Smart Sanitation City: The Sanitation Economy at City Scale

This thought piece from the Toilet Board Coalition, in partnership with the Pune Municipal Corporation & Pune Smart City, India, discusses Smart Sanitation Cities and the opportunity they present to design future sanitation systems leveraging Smart City growth trends to address the global sanitation crisis. 

In India, the Government’s Smart Cities Mission launched in 2016 seeks to develop 100 cities across the country making them citizen friendly and sustainable. There is a focus on efficiency, improved public services, goods, spaces, and modernisation of pubic services. At the same time, in 2014 the Government of India launched its Swachh Bharat Mission with the objectives of eliminating open defecation through the construction of household-owned and community-owned toilets, while establishing an accountable mechanism of monitoring toilet use. Linking the two national priorities presents a unique opportunity to make the sum greater than the whole of its parts. By linking Smart City and Clean India initiatives, we can boost economic growth, while addressing the sanitation crisis - and contributing to the Sustainable Development Goal 6.2 for universal access to safely managed sanitation.