CHENNAI: With fecal sludge management and waste water taking centrestage on World Toilet Day on Sunday, around 60 per cent of the global population – 4.5 billion people – either has no toilet or has one that doesn’t safely manage excreta.
In TN, even as work for fecal sludge management has been kick-started in various sewered or partially sewered areas in Tiruchy and Coimbatore, the focus now turns to awareness. Work on Fecal Sludge Treatment Plants (FSTP) is in full swing in places like Coimbatore with a capacity of 25 KLD and the project is already taking shape in Tiruchi under the Tamil Nadu Urban Sanitation Support Programme (TNUSSP)
“While building toilets was merely the first step, the key is creating awareness on the safe and responsible disposal of fecal sludge. This is called the full cycle of sanitation,” said Asma, a senior specialist at the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS) that offers technical support for the project that is originally a part of TNUSSP.
In Coimbatore, two town panchayats, Periyanaickenpalayam and Narasimhanaickenpalayam, together housing around 13,500 families, have been chosen for the FSTP projects. In areas that are partially sewered or not sewered like the above town panchayats, the FSTPs help the local bodies achieve the full cycle of sanitation.
Under TNUSSP, 1992 participants from 12 corporations, 124 municipalities and 528 town panchayats attended an orientation programme for use of Muzhu Sugadharam app. The app helps collect data right from population of the area to estimate of septage generated and treated.The first phase of data collection is in progress. Asma said that even as work was progressing at the FSTPs, it was equally important to create awareness on going all the way rather than stopping with building toilets.