Summary

The Government of Tamil Nadu (GoTN) has prioritised the full sanitation chain, including the strengthening of septage management as an economical and sustainable complement to networkbased sewerage systems. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) is supporting the GoTN to achieve the Sanitation Mission of Tamil Nadu through the Tamil Nadu Urban Sanitation Support Programme (TNUSSP). TNUSSP Phase I (2015-2018) was designed to support GoTN and selected cities in making improvements along the entire urban sanitation chain. In the second phase (2018– 2020), TNUSSP seeks to go one step further and integrate a gender and social inclusion (GSI) perspective within its interventions at two sites – the city of Tiruchirappalli (Trichy), and the two town panchayats (TPs) of Periyanaicken-Palayam (PNP) and Narasimhanaicken-Palayam (NNP) in Coimbatore district – along the urban sanitation cycle and in its support provided at the State level.