Team Herald
PANJIM: Seeking support and co-operation of the village panchayats to achieve Open Defecation Free (ODF) status on August 31, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said Goa is one of the few States which is yet to achieve 100 per cent ODF coverage.
As per the latest data available on the website of the Union Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation (Swachh Bharat Mission- Gramin), Goa is ranked number one in the category of lowest ODF coverage with 11.64 percent. In fact, we are the only State with coverage as low as below 20 percent.
Sawant in a letter to all the Sarpanchas informed that the State Government has taken sincere efforts to achieve the status of “Open Defecation Free” for all the 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,” Chief Minister said in the letter.
The Directorate of Panchayats had already received application for construction of individual toilets for households without toilets under the State Scheme, which is also being taken up simultaneously, he said.
Sawant informed that the priority now is to complete the community toilets for achieving “ODF” status.
“It will be a matter of pride for the State to achieve the ODF as Goa is one of the few States which yet to achieve ODF status,” he said adding that ‘For achieving this feat I solicit the active support and cooperation of your village panchayat’.
Government was initially planning to install 538 community toilets in different wards in panchayat as well as municipal areas, and another 17,000 individual toilets in rural and 4,000 in urban areas to make the State open defecation free by August 31.
However, the process of constructing community toilets hit roadblock due to incessant rains that lashed the State earlier this month and has continued at isolated places till date.
Hence, the government has now planned to place mobile bio-digester toilets, wherever required, to declare the tourism State as open defection free on August 31. The construction and installation of bio-toilets, both community and individual, will begin from September 1 onwards.
