Drinking ,Water and Sanitation- Part II

[Binay kumar gupta]

More people die from inadequate sanitation-related causes in India everyday than 10 aeroplanes filled with 200 people each. This has high economic costs. Therefore, achieving adequate sanitation  is an imperative.Lack of adequate sanitation in India resulted in an annual loss of $53.8 billion ($161 billion in purchasing power parity, or PPP) or $48 per capita ($144 in PPP) in 2006, the year of evaluation in the report. This was equivalent to 6.4% of GDP in 2006. 

Most of these losses were related to health (71.7%; $38.5 billion), and mostly concentrated in children below five years. Other quantified economic losses from inadequate sanitation in this report relate to getting access to cleaner drinking water, time losses from not having access to sanitation, and tourism-related losses.

Based on international evidence, even locally-implemented toilet and hygiene interventions could have saved $32.6 billion, equivalent to 3.9% of GDP annually; a potential gain of $29 per capita.

What is the estimated potential size of the sanitation market until 2020, if goals for sanitation stated by government are achieved (household and community toilets, sewage treatment infrastructure, and operations and maintenance)? The annual national toilet and sewage treatment market is estimated at over $6.6 billion annually, with cumulative market during 2007-20 at over $152 billion.

Of the cumulative market, $97 billion, or 64%, can potentially be in infrastructure and $54 billion, or 36%, in operations and maintenance services. In this context, it is clear that government funds allocated to sanitation fall far short of the finances needed to achieve goals stated in government documents.

[Dr. SUDHIR KUMAR PANDA]

Thanks for the information shared.

[GOPI KANTA GHOSH]

Absolutely correct