Cities in India are dreaming of becoming New York and London but we seldom worry about as basic an issue as sewage and its disposal in our country. The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has brought out a two-volume book titled Excreta Matters: Report on the State of India’s Environment to highlight how only 20 per cent of sewage is being treated in the country. Sunita Narain, director general, CSE, talks about the murky issue plaguing the water sources in this interview to Rashme Sehgal.

An important scheme to improve the health and lifestyle of residents in rural pockets around Tambaram and also to improve access to proper sanitation is in disarray owing to neglect on the part of State government agencies.

The Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) of the Ministry of Rural Development aims at elimination of open defecation in rural areas and ensuring that all households, schools and Children's Centres of Integrated Child Development Services or government-run creches have toilets. The scheme also mandates the construction of at least one integrated sanitary complex in every rural local body.

Come September Chennai's residents will have a new source of drinking water, a 100-million litre a day desalination plant that will produce fresh water from sea water.

A total of 4.48 lakh children under the age of five under the old limits of the Chennai Corporation were covered in the secon