After the flush, India's bigger sanitation challenge

Modi has ended open defecation but that's only half the story

20191212 Tea Leaves

Indarpal cleans out the septic tank of a home in Noida, near New Delhi. (Photo by Pallavi Aiyar)

PALLAVI AIYAR

In early October India proudly declared it had ended the formerly widespread practice of open defecation, following years of hectic toilet construction under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government. In the past four years India has built more toilets than it has since independence in 1947: more than 100 million in rural areas and 6.3 million in cities, according to the country's ministry in charge of water and sanitation.

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