Ever since the hype started about building toilets in every household in India, I have been wondering about where the sewage will be taken. Nowhere have I seen any mention of treatment plants in every village - forget village - every town. Does it mean there is no plan or that I am ignorant?
If  I am ignorant, of course I apologise, but if there is no plan, then what are they thinking about?
Individual defecation at random points in fields will be taken care of by soil microbes, but if they let out a village's sewage into their neighbouring water body, or just out, God help us!
I am by no means advocating open defecation, just that drainage systems and STPs must be in place BEFORE building toilets, or each toilet must have individual mechanism for treatment.
I keep thinking that of course people in the govt must have thought of this - it is so obvious- and there must be some mechanism in place, but I have never heard any mention of building STP in every village, only of building toilets.
A recent article in The Wire proves my fears are justified. I am truly apalled. 

No easy solutions

I always feel slightly guilty flushing the toilet, but where is the option? There is a lot of talk of green toilets. and chemical or solar toilets.
All these need land. They are fine for rural settings, rich people's farm houses, holiday cabins etc, but living in Ameerpet , Hyderabad or Mandaivelli, Chennai, can it be even thought of?
All solutions I have heard of need space-- a lot of space.
In fact, when I built my house, I had a small extra sink put in the kitchen where I planned to wash my rice/veg etc --no vim/detergent. This sink had a drain that simply led to my small back garden. I was very pleased with my design sure that I didn't need sand filter/soak pit etc for this.
I moved in and used this sink for about a month. Soon every time the breeze came through my back window, I could smell something rotting. Sure enough-the drain. I promptly connected the drain to my regular drainage.
I do not have enough space for a grey water treatment system, which is why I had left my washing machine drain alone , but wash water from rice/dal I thought would not need treatment.
Well it does!
Lesson learnt, there are no easy solutions.

waste management

Apropos my previous post on this matter, I am truly alarmed.
By now, half the town’s houses have septic tanks. However, the owners of the small fleets of septic tankers report that very few households empty them regularly — they might be cleared once in a generation or when they break down. And there are no facilities for the treatment of faecal sludge when it is pumped out — it is all dumped into a nearby lake and the river bed; the lorry drivers are fined by the police when caught in the act.

I am in no way advocating open defecation, but building toilets without STPs is a disaster.

Another report
https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/in-urban-up-87-of-waste-from-toilets-goes-to-rivers-farmlands/article25291914.ece
This is what is expected.
Initiatives are like kids games---make up as you go along.

permanence

When you show a small baby an object and then hide it behind you, the baby forgets its existence. However, within a few months, its cognitive abilities increase enough for it to understand permanence of objects and it will go behind you in search of the object.

In adulthood, we lose this simple cognitive ability.

We generate waste and give it away to the municipal worker and we feel it's gone. Or we burn it in our backyards and think it is gone. We flush our toilets and think it is gone.

Let's go back to our babyhood and realise it is NOT gone. It is only transported elsewhere.

Recently someone told me with a great sense of superiority that he drives an electric car. I asked "is it solar powered?" he said "no". I kept quiet not wishing to deflate his obvious pride.

Now Hyderabad is powered mainly by Ramagundam, Simhadri etc themal power stations, and a few hydel power plants, which are of course seasonal. Thermal stations burning coal, the low efficiency of power production in India, the transmission losses in our SEBs all put together, the emission of carbon, sulphur, nitrogen oxides etc per Km for the electric car may well be higher than that of a well-maintained petrol car.

People do not think of this. Even if you use solar power, battery disposal after its life is over,  is an environment nightmare.

The concept of life cycle costing or a holistic view seems to be entirely missing from even the well educated citizens.

It has been worrying that so many toilets are being constructed without proper disposal plan in case of need. The twin pit system , if built scientifically, does not need disposal. But in the get hurry to report ODF villages, I doubt if they are being built with care. So then if a flood innundates the area, can you imagine the state?
Here's a study
http://wateraidindia.in/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/SBMG-toilet-technology-report_online.pdf

education

The results of the learning outcome audit is alarming (PISA)...but why is it alarming? people have been saying the same thing for years. ... maybe not that we have escaped being at the bottom by the skin of our teeth. We are in the same position in the HDI too... so it's not surprising.
But apart from speeches, will anyone do anything?
The problem with this situation is ..once there have been 5 -10 years of bad education, then there is no hope --for the next generation will be taught by those who have not learned anything during their education.
Assuming people wake up , and the govt, ngos and everybody gears up to improve our schools, maybe build toilets for the children, maybe get blackboards fixed... but the teachers will not know enough to teach anything to these children. So how will the learning outcomes improve?
It is really scary.