I was a little frustrated during my time spent with them. They didn’t have the vision for projects like greywater re-use, or affecting the sewage outfall from normal houses. They also seemed un or under-interested in spreading gardening, notably on a household scale which could not only directly affect hunger, but also give a place for their compost to go, easily closing the loop.
Here’s a cool Wired story: “Build a Square foot Garden,” which helps illustrate that a lot can be down with a little. (Bit of space, in this case.)

I also ran across a WSJ video, posted on Conscious Consuming‘s blog, about Urban Farming. I’m a really big advocate of urban farming. Partially because people are leaving the “Rural”/”countryside,” but also because that’s where the people are, and there’s a _lot_ of wasted space in cities. People should be close to their food, in location, understanding, and more.

I think I had a lot more to say on this, but going to close this post at this..

Wow, as of nov’11, most links in this post are dead! Eek.

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Post tags: SCOPE NGO India, urban farming gardening

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“Following a successful World Toilet Summit-2007 (WTS 2007) it has been noted that there is a need to accelerate the progress on achieveing the MDG on sanitation by 2015. The participants advocate to reconfirmation of the pledge that nations took at Johannesburg in 2002. WTS 2007 adopts the Delhi Declaration on Sanitation- 2007:

• Increase awareness and political will, prioritise sustainable sanitation, the importance of achieving MDG #7 and other goals and also persuade national leaders to take further measures in this regard.
• Move to mobilise: Governments, UN Agencies, Financial Institutions, Corporate and local Bodies, Sanitation Service Providers and other Stakeholders through strong partnership and collaboration to undertake the required steps to increase sanitation coverage.
• Undertake data collection, annual review, monitoring and effective actions to scale-up sustainable sanitation programmes and strengthen policies at both the national and international level.
• Prepare and plan activities as well as a National Roadmap for the International Year of Sanitation 2008 in collaboration with all key stakeholders and important partners.
• Ensure and enhance financial allocation and support through national budgets and developmental partner allocations to sustained progress on sanitation.
• Develop and strengthen institutional R&D and human resource capacity at all levels to generate action and implementation int he sanitation sector and water supply.
• Promote knowledge exchange programmes on available sustainable sanitation technologies and behaviors in all regions.
• Advocate with National Governments to set specific sanitation goals and targets as well as help local communities and educational institutions to gain access to instituional finance.
• Organise regional and sub-regional conferences and workshops, declare Sanitation Awards to recognize and support regional works.
• Implement Sustainable sanitation programme through a demand-driven approach facilitating efficient marketing mechanisms.
• Prioritise school sanitation, health and hygiene programs.
• Implement child-friendly facilities which are both accessible and relevant to cultural and regional needs.
• Address region-specific gender issues by ensuring sanitation facilities for women and the ‘girl child’.
• Facilitate a paradigm shift from disposal-oriented systems to reuse and recycle oriented sanitation systems with a Quality control approach.”

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Post tags: Delhi, sanitation, World Toilet Summit, WTS2007

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