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.
Assam
A Battle For Survival: To Quench Thirst, Residents Of This Assam Village Collect Water Dripping From Mountains
People living in Semkhor village of Assam have been struggling to access safe water for decades resulting in them having to walk for over a kilometre every time they need to fetch water from the mountains
Dima Hasao: People residing in Semkhor village of Assam are facing acute water crisis even after 70 years of independence. To meet their needs, the residents of this village collect water that drips from the mountains in pits. Crying foul, the locals here told ANI, that governments kept on changing but none helped them in combating the crisis.
Sopesh Pathari, a resident of Semkhor village, narrating his ordeal said,
We drink water which comes out of mountains. We do not have arrangements like tubewell or anything by the government. People residing in the area are drinking water like this.
Their sufferings do not end here; the locals have to travel over a kilometre to fetch water every day. Another resident Khurabi told ANI,
We have a big water problem. We have requested the government department but they did not do anything. We travel one kilometre to get clean water.
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The locals further underscored that Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government has constructed toilets but not provided water in them. A woman here said,
It is very difficult to search for water. We do not even get water to bath.
As per Census 2011, the availability of drinking water in households in Assam within the premises is 55 per cent, near the household premises is 27 per cent, and away from the household premises is 19 per cent. Census 2011 defines the concept of ‘within the premises’ as the area of the household, and ‘near the premises’ in an urban scenario as 100m from the premises and 500m from the premises in a rural scenario. ‘Away’, in the urban scenario, is defined as beyond 100m from the household premises and in a rural area as beyond 500m.