Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu
Summary:
Cuddalore, literally meaning “Sea Town” in Tamil, is a fast growing industrial city and port, and regional centre for Cuddalore District, in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Located south of Pondicherry on the Bay of Bengal, Cuddalore has a large number of industries which employ a great deal of the city's population, many of whom are unfortunately adversely affected by serious toxic pollution from these factories. Many of the fishing and semi-urban communities have also been badly affected by this pollution, adding a serious health risk to their already impoverished situation.
Cuddalore District has an area of 3,564 km² and a population of 2,300,000. The district is largely rural (70%), with most of the population living in small village communities. We focus on supporting the poorest of these people, the Scheduled Caste or Untouchables, subsisting in dire conditions in isolated rural and semi-urban communities.
We have been involved in the area since 2004 when we started work with our local NGO partner, Bless. In general, our projects focus on water and sanitation, although our largest to date is the construction of 56 homes built for the very poorest of people (read more: Karrigan Nagar). These homes, each of which will have its own eco-sanitation toilet, will be built from compressed earth blocks (read more: CEBs), made from locally sourced materials that are both natural and sustainable. We are very much involved in the construction of eco-sanitation toilets in a variety of places, especially in schools, although we have recently completed an innovative design for women-only at Mohan Singh Street, located on the edge of Cuddalore town (read more: eco-sanitation).