But by focusing primarily on toilets, the policy ignores the fact that sanitation is a process - one that involves transporting excreta to treatment plants and then treating it so that it can be safely released into water bodies. Since India lacks the infrastructure to transport and treat excreta, central and state governments must acknowledge that constructing toilets is only a superficial solution to a deep-seated problem.

According to the SBA (urban) policy, toilets have to be connected to sewers, but only if sewers are located close by. The problem is that in many Indian cities, they are unlikely to be. Although 82 per cent of the 78 million urban households have toilets within their premises, Census figures cite that only 40 per cent of these households are connected to the piped sewer system.

Moreover, all sewers don't lead to treatment plants. For example, a thousand households in the Andaman and Nicobar islands are connected to sewers even though the state does not have a treatment plant, casting some doubt on where the waste end up.

....

Inter-state differences in infrastructure levels will be relevant in the SBA's implementation. Presently, Maharashtra has the capacity to treat 4,683 MLD of sewage, more than the combined treatment capacity of the states of Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal, states with urban populations between six and ten million households.

Another shocking statistic is how the 34 plants in Delhi have the capacity to treat five times more sewage than Madhya Pradesh and 23 times more sewage than Kerala. Infrastructure is skewed in Delhi's favour despite the fact it has an urban population that is similar to Madhya Pradesh and Kerala.

If India continues to build toilets by ignoring the groundwork, it will succeed in appearing clean, when in reality the lack of sewers and treatment facilities will result in polluted water bodies, posing risks to health and the environment.