Highlights
- Google toilet locator will help a resident find the nearest public toilet
- The app will also give information about how clean the toilet is
- 1,117 locations of public toilets have been made live in the state
New Delhi: Ever since the largest ever sanitation survey in the world covering nearly 40 crore people commenced on January 4, civic bodies across India are heavily engrossed in multiple activities that can improve their state of cleanliness. The three month long Swachh Survekshan 2018 is already proving to be a boon for many states and Jharkhand is certainly one of them. In a bid to sustain its open defecation free (ODF) tag that the urban areas of Jharkhand acquired on Rashtriya Swachhta Diwas, the government has made toilet access easier for the common man by mapping them on google maps.
“Making 41 cities of Jharkhand free from open defecation was a long and arduous task. Due to space constraints we had to increase the number of public or community toilets. In the past 2-3 months we came across open defecation instances despite having sufficient amount of toilets. To solve this problem and ensure a better Survekshan ranking, we uploaded location details of public and community toilets on the Google locator,” said Pranav Kumar Paul, Assistant Director, Swachh Bharat Urban, Jharkhand.
#Jharkhand has mapped all of its Public/Community Toilets and Toilets in Malls, Petrol Pumps, Restaurants etc. on @googlemaps across 41 cities.
1,117 locations of "Swachh Public Toilets" have now gone live in the state! pic.twitter.com/ixrVkeYMDl
— Swachh Bharat Urban (@SwachhBharatGov) January 4, 2018
The government has mapped over 2,000 public and community toilets in markets, railway stations, bus stands, malls, petrol pumps and restaurants across all its cities. Out of the marked toilets, around 1,117 locations of “Swachh Public Toilets” have now been made live in the state. Additional information like whether the toilet is Indian or western styled, whether it is free or when it is open, will also be available.
After the using the toilet, a user can also mark its cleanliness by reviewing or giving star ranking to the toilet. The user can also upload an image of the toilet via the google maps for other users to judge its cleanliness before using it.
In last year’s nationwide cleanliness ranking, cities of Jharkhand showcased a poor performance. Among the 434 cities that were ranked, the cleanest Jharkhand city, Chas managed to get the 41 st spot. More prominent cities like Jamshedpur (64) and Ranchi (117) failed to even feature among India’s top 50 clean cities.
“Gaining a decent spot in Swachh Survekshan 2018 will be all the more challenging for Jharkhand as this year it is covering all the 4,041 cities. Hence the state is striving to strengthen all its arenas – from ensuring zero cases of open defecation to achieving 100 per cent waste segregation,” added Mr Paul.
