Water Initiatives Odisha (WIO)
Occasional Update: 6th November 2014
Odisha’s ambitious toilet construction plan
to fail!
From the
current record of mere 57 toilets per day, the state plans an unrealistic jump
to 13333
Dear Friends/Co-sailors,
Greetings from Water Initiatives Odisha!
We just got to know from media sources about an unrealistic
toilet construction target the Govt. of Odisha has set for itself. This update is a quick response to this.
As per information available, the Rural Development
Secretary of the state has, during a teleconferencing, informed to the union
government of its plan to build 15 lakh toilets by 31st March 2015
under the Prime Minister’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. While 3 lakh of these toilets will be built
by 31st December this year, the remaining 12 lakh will be completed
by 31st March 2015.
This means the state government has to build 5455 toilets
per day till December 31st this year and 13333 toilets per day from
January to March 2015. This is too
unrealistic for a state whose toilet construction rate per day so far this year
has been a meagre 57 per day.
The state has always lagged behind the national average in
constructing toilets by huge margins. An analysis done by WIO finds out
that, “Last year, even as the national average of toilet construction per day
was 13634, it was only 92 in the state of Odisha. In fact, the previous year i.e. 2012-13 it
had a better record of 324 toilets per day which has only gone down
recently”.
With such a poor record, the state government’s target is nothing
but day dreaming and set to fail.
In fact, a Swachh
Bharat or Clean India cannot be achieved if the effort is limited to such
target based construction of toilets.
There is no guarantee that the toilets would be used. Besides building toilets, the government
should ensure water supply and promote use of the toilets. Usability of toilets in rural Odisha is
pathetically low at the moment. Then, it has to have proper
management plan for the faecal sludge, which is almost absent. If at all the
toilets are constructed in such a mad rush, the quality of construction is
surely going to suffer thus reducing the chance of their usability further.
Further, such hurried construction leaves a lot of scope for
corruption. The government needs to
emphasise on quality and usability rather than such unrealistic targets.
For further information, please contact:
Ranjan Panda
Convenor, Water Initiatives Odisha*
Convenor, Combat Climate Change Network, INDIA
Mahanadi River Waterkeeper (Member, Global Waterkeeper Alliance)
Mobile: +91-9437050103
Email: ranjanpanda@gmail.com, waterinodisha@gmail.com
Tweet @ranjanpanda
Skype: ranjan.climatecrusader
You can also see this update on my blog @
Please join our voluntary networks and campaigns:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/220598744649462/ (Save
Rivers to Save Civilizations)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/234481360045395/ (People's
Manifesto on Water Sanitation and Climate Change)
A TRULY EVOLVED BEING IS ONE THAT VALUES OTHERS MORE THAN IT VALUES ITSELF....
==============
*Water Initiatives Odisha (WIO) is a state level
coalition of civil society organisations, farmers, academia, media and other
concerned, which has been working on water, environment and climate change
issues in the state for more than two decades now.
No comments:
Post a Comment