ABSTRACT
Technological innovation has transformed the way of life across the world since early pre-history. Modern urban habitats and their constant growth owe much to technical innovation in urban sanitation. This chapter seeks to examine how technical innovations led by civil society organisations (CSOs) are shaping the recent mainstream response to unmet social problems in the sphere of urban sanitation. It discusses how appropriate technologies developed and piloted by CSOs are addressing sanitation challenges of urban areas in general and the urban poor in particular through cost-effective, context-specific, affordable, environment-friendly and responsive solutions in India. The chapter discusses recent exemplars of technological innovations in toilet technologies in the urban sanitation domain from development organisations such as Centre for Urban and Regional Excellence, Nidan, Gramalaya and Shelter Associates. It analyses another set of cases of innovation in the field of wastewater management by Consortium for Decentralised Wastewater Treatment Systems Dissemination Society, Centre for Science and Environment and others.
