The lack of drinking water and separate access to decent sanitation facilities raises severe health threats for the society. Many children, especially girls, distance themselves from attending school, in many cases causing them to leave school altogether. YUVA works in 9 districts of Jharkhand to improve access to drinking water and sanitation facilities in schools and promote good hygiene practices.

In emergency situations, YUVA provides aid to communities suffering from disease and those whose water supply is threatened. All of YUVA’s water and sanitation programmes have been designed to comply with the hygiene and sanitation standards contained in the Millennium Development Goals, one of which is to halve the number of people without access to drinking water.

YUVA implemented integrated sanitation by enforcing processes for waste collection to its transport, treatment and proper disposal. Our projects sensitized and educated the most deprived areas about the importance of clean water, sanitation, and hygiene and successfully led the target population to make significant changes in their habits to bring long-term health benefits. By facilitating sustainable clean water and sanitation practices we have drastically decreased sickness and enhanced overall quality of life In future, YUVA aims to develop a prototype model of an open defecation-free block.