Amitabh Bachchan on solving India’s sewage problem

Indian actor and Swachh Bharat Abhiyan ambassador, Amitabh Bachchan, discusses the sewage problem facing India. Urban areas produce 120,000 tonnes of faecal sludge on a daily basis, but an estimated two-thirds of the country’s households with toilets aren’t connected to the sewer system.

One city, however, is turning the tide.

In the Indian city of Patna, 90% of homes have toilets, but just one in five is connected to the sewer system. Two-thirds of homes flush their waste into septic tanks and pay trucks to collect it. Many of these trucks then dump the waste in the open, where it contaminates drinking water, causing cholera, dysentery and diarrhoea.

So Patna took a different approach, non-profit PSI negotiated for the private trucks to dumb waste at the city’s unused waste treatment sites for processing.

PSI also opened a free helpline that the public can call for advice on which of the private dump trucks were safe and reliable.

So far 8 million litres of faecal sludge waste have been safely collected.

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