Toilet, sanitation technology has to be affordable: RA Mashelkar

RA Mashelkar, eminent scientist and Chairman of Technology Expert Committee for Drinking Water and Sanitation, has said that toilet and sanitation technology has to be affordable and scalable, since a very large number of toilets (12 crore)  is expected to be built in a short span of time.

“It is not just about ‘building’ toilets but it is also about ‘using’ toilets with focus on sustainability for many years. It is not merely toilet engineering – but it is social engineering and system engineering. The recommendations of the social innovations will lead to the mass transformation of mindsets so that socially sustainable changes will be effected in the shortest time possible”, he elaborated.

Addressing over 200 toilet and sanitation technology innovators, researchers, social workers, corporate foundations’ leaders and think tanks at the second Global Sanitation Summit, Awards and Exhibition “sanitation for all-toilet first” organised by India CSR Group in Pune on November 27, Mashlekar said that we should be using best and innovative technology with a focus to create affordable, scalable, easily deployable and sustainable toilet facilities for the masses.

The idea of ‘affordable excellence’ is that our country needs to support Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. He appreciated the India CSR’s mission to create a high level forum brining all key stakeholders on one common platform regularly.

The forum also honoured innovators who developed various affordable, innovative, sustainable toilet design, technologies and organizations for building toilets and promote advocacy to accelerate the Sanitation movement in the different part of the country. The first summit was held in New Delhi on February 6, 2015.