Women, well-being, work, waste and sanitation (4Ws)

This project focused on the planning and implementation of action research on alternative strategies for environmental sanitation and waste management in six peri-urban coastal communities in south Asia. Five universities and five NGOs from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, The Netherlands and Finland1 cooperated with local Governments. This project developed as a result of the need for more research in the area of sanitation. The reader should be aware that this paper represents the processed used and the outcomes from an evaluation of this project. The objectives of this project were to measure the (1) cost-effectiveness of innovative and replicable approaches to excreta and solid waste management in low income peri-urban settlements; (2) to measurably improve sanitation conditions and practices; (3) to scale up the tested approaches; (4) and to strengthen interdisciplinary cooperation and implementation skills of the participating research and civic society institutions. The project used participatory methods to promote the adoption of improved sanitation and hygiene. Local women were trained to produce and install sanitation facilities, generate work and income and improve their status. Innovations were toilets and rainwater harvesting tanks built by local women masons, including lower cost toilets, water tanks and eco-latrines, home composting and vermi composting. The research used an experimental design of three study and three control communities.