Chennai: The recent Chennai floods, described as the worst in the city in a century, helped residents see the need for pre-positioning and being prepared for an emergency.
The devastation served as an eye-opener for all to look for new options and innovations available with regard to safe water, sanitation and hygiene.
Though many organisations and agencies have already been working on better toilet and drinking water facilities, the floods proved that more preparation was required for the residents.
With this in mind, VIT Centre for Disaster Mitigation and Unicef came together to organise the Wash (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) 2016 expo. It aimed at holding discussions and keeping the floor open to ideas with regard to enabling Tamil Nadu to become an ‘open defecation’ free state.
As the Sustainable Development Goal in post 2015 agenda targets at ensuring access to safe drinking water and sanitation to all, the expo was opened as a platform for stakeholders, NGOs, departments of corporation and others to discuss various solutions to problems of Wash.
“There are two kinds of toilets that the public is aware of — the standard toilet and the leach pit. However, these two cannot be comfortably used in all regions especially where there is less water, or if the region falls on rocky, coastal areas.
This is one of the main reasons why people prefer open defecation,” said chief, Unicef for the states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, Job Zachariah. A panel discussion of members from different agencies, was held with panelists describing the use and functioning of each of their innovations.
