With 60.50 Lakh Toilets Built, Urban India Is Confident About Going ODF Before October 2019

New Delhi: Urban areas of India have been able to construct nearly 60.5 lakh individual households toilets under the Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) in four years’ time and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs is confident that the remaining target of constructing 67 lakh toilets will be achieved before the timeline of October 2019. Recently, speaking at a government event in New Delhi, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs Secretary Durga Shanker Mishra highlighted the achievements of the Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) and said, “19 states and Union Territories in the urban regions of India have achieved the Open Defecation Free (ODF) target. The sanitation rate in urban areas is at 94 per cent today as the construction of nearly 60.53 lakh individual household toilets and 4 lakh community toilets have been completed against a mission target of 67 lakhs and 5.8 lakhs, respectively.”

Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs said that with this current rate of toilet construction, the ministry is confident that urban areas will be able to achieve the targets before the deadline of October 2019.

Also Read: 40 Per Cent Of Teenage Girls Still Defecate In Open, 50 Per Cent Anaemic In India: Teen Age Girls Report 2018

Sharing the statistics of the urban India toilet construction achievements with the netizens, Hardeep Singh Puri added,

The vision of an Open Defecation Free country which is in sync with the aim of Sustainable Development Goal-6 of @UN is anchored in the construction of individual & community toilets.

Also Read: Community Efforts Key To Management Of Solid Waste In India: Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri

Taking a step ahead, the ministry has also released a book of case studies titled ‘Transforming Urban Landscapes of India: Success Stories on Sanitation’ which documents good sanitation practices from across the country. Along with that, documents highlighting the factors that have contributed to the success of Swachh Bharat Mission – Urban titled ‘Cleaning Urban India’ and the ‘Advisory on Public and Community Toilets’ was also released that emphasise on an end-to-end approach for planning, designing, construction, operation and maintenance, and upgradation of public and community facilities and related infrastructure.

Moreover, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for cleaning sewers and septic tanks for field workers has also been released in order to ensure their safety and prevent critical accidents.

NDTV – Dettol Banega Swachh India campaign lends support to the Government of India’s Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM). Helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan, the campaign aims to spread awareness about hygiene and sanitation, the importance of building toilets and making India open defecation free (ODF) by October 2019, a target set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, when he launched Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in 2014. Over the years, the campaign has widened its scope to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and menstrual hygiene. The campaign has also focused extensively on marine pollution, clean Ganga Project and rejuvenation of Yamuna, two of India’s major river bodies.