Programme to flush away poverty in Indian city launches at Global Citizen Festival

H&M Conscious Foundation and Practical Action have announced a new $1.3M project to bring clean water and safe sanitation to one of the poorest communities in India.

Khurda city, Odisha, has a population of 45,000. In its slums 94% of households don’t have a toilet. There is no city sewerage system and sludge waste collected from septic tanks is tipped into the public drains, causing blockages and flooding.

Open defecation (toileting in fields, roadsides or by train tracks) is common. Women are forced to walk to dark and dangerous locations to find private areas to relieve themselves where they are vulnerable to attack. It is also a major public health risk.

H&M Conscious Foundation has teamed up with Practical Action to tackle the sanitation crisis in Khurda by building a sludge treatment plant to turn faecal waste in the city into biogas for cooking and compost for farming. Waste water will also be collected and treated. Rainwater harvesting and water filtering technologies will be introduced to provide clean water.

The partnership was launched on Saturday (26 September) at the Global Citizen Festival in New York, an event scheduled to coincide with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Summit where the Global Goals to end extreme poverty and hunger will be adopted.

The Global Citizen Festival was attended by over a dozen world leaders, a star-studded line up of musicians and celebrity hosts including Pearl Jam, Beyonce, Coldplay, Ed Sheeran, Hugh JackmanandSalma Hayek atCentral Park. The free-ticketed concert called for accelerated progress to end extreme poverty on behalf of millions of people who live without safe water and toilets.

Today, 2.5 billion people live without access to a toilet, forcing people to defecate by rivers, roadsides, in fields or alleyways. Attacks on girls and women as they look for somewhere to relieve themselves is frighteningly common.

The practice of open defecation pollutes waterways and spreads diseases. Every day, around 1,800 die from diarrhoea, brought about because of a lack of access to basic sanitation, clean water and hygiene services. Research estimates that putting an end to open defecation would see this figure drop by more than a third.

The three-year programme will transform the lives of people like Tillotama Sahu, a 35-year-old mother of two, who lives in a slum in Khurda.

Her family doesn’t have piped water or access to a toilet. Instead, they share an open well with five other families for cooking, cleaning and drinking, and use a plot of land 500 metres from their house as a toilet. Mrs Sahu and her daughter only go there in the early morning and evening to avoid being seen, but this exposes them to attacks by cobras.

“The need for better sanitation in the developing world is clear,” added Simon Trace, CEO of Practical Action. “By improving how we deal with human waste, we can save lives, improve child health and ensure greater dignity and personal safety, particularly women and children.

“We are incredibly proud to team up with the H&M Conscious Foundation to make a life-long difference for 45,000 of the world’s poorest people by providing safe water and sanitation.”

“The setup of this project is indeed impressive; introducing pioneering approaches using innovative technology within human waste management and at the same time focusing on community buy-in and behavioral change,” said Maria Bystedt, Acting Global Manager, H&M Conscious Foundation, an independent non-profit global foundation initiated by H&M to drive long-lasting positive change for people and communities.

For further information, please contact Andy Heath, Practical Action Media Officer, on 01926 634552 or 07780 884267.

Notes for editors:

The H&M Conscious Foundation is an independent non-profit global foundation, initiated by H&M.

The mission of the Foundation is to drive long lasting positive change and improve living conditions by investing in people, communities and innovative ideas.

Through partnerships with experienced organizations around the globe, the Foundation now drives change within the three focus areas Education, Clean Water and Strengthening Women.