While Sikkim has already taken lead in becoming the first Open Defecation Free (ODF) in the country, the other States from the Northeast region have committed to make the region ODF by December end this year.
This was decided at a regional review meeting of the North Eastern States —Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim held in Guwahati in Assam recently.
The workshop comprised discussions on sustaining ODF status, solid and liquid waste management (SLWM), and rural water supply. Teams from Key aspects of sustainability such as geo-tagging, verification of ODF villages, conversion of dysfunctional toilets, IEC expenditure, Swachhagrahi engagement were reviewed.
Speaking on the occasion, ParameswaranIyer, Secretary, Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation emphasized the importance of the joint effort being made by the Central and State SBM teams towards sustaining gains made under the program so far.
He spoke about the importance of continued focus on behavior change communication and periodic verifications to ensure that the safe sanitation habits and practices developed over the past few years are sustained in the future as well.
The teams from the ODF States of the region spoke about efforts to sustain their ODF status. Sikkim highlighted the solid and liquid waste management initiatives being undertaken in the first ODF State of the country.
Non-ODF States committed to declaring themselves as ODF by December 2018. Assam shared highlights of “Mission Sambhav”, under which more than one lakh pit digging activities were initiated on a single day during the Swachhata Hi Seva fortnight.
Akshay Rout, Director General, Special Projects from the Ministry pointed to the criticality of the sustainability phase of SBM and the necessity for the managers for regular monitoring.
V Radha, Joint Secretary from the Ministry spoke about the need to increase the coverage of household water supply connections by taking up community-managed, low cost schemes.
Since its launch in October 2014, the Swchch Bharat Mission, the world’s largest sanitation program, has changed the behaviour of hundreds of millions of people with respect to toilet access and usage. About 300 million people have stopped defecating in the open since the Mission began, down from 550 million at the beginning of the programme to about 200 million today, according to the Government data.
