Let’s take a quick glance at the state of the urban environment in the region. The rate of urbanization in South Asia, especially India, is growing at an alarming rate. It is estimated that urban population in India has increased from 25.85 million in 1901 to around 217 million by 1991. As on today, India has 35 metropolitan cities having a population averaging more than a million. With the economic liberalization and the boom in information-communication technology, life styles are fast changing even in small towns with population less than one million. The once beautiful countryside is fast becoming an eyesore, with plastic strewn all around. The problem gets compounded due to severe lack of environmental infrastructure and lack of waste recycling facilities nearby. 

The pressures of changing life styles are mainly manifested in the form of deteriorating environment and public health. Increased cases of diarrhea and pesticides in drinking water are just a reflection of lack of infrastructure facilities.  As the demand for basic needs, consumer goods and services have increased many fold, we quickly shifted from decentralized to centralized production systems. Very conveniently, all the natural and renewable based production systems are replaced with more synthetic ingredients and mechanized systems.  We shifted from decentralized micro management to centralized macro planning and management, eroding the local livelihood base. All the key stakeholders - mainly the consumers, producers, planners and community leaders are collectively responsible for this transition to unsustainable, inefficient, shortsighted practices.

However, of late, with the shrinking and polluted natural resources, the negative impacts are being felt clearly.  With this, there is also an awakening to adopt more efficient and sustainable practices for resource use and management. Though the sustainable options are well known, it is not so simple to adopt them on a mass scale unless all the actors concerned (including the producers, the consumers, the law makers, the media and the financiers) work towards the same mission.

Addressing the above issue, CLEAN–India program is working towards promoting decentralized enterprise-based clean drinking water, solid waste management, clean energy and waste recycling technology alternatives at the community level.  It has also clearly identified that forging partnerships among local administration, corporates/financiers, local NGOs and communities is the only way to sustain such initiatives. Such partnerships can lead to a win-win situation for all the actors involved. Local administration would benefit by fulfilling its urban service delivery obligation in a cost effective and efficient manner. If the private partner is a technology provider, he would greatly benefit by getting access to the market for his technology. The financiers would reduce the environmental risks in financing projects. For the corporates, it would contribute to their social responsibility obligation and livelihood creation objective in a more sustainable manner.