In a bid to boost the “Clean India” drive in urban areas, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) will provide help in technology transfer, technical support, sharing of best sanitation practices and implementation and monitoring.
USAID on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding and the BMGF signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with the Urban Development Ministry in this regard. Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu and US Ambassador to India Richard Verma were present at the occasion.
The memoranda were signed in pursuance of the agreements reached during the summit meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Barack Obama in September.
USAID is likely to spend about $2 million per year on these activities. The BMGF did not specify the amount it intends to spend.
They are aimed at effective knowledge transfer and sharing of best practices for water and sanitation, and enabling faster delivery of services for 500 cities and towns.
Under this, USAID will assist in creating a profile consumer behaviour and identify behaviour changes relating to purchase of toilets and related services, besides developing targeted and creative messaging for behaviour changes to increase demand for toilets and supply of sanitation products and services.
USAID will provide broad-spectrum technical support to demonstrate a fully functional sanitation system encompassing containment, collection, transport, treatment, reuse and safe disposal of faecal waste, particularly in Visakhapatnam.
USAID will assist state governments in creating supportive regulatory environment for service providers to operate and maintain community and public toilets.
Under the Memorandum of Cooperation, the BMGF will fund programme management units for coordination of decentralised and non-sewered sanitation solutions.
It will annually release funds to grantees like NGOs and public or private organisations, based on satisfactory performance with respect to specified milestones.
DH News Service