HUL launches its 6th Suvidha Centre in partnership with BMC & HSBC India

Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) today announced the launch of its 6^th Suvidha centre at Ghatkopar in Mumbai. The Suvidha centre project is a public-private partnership of HUL with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and HSBC India. Established in 2016, the Suvidha centres provide access to hygiene and sanitation services to over 100,000 men, women & children in Mumbai every year.  These centres are also designed to re-use and recycle water and have saved over 35 million litres of water since inception.

With accelerated urbanization, Indian cities face immense pressure of providing proper access to hygiene and sanitation facilities to all citizens. The lack of basic sanitation and safe drinking water is a primary cause of diseases such as cholera and diarrhoea, as well as a number of preventable deaths. In such a scenario, improving access to good sanitation services is critical. 

Suvidha, the-first of its kind urban community hygiene & sanitation centre by HUL, helps supplement the efforts of the government to ensure that good quality sanitation services are available to urban low-income households in Mumbai. 

Like the other five centres, the 6^th Suvidha centre in Ghatkopar provides its users an array of amenities. The toilet facilities are inclusive by design and the centre provides safe, private, hygienic, and odour-free toilet facilities for women, men, children and people with disabilities. The centre also gives users access to handwashing stations, clean drinking water and subsidized laundromat services. In addition, HUL conducts behavior change programmes on water, sanitation health, nutrition & hygiene in the communities around the centre. The new centre will cater to over 20,000 users yearly.

The new centre will also be one of the first of its kind to treat and re-use both grey water and black water at a community toilet level. Through the water saving process, the centre is designed to save 10 million litres of freshwater annually by reusing the treated wastewater.

Aditya Thackeray, Minister of Environment, Government of Maharashtra and Guardian Minister (Mumbai Suburbs), said, “I am thankful to Hindustan Unilever and HSBC India for partnering with BMC for this initiative. This strengthens our aim to improve living standards for citizens by providing them easy access to clean drinking water, hygiene, and sanitation services.”

Sanjiv Mehta, Chairman and Managing Director, HUL said, “There is an urgent need for innovative solutions that work at scale to address the challenges of rapid urbanization in India, particularly for the less privileged sections of society. Suvidha is a unique community initiative that aims to address the key challenge of providing people with easy and affordable access to quality hygiene and sanitation facilities in a sustainable manner.”

Adding further, Iqbal Singh Chahal, Commissioner, BMC, Mumbai said, “Suvidha is an excellent model for public-private partners to come together and create powerful health and wellbeing outcomes for citizens. We appreciate Hindustan Unilever's initiative on urban community hygiene and sanitation facility. This model can be replicated and scaled across cities around the world.” 

Hitendra Dave, General Manager & CEO, HSBC India said “Our partnership with HUL is a further demonstration of what we can achieve together and combat the pressing problems of urban sanitation. This shared concern and involvement of multiple stakeholders has clearly made an impact. We look forward to continuing our efforts across the water, hygiene and sanitation value chain.”

As India treads on the path to development and strives to provide a prosperous and equitable future to all, the Suvidha model will ensure that #GoodHygieneForAll is now a reality.