Holistic WASH in India

In May 2016,  we of Engineering for Hope (EFH) began a 1 year (at least) project to bring holistic WASH to India.   In the world's largest democracy,  769 million of its 1.2 billion people don't have access to improved sanitation.   Over half the population lives on less than $2/day and 14% of the rural population have no latrine.

The toilets they have in the big city where we stayed flush untreated to a large lake that smells like a sewer.  Beset with a drought, anal washing is the norm.   This is a particular travesty for rural people:  it is a hygiene issue for people with no soap; it doubles the sewage volume; and, it contaminates limited water supplies. Further, it precludes the use of conventional, inexpensive latrines like pit latrines.   Not only that, but it is a country with widespread excess fluorine, arsenic, and nitrates in their dwindling ground water supplies. 

We  probably can't change the anal washing issue, but we think we have inexpensive sanitation and safe water solutions for rural people.   However, in the week we spent in  country it became clear that there is a lot of promotion needed before we let them "discover" the solutions to their problems..  (see picture of a member of our partner team already teaching "disease paths" in a rural village.)  If that isn't enough to keep EFH busy, it appears we will start up a similar project in Indonesia later this year   We'd love for some NGO partners  or volunteers to step up and join with us on these projects.   We could use help in developing curriculum and in managing the project from the USA as well as future trip participation.