Odisha to miss toilet target

BHUBANESWAR: Even as the State Government has made significant progress in construction of individual household latrines (IHHL) under ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’, it has failed to achieve the target of getting open defecation free (ODF) status.

Only six districts of Balasore, Deogarh, Ganjam, Jharsuguda, Sambalpur and Sonepur have been declared ODF. “Around 16 lakh toilets have been constructed till the end of 2018 and efforts are on to cover another 17.53 lakh households under the sanitation programme by the end of this fiscal,” said a senior officer of the Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water department.

Though the Centre has set January 31, 2019 as the deadline for covering all households under Swachhata Mission, Odisha may miss the target as construction of over 17 lakh toilets within two weeks time is an impossible task, sources said.

Odisha, which falls in the category of States like Bihar, Jammu & Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh in terms of sanitation coverage, took up the job in a mission mode this year after Prime Minister Narendra Modi berated the State Government for its poor performance in his public meeting at Cuttack in May last year. The PM has been mentioning the subject at all his subsequent public meetings in the State.

Talking about the challenges at the ground level, the officer said, “Construction of household latrines is just one part of the solution. The most important aspect is to bring behaviour change through community approach to sanitation. Bringing about a behaviourial change and reinforcing that behaviour among the masses requires time.”

Although the progress in Odisha has been slower as compared to other States, the other challenges before the Government is not just to achieve ODF status but to sustain it, he added.
Admitting that funds were never a problem, a field level official said it was often seen that many of the beneficiaries of the scheme are not using their toilet as they prefer to relieve them in the open as a matter of habit.

The State Government has made a budgetary provision of `2,000 crore in the current fiscal for toilet construction of which about `1,700 crore has been utilised. The balance `300 crore will be disbursed as soon as the matching grant from the Centre is received.
Though the State has made a steady progress in toilet construction from 10.58 per cent in October, 2014 to 78.5 per cent till date, it is still at the bottom of cleanliness list at the national level.