India, July 14 -- India's fast-growing peri-urban belts house millions on city fringes but sit in a governance vacuum.

As villages are absorbed into metros, WASH services lag badly: Unsafe water, absent sewers and unmanaged faecal sludge.

Experts call for proactive regional planning, granular data, decentralised sanitation and empowered local bodies to close the gap.

Travel beyond the limits of any Indian city and you will find the dense urban neighbourhoods gradually give way to agricultural fields interspersed with industrial units, warehouses, gated colonies and new infrastructure corridors. These areas have a mix of urban and rural features: Four-lane highways interspersed with agricultural land with mixed habitations.

This shows ...