Nothing could be more embarrassing for a globally-recognised tourist destination – Goa to realise that none of its two districts have been declared Open Defecation Free (ODF) under the Centre’s ambitious Swachh Bharat Mission.
Conversely, what is striking is the fact that a few days ago the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) council adopted a resolution to declare wards 5, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27 and 28 as ODF wards, for which the Corporation has written to the Director of Municipal Administration (DMA) for the official approval.
While, attempts to tackle open defecation in the other wards have been hindered due to lack of public toilets, CCP officials have said that the Corporation is in the process of identifying land for construction of community toilets, so that Panjim can be ODF by end of 2018.
As per Swachh Bharat guidelines, an initial assertion was given on November 9 in a public notice announcing that the above 16 wards were free of open defecation. CCP then invited public objections and feedback and since none were received, decided to propose that the government declare the wards as ODF.
“When I initially took over as the commissioner, I was worried that half of the city was still not ODF. To address this issue you need land and construct community toilets. Over a period of time it has been done and we have around 52 community toilets; progress has been made but still we need at least another two community toilets,” CCP Commissioner, Ajit Roy said speaking to Herald,
The CCP is in process of identifying two pockets of land to construct 10 community toilets but as these lands are public and they belonging to different departments, we have to request them to hand over a small portion of this land to us. Once these community toilets are constructed we can be hopeful that Panjim city will be ODF free by this yearend, he said.
Official data shows that overall SBM coverage in the State was 60.59 per cent in 2014, when the mission was launched; the State increased its coverage to 76.22 per cent in 2015-16 fiscal. But since then, the per cent of coverage has not increased in the State.
The CCP has also informed that as per the official survey 300 individual houses in the remaining 14 wards of the capital city do not have individual toilet facilities while claiming that the reason behind it being old buildings where there is lack of space and no toilet facilities.
“On one hand the CCP has an approach to indentify two blocks to construct 10 community toilets while from the government side it is in process of providing individual household toilets as far as what I am given to understand, he clarified.
When asked about the reasons for Panjim failing to achieve the ODF status, the CCP officials said that one of the reasons is the growth in economic activities across the city and the floating population which has no access to toilet facilities and the old building in the city which do not have toilet facilities.
