Global award for Indian toilets

An innovative scheme to provide rural Indian communities with toilets and running water in every house has scooped the first Global+5 award in Geneva.

“It’s more than water and sanitation, it's human dignity,” said Joe Madiath, head of the Mantra project (Movement and Action network for Transformation of Rural Lives), run by the Indian non-governmental group Gram Vikas.

Speaking at the awards ceremony in Geneva late on Tuesday, Madiath expressed surprise that a project involving toilets “could lead to such a big prize.”