Issue link: http://psai.uberflip.com/i/851467
W EEKLY EDITION JULY 19, 2017 Member News: Rajeev Kher, 3S India, Paves the Way for the Future of Indian Sanitation PSAI Member Rajeev Kher , 3S India, received the Entrepreneur of the Year award at the GSG Impact Summit last week in Chicago, Illinois for his company's exemplary efforts in portable sanitation throughout India. To say the award was well deserved is an understatement. Kher has b een tackling India's sanitation crisis since 1999, with the rest of the country jumping on board when the Indian Prime Minister posed a challenge to end open defecation by October 2, 2019 – Mahatma Gandhi's 150 th birthday. This Clean India campaign has p laced Kher and 3S hard at work. To ensure they're doing their share to help the half - billion Indians that still defecate in the open, 3S plans to triple the number of people it reaches to 33 million and expand from 9 to 15 cities in the next three years. T he company "manufactures, installs and lends, and manages the waste of portable, recyclable - material constructed toilets." They are also involved in a pilot program to turn scrap buses into portable sanitation stations for women. What's groundbreaking ab out 3S India's work in the campaign for proper sanitation is their use of technology to "preserve the dignity of users and service technicians." It has been an uphill battle to persuade the average citizen to use a portable res troom every day. But with tec hnology that helps users locate the nearest toilet and with a system that monitors the units for prompt servicing, the perception toward portable restrooms is changing. They use suction pumps to dispose of the waste, rather th an manual removal of untreated human waste, which is not outlawed in the country. This practice has raised the bar for quality standards. Since the Prime Minister's announcement of Clean India , Indians with access to proper sanitation has risen from 42% in 2014 to 63% in 2017. 3S Indi a plays a large role in this change. "We want people to have total sanitation; we want people to have dignity," Kher explained. Their hope is th at they can raise enough funds for 10,000 add itional toilets by 2020. READ THE STORY The Extra Mile, Exemplified Liberty Waste Management's public restroom attendee goes above and beyond on the job. John Atencio, a service technician in Denver, Colorado, makes it his business to handle the "clean up" after residents finish doing "their business." He is the attendant of a public portable restroom trailer in downtown Denver near the 16 th Street Mall and he takes immense pride in his work. "I know the restrooms are excellent… I know how I keep them. I keep them clean. I like to go into a clean restroom," Atencio explained. While most service technicians do their best to keep their units clean, Atencio's scenario is slightly different b ecause these portable restrooms are here to stay – at least until local public restrooms nearby are "repaired and up and ru nning again." Having a constant attendant to maintain the quality of the experience makes an undeniable difference in this case. Part of his job – besides going the extra mile in his cleanliness efforts – is to get a consensus for who is using the portabl e trailer. These restrooms "are for everyone," city officials explain, from the homeless, to people visiting the area, to those who live and work near them. Atencio asks each of his customers their age and zip code, reporting the data back to the city to b e analyzed for future projects. While there are plenty of other service technicians who go above and beyond in their work, it is wonderful t o hear an example of a tech that is proud of his position and ensures that he "has a lot of fun on the job." The PSA I plans to reach out to Liberty Waste Management, as they are not currently PSAI Member s . READ THE STORY PAGE 5