PARMM is one of Pune Municipal Corporation’s most ambitious urban sanitation initiatives: focused not just on strengthening infrastructure, but also on nurturing informed, engaged, and responsible citizens who understand their role in protecting the river that flows through the heart of the Pune city.
Implemented under the National River Conservation Directorate (NRCD) and supported by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), PARMM brings together government agencies, technical experts, and community organisations to tackle river pollution through a combination of infrastructure changes and community engagement.
ESF anchors the community engagement component through capacity building, and behaviour change communication activities, ensuring that the project works not only on paper but in the lived realities of citizens across Pune.
Connecting Citizens to the City’s Sanitation Network
A unique aspect of ESF’s work in PARMM is its focus on making the invisible visible.
As citizens do not directly see the sanitation network beneath their feet, it becomes hard for them to comprehend how their daily actions contribute to wastewater generation and river pollution. ESF closes this knowledge gap by helping them understand:
- What happens to the wastewater that is flushed from their toilets and how it reaches the treatment plants
- What happens when drains are misused
- How misconnections, blockages, and litter affect the river
- Why sewage management must be everyone’s responsibility
Through simple diagrams, walkthroughs, and experiential learning activities, ESF helps citizens realize that the river is not “somebody else’s problem”, it reflects the collective habits of the entire city.