Team Herald
PANJIM: At a time when Goa is ranked at the bottom in Open Defecation Free (ODF) coverage, the State government on Saturday declared all village panchayats as ODF.
Confirming the news, Panchayat Minister Mauvin Godinho said the government has provided adequate toilets to the panchayats, which includes community toilets, to discourage people from defecating in the open. “We will install additional community toilets wherever required, including toilets for the individuals,” he added.
Recently, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said that Goa is one of the few States yet to achieve 100 per cent ODF coverage while he sought support and cooperation of the village panchayats to achieve ODF status on August 31.
As per data available on the website of the Union Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation (Swacch Bharat Mission Gramin) and reported by Herald, Goa ranked first in the category of lowest ODF coverage at 11.64 per cent and the only State with coverage below 20 per cent.
Sawant in a letter to all sarpanchas had informed them that the State government has taken sincere efforts towards achieving the status of “Open Defecation Free” for all village panchayats under the Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) Scheme of the Ministry of Jal Shakti. “As a first step towards achieving this status the work of installation of community toilets, wherever required, has been entrusted with the Goa Waste Management Corporation (GWMC) with a time line of August 31,” the CM had said in the letter.
The Directorate of Panchayats had already received applications for construction of individual toilets for households without toilets under the State scheme which is also being taken up simultaneously. The process of constructing community toilets had hit a roadblock due to incessant rains that lashed the State in July-August.
Hence, the government decided to place mobile bio-digester toilets, wherever required, to declare Goa ODF on August 31, whereas construction and installation of bio-toilets, both community and individual, will begin from September 1.
