Indians know little about the water they use and the waste they discharge

Water is life, and sewage tells its life story. This is the subject of the “Citizens’ Seventh Report on the State of India’s Environment”, Excreta Matters: How urban India is soaking up water, polluting rivers and drowning in its own excreta. It has a seemingly simple plot: it only asks where Indian cities get their water from and where their waste goes. But this is not just a question or answer about water, pollution and waste.

Kerala will have 450 functional e-toilets by the end of this fiscal, becoming the first state in India with Connected Toilet Infrastructure which would be on a par with health and hygiene standards of developed countries.

An e-toilet has an automated door opening, power flushing, automatic closet washing and sterilisation and automatic platform-cleaning mechanism -- all backed by SMS alerts to inform a control room about the status of water tank and biogas plant in the event of any errors or failures.

After a Rs 20 lakh toilet for Margao Bus Terminus, Sulabh is looking to renovate other toilets in the town.

Sangeetha Neeraja | ENS

IN a country where 638 million people defecate in the open, Koushik's idea could be a head turner. His invention, the Electronic Lavatory, addresses the problem of sanitation and promotes toilet use.

Hamari Jamatia

Householders in Australia would be charged for each flush under a radical new toilet tax designed to help beat the drought, reports Perth Now.

A requirement for separating urine is an appropriate toilet (where men also have to sit to urinate) or a dry urinal, both of which are commercially available. The urine-separating toilet appears similar to a conventional toilet, but the bowl is separated into two sections by a central wall. The front bowl is intended for collecting urine, the rear bowl for collecting solid waste. Each bowl can be flushed independently. The toilet also reduces the amount of water needed for flushing. The urine is collected in tanks and periodically transported to a special purification installation.