India is shining a spotlight on sanitation: Bill Gates
Congratulating the Modi government for "shining a light on sanitation," Bill Gates, Microsoft co-founder and co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), said India must now use innovations and technology to build on Swachh Bharat Mission's success. He also emphasized improving sewage processing capabilities and generating zero-waste. "The Indian Government is to be congratulated for putting a focus on sanitation," he said.
Poor sanitation causes chronic malnutrition
The number of deaths of children under five years has declined to 802,000 in 2017 from over one million in 2015. 88% of childhood diarrhea, which also leads to chronic malnutrition, lowered immunity, and frequent and potentially fatal infections, such as pneumonia and tuberculosis, is caused by poor sanitation. Gates also pointed to the numbers to emphasize the need for good sanitation.
Sanitation is not a topic everyone would talk about
"The current government's really shining the light on sanitation, that's not very common, it's not a topic people want to talk about very much," Gates said at the Goalkeepers event in New York that showcased the efforts made to meet the UN's sustainable development goals.
India needs new approaches to sanitation: Gates
Since Swachh Bharat's launch in 2014, over 86.6 million toilets have been built in India, with 513 districts and 25 states having been declared open defecation free. Now, India needs to focus on using innovative new technologies for efficient sewage processing and management. India needs new approaches to sanitation, including processing the millions of tons of fecal sludge discharged untreated into the environment.
India and China now have better processing equipment: Gates
"In urban areas, simply digging a pit doesn't work and you don't want to dump it (fecal sludge) into the river, you want to run it through processing. So, through partners, particularly in India and China, we now have much better processing equipment," Gates said
Even Melinda Gates was impressed with Swachh Bharat Abhiyan
Melinda Gates, the co-founder of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has also written a blog post in the Times Of India assessing the Swachh Bharat Mission and recalling her experiences while traveling in Khunti village in Jharkhand. She said that the huge success of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan was its ability to combine toilets and waste treatment with community mobilization.
