Partners WaterAid India

Our role in
Saamuhika Shakti

WaterAid India focuses on providing access to safe drinking water and improved sanitation for waste picker communities by building awareness, creating evidence of exclusion and liaising with the government.

What we do

WaterAid is an international not-for-profit, determined to make clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene normal for everyone, everywhere within a generation. Only by tackling these three essentials, in ways that last, can people change their lives for good.

How we do it

WaterAid India recognises that providing just physical infrastructure - toilets, water tanks and taps - is not enough. It needs to be combined with listening to what the community wants - for instance, preference for Indian-style toilets over western-style ones - and working with them to build, operate and maintain this infrastructure. Our intervention also includes raising awareness on good health practices such as washing hands, and on working against period taboos in the communities.

Activities and impact

Baseline surveys: Covering 13 slums in Bangalore to understand WASH status and gaps in these slums

Participatory social maps: Done in eight slums, GIS mapping of all institutions and WASH infrastructure done in 10 slums

Retrofitting/repairing toilets: Assets were handed over to the community in the localities of Sumanahalli and Cement Colony, making sanitation accessible to 984 people. A water supply system in Deshianagar installed, making water accessible at the household level to 277 people

Ensuring sustainability: WaterAid India helped with the formation of operations and maintenance committees at Sumanahalli, Cement Colony and Deshianagar - to make the community feel responsible for, and take ownership of, the WASH infrastructure

WASH Champions: Trained 80 people from different localities to become thought leaders on water, sanitation and health

Workshops and awareness: On Menstrual Hygiene Management for women and adolescent girls; celebrating Global Handwashing Day and World Toilet Day in intervention slums to create awareness

Government engagement: Made inroads in key government departments such as the Karnataka Slum Development Board, BBMP, and BWSSB

In the most recent reporting period, from October 2021 to March 2022, WaterAid finished building/repairing WASH infrastructure in input project locations, and began construction in two more project locations. The team has also engaged with government departments and community leaders to hold consultations, seek inputs and share project updates.