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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Bihar laggard in toilet mission

Bihar laggard in toilet mission

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published Published on Sep 1, 2017   modified Modified on Sep 1, 2017
-The Telegraph

New Delhi: Bihar is among the states with the poorest progress towards open-defecation-free (ODF) targets with some districts requiring 500 toilets every day to meet 2019 goals, according to a report from the non-government Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) released today.

The report said Bihar, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, and Jharkhand, accounting for 60 per cent of open defecation, would need to accelerate efforts for India to reach its ODF goal by October 2019 under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in October 2014.

The Union drinking water and sanitation ministry had said in June this year that in Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, rural Haryana and rural Uttarakhand, more than 2 lakh villages and 147 districts across India were now ODF. It had also said sanitation coverage had increased from 42 per cent to 64 per cent since 2014.

But the CSE report has estimated that about 7.9 million (79 lakh) toilets nationwide are in unusable conditions.

"It's one thing to build toilets, quite another to ensure they're being used," Sunita Narain, director-general of the CSE, said in a news release. "Flawed toilet technology, shortage of resources such as water and lack of administrative will to address these factors are pulling states away from becoming ODF," she said.

The CSE report estimates Bihar accounts for 22 per cent of the 64 million (6.4 crore) households in the country without toilets. Seven of 10 people in Bihar in June 2017 had no access to adequate toilet facilities, according to the report which says at the current pace of efforts, Bihar will achieve 100 per cent toilet coverage only by 2033.

"Bihar has focused on building toilets at breakneck speed without making people aware of them, without ensuring these toilets are functional and are used," Sushmita Sengupta, a lead researcher with the CSE, said in the release.

The report has said while Bihar achieved 50 per cent success in building 1.6 million (16 lakh) toilets during 2016-17, the state managed to spend only 0.18 per cent of the 8 per cent funds allocated for an information and education campaign on toilet usage.

The CSE said Bhagalpur, Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi's constituency, would need to add 534 toilets every day from now to achieve the 100 per cent ODF target by October 2019. Nalanda would need to add 554 toilets to meet the October 2019 deadline.

The environmental group said the majority of toilets in Uttar Pradesh had been built in villages along the Ganga, exposing the river to the threat of severe contamination from polluted groundwater and streams running into the river. Uttar Pradesh has built toilets "without giving a thought to managing the excreta," the report said.

"The focus is only on building toilets, not enough attention is being paid to the hydrogeology and appropriate technology for specific areas," Sengupta told The Telegraph. Hundreds of toilets, for instance, are built with underground chambers called soakpits where excreted waste accumulates.

During the monsoon, soakpits might become flooded and the water might slip into groundwater, particularly in areas with shallow groundwater levels. Along the Ganga, such contamination might run into the river, Sengupta said.

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The Telegraph, 31 August, 2017, https://www.telegraphindia.com/1170901/jsp/nation/story_170294.jsp


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