Safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) are fundamental to human health and resilient communities. Yet these essential services remain out of reach for billions of people worldwide. About 2.2 billion lack access to safe drinking water, 3.5 billion live without safely managed sanitation, and 2 billion do not have basic hygiene services. These inequalities disproportionately affect women and girls and are further magnified by rapid urbanization in developing countries.
Aware of the need to improve sanitation services while addressing gender inequality, the Government of Odisha, on India’s east coast, began working to reshape the way sanitation systems are managed in the state. With support from UN-Habitat, the Government took initiatives to strengthen sanitation services while opening doors to leadership opportunities for women and trans community members.
Sanitation challenges and unequal burdens in urban homes
In Odisha, most urban homes rely on on-site sanitation systems such as domestic septic tanks or pit latrines. Because these are not connected to a city-wide sanitation system, they require regular maintenance, emptying and treatment to function safely.
When these systems fail, the consequences can be severe. Overflowing septic tanks create unsanitary conditions, contaminate water sources and increase the risk of disease outbreaks such as cholera, particularly during heavy rains. When household toilets become unusable, families are often forced to seek sanitation facilities outside the home.
These challenges affect entire communities, but the burden falls especially heavily on women and girls. Women are often responsible for securing water and sanitation for the household and caring for sick family members when disease spreads. Additionally, when toilets are unavailable at home, the need to seek facilities elsewhere increases the risk of gender-based violence and makes menstrual hygiene management more difficult. Women and girls facing intersectional exclusions, including trans women, are often affected even more severely.
Transforming sanitation through inclusive partnerships
Despite these realities, women remain largely absent from the WASH services both formally and informally. Globally, fewer than 50 countries have laws or policies guaranteeing women’s participation in rural sanitation or water resources management. In the formal sector, women remain significantly underrepresented in water and sanitation institutions due to gender stereotypes, unequal pay, cultural perceptions of gender norms, and biases in hiring processes.
Recognizing these structural barriers, the Government of Odisha decided to go beyond technical solutions to address the right of all women and girls to safe water and sanitation. The state began partnering with women and trans community groups for capacity development, joint decision-making and leadership opportunities to transform how sanitation systems are managed while empowering these groups within the community.
UN-Habitat supported this effort through its programme, the Global Water Operators’ Partnerships Alliance, facilitating knowledge exchange and capacity development between water operators in Italy and women and trans community groups in India. Through this collaboration, participants gained technical skills and leadership experience in innovative sanitation management processes that strengthen public health and environmental resilience.
From exclusion to leadership in WASH systems
As a result of this joint effort by the Government of Odisha and UN-Habitat, 119 sanitation treatment plants and service vehicles are now operated under the leadership of women and trans people. This shift has enabled decision-making that better reflects the needs and realities of women and girls in all their diversity. Training and employment in the formal sector have also opened new opportunities, helping address the exclusion that women and trans persons previously faced in the labour market while contributing to their economic empowerment.
Odisha’s experience demonstrates what is possible when women move from the margins of WASH systems into positions of leadership and decision-making. It is an example of what gender-responsive public service delivery looks like in practice, highlighting how advancing equality requires structural change that improves services, expands opportunities and ensures that no one is left behind.