India sets target to build 5.2 million toilets in rural areas by end of August

India’s Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation has set an ambitious target of building 5.2 million toilets across rural India by the end of August this year, after a request from the new Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led union government, which has previously affirmed its commitment to improving sanitation in India.

Speaking at a function in Delhi last October Narendra Modi, BJP’s leader and now prime minister of India, had famously said that India needed to build toilets first and temples later.

The latest drive to build toilets, announced on 4 July under the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan national sanitation programme, is an attempt to solve the pernicious problem of open defecation in India. Over 60% of Indians do not use …