Rural Uttarakhand Achieves 100% Toilet Coverage, Declared Open Defecation Free

New Delhi: Since the beginning of June rural Uttarakhand has been keenly waiting for this moment. It had achieved 100 per cent toilet coverage in more than 7,500 villages and now rural Uttarakhand has been declared open defecation free (ODF). Since the launch of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in 2014, 5,84,000 individual toilets in 13 districts have been constructed.

Under the Namami Gange initiative to clean river Ganga all 131 villages located near the banks of river have also been declared ODF.

The verification process which went on for more than a month took place in four stages. The basic verification was conducted by the local block officers, which was followed by district verification. Once the villages passed the required infrastructure test, state officials and the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation conducted a rigorous hygiene, sanitation and infrastructure test.

To celebrate this milestone, the state government organised a day long programme at ONGC Academy in Dehradun today. The ODF certificate was handed over by the Param Iyer, Secretary Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation at the event.

The programme kickstarted with a Swachhta exhibition which showcased various techniques of waste management adopted by the state government. Present at the event were Chief Minister of Uttarakhand Trivendra S Rawat, Secretary Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation Param Iyer and Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar.

Mr Iyer congratulated Uttarakhand for becoming the fourth ODF state after Kerala, Himachal Pradesh and Sikkim and tweeted “Congratulations to Uttarakhand for becoming the 4th state in India to become ODF! @swachhbharat @nstomar,”

Giving credit to the people of Uttarakhand he further said that it is only because of community participation and behavourial change towards swachhta that the state has achieved the ODF mark

To honour the efforts of government officials in achieving this ambitious feat, Mr Tomar presented gram panchayats, block and districts sanitation officials with ODF certificates.

Chief Minister Rawat dedicated the success of ODF in rural areas to the people and said, “Community participation has played a huge role in making rural areas free from open defecation. I would like to specially thank the heads of village who are the reals heroes.”

As the chief minister declared rural Uttarakhand ODF today, the urban part is expected to go ODF by end of this fiscal year as confirmed by Chief Minister Rawat in a tweet.

“I declare, here today that after rural Uttarakhand, the government will make urban Uttarakhand ODF by end of this fiscal year,”

Gram Pradhan from Rudraprayag district talked about various activities that were undertaken to make his village ODF, “After Prime Minister launched the Swachh Bharat Mission, I started cleanliness drive with renewed vigor in my village,” he said.

The director of State Water and Sanitation Mission further said that after achieving ODF status, the next target for gram panchayats is to focus on Solid Waste Management, “After achieving #ODF status 2 years ahead of 2019, GPs in Uttarakhand are focussing on SLWM.”

Also Read: Uttarakhand Women Become Entrepreneurs To Access Toilets And Clean Water