Times News Network, October 2, 2002

Novel Project brings better toilets to Sangli slums.
Sangli/Pune: Thanks to a novel public health initiative involving slum dwellers and various agencies, besides international funding worth Rs.16lakhs, 25 new pay-and- use toilet blocks will be inaugurated in two Sangli slums on Gandhi Jayanti. The initiative brings convenience, biogas power and drainage facilities, hitherto unknown to slum dwellers at the Sangliwadi slum in Sangli and Tasgaon Ves slum in Miraj. Pune- based NGO Shelter Associates (SA), the Sangli-Miraj-Kupwad Municipal Corporation, local media and slum dwellers who supervised the construction of the toilet blocks and provided unskilled labour, have all contributed to making the project a reality, said Pratima Joshi of SA. Sangli based NGO Shiv-Sadan provided support for the construction, she added. Joshi told TNN that the project was funded by Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and FORD foundation through the Institute on Governance (IOG), which has funded similar projects in Nepal and Sri Lanka. The IOG was originally keen on funding a slum rehabilitation project at the Kamgar Putala slums in Pune. But with the Pune Municipal Corporation failing to pursue the project, the IOG allocated Rs. 16 lakhs for the Sangli slums. Joshi revealed that while the forum was formed in Sangli to execute the project early this year, the construction began in May and was completed in August. Around 60000 people live in 99 slums in the municipal limits, out of which 78 slums have no toilet facilities. After the success of the pilot project, similar projects are expected to be taken up in other slums. Each family in the slum will have to deposit Rs. 20 per month in a bank for the use of toilets. A committee of nine residents will monitor the functioning. A soil-based bio-gas plant has been constructed at the blocks. No drainage lines have been laid. "The caretaker family will get free cooking gas from the plant, besides accommodation," she explained.