BHUBANESWAR: Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the United States where he will be honoured with the ‘Global Goalkeeper Award’ by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for his leadership and commitment to the Swachh Bharat Mission later this month, Odisha has achieved the open defecation free (ODF) status.
Odisha was the second-worst performing State after Goa in terms of construction of individual household latrines, the flagship programme of the Centre under the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM). After failing to meet several deadlines of the Centre, it had assured the Centre in June of achieving the ODF status by October 2 this year.
However, the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation had asked the State Government to cover all left out households under the programme by August 31. The ambitious mission aimed to achieve universal sanitation coverage as a tribute to Mahatma Gandhi on his 150th birth anniversary.As per the baseline survey in 2012-13, only 11 per cent households of the State had individual latrines. Odisha had a massive task to construct 79 lakh toilets by October 2, 2019.
The State Government has constructed 66,54,618 toilets since October 2, 2014 when SBM was launched by the Prime Minister. In the current financial year, over 9.34 lakh toilets have been constructed.
“All the 30 districts have been declared open defecation free and 76.92 per cent of the constructed toilets have been geo-tagged. Photographs of over 51 lakh toilets have been uploaded in the official website of the Ministry,” said a senior official of Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water department without wishing to be named.
Sources said Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is likely to make a formal announcement of the achievement on Monday. The next step of the State Government is to create massive awareness among people to bring behavioural change in the rural population for using the toilet. “The most difficult aspect is to bring about behavioural change among rural people through a community approach to sanitation. It is not just to achieve ODF status but to sustain it, which is more important,” the official said.
The State Government has issued advisories to all district Collectors to launch a massive awareness drive by using IEC (information, education and communication) and involving all stakeholders for better management of solid, solid-liquid and plastic waste.