The ministry of urban development and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will promote user-friendly toilets to ensure universal sanitation in India."Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu and Bill Gates Friday held extensive discussions on the magnitude of providing toilets to every household in the country," an official said.Naidu told Gates that the government would like to benefit from the initiatives and experience of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in the sanitation sector.
It was also discussed that the ministry and the Foundation would cooperate in four areas - innovative technology demonstration in respect of toilets and sewage management, promoting decentralized sewerage systems that enable sewage at the habitation level rather than pooling of sewage, capacity building in the sanitation sector and promoting the use of toilets.