selected for global sanitation initiative

As per the stated mission, CWIS cities will be expected to move towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) for sanitation to ensure safe, inclusive, and financially sustainable sanitation services.

The Tiruchy CWIS project, supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, will be guided by the city corporation, and delivered by a consortium of partners led by the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS). The other Indian cities selected are Narsapur in Andhra Pradesh, Warangal in Telangana and Wai in Maharashtra.

While the project aims to improve overall sanitation outcomes, authorities in Tiruchy are expected to also focus on improvement of service delivery to the poor. The project will attempt to complement existing initiatives such as Amrut, Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), Clean Tiruchy campaign, and Tiruchy home composting campaign.

Areas of intervention under the CWIS project include strengthening of systems, protocols and processes, delivery mechanism and capacity building. The programme will build partnerships with other government agencies for linking of government schemes to sanitary workers and availing the facilities of health awareness camps.

The CWIS programme will establish a non-governmental platform to engage with NGOs, academic institutions, civil society and the private sector. In addition, children in schools and colleges will be mobilized to work on the issue of sanitation.

The Tiruchy CWIS project builds on ongoing work done by the IIHS on urban sanitation in Tamil Nadu. The first phase of the programme adopted a two-pronged approach: working in two model urban locations to demonstrate city level transformations on-ground across the sanitation chain, while in parallel, creating an enabling environment, implementing state-wide actions, and scaling-up of innovations such as co-treatment and women monitored toilet models.