Working toilets will guarantee a Swachh Bharat

17 Mar 2018 1:33 PM | General
365 Report

Homes with toilets in India more than doubled from 38.7% at the start of the Swachh Bharat Mission on October 2, 2014, to 78.98% in March 2018. The grand design is to ensure all households have access to a toilet so that India becomes open defecation free (ODF) by October 2, 2019.

Nationwide data shows that the effort to reach the ODF goal has been tremendous. Since the start of the mission, more than 64.32 million toilets have been built till March 6 this year, according to data tabled in the Lok Sabha in the current session, and 11 states and two Union territories have been declared ODF. Building toilets is not enough. The challenge is to make people use them. And that can happen only when toilets are well-managed, from which all the waste generated is treated on-site or in treatment facilities, which otherwise causes diseases and death.

With and Without
The problem: the toilets have no water source, no water storage tank, and no drains or soak pits for the sewerage generated. “The gram panchayat built it two months ago, but no money was transferred to my account. The toilet has no drains or tank. Water comes out of a hole in the wall and creates a stink right next to my home. So we just use it for bathing,” said Roop Singh Parth, a small farmer who grows wheat or maize each year and continues to use the neighbouring fields as a toilet. Kalia Vir Singh, who lives across Parth’s house, uses his newly-constructed toilet to store grain.

“While the external specifications of these toilets more or less conform to the government requirements, all these toilets have is a hole for a drain that opens out into the field. These toilets, if used, cause more disease as they are built close to homes and water sources, which cause contamination and frequent bouts of diarrhoea,” said Gayatri Parihar, director, Vasudha Vikas Sanstan, a Dhar-based non-profit that works on child health, natural-resource management and sanitation. Around 78% of the sewage remains untreated. The piped sewerage systems do not treat the sewage, but merely dispose of them in rivers, groundwater or lakes, from where it leaches back into the soil, contaminating food and water, said the report.

Shared toilets are another option

“In urban centres with high migration and mobility, toilets also need to be accessible,” said K Sujatha Rao, former health secretary, and author of Do We Care? India’s Health System. Google’s Swachh Bharat Toilet locater app allows users to search online for the nearest public toilets and get directions. The demand is clearly there, but the reviews by users show the app needs an update. “App does not work for Delhi... Keeps showing Nashik. I am not going to fly to Nashik to take a leak... Please make this work,” wrote a frustrated Yash Mishra.

Courtesy: Hindustantimes

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