Incentives in place of subsidies for toilet construction in Haryana
Haryana government has decided to replace subsidy culture for toilet construction with incentives to encourage people to take ownership of the latrines. Households will no longer be getting the subsidy amount of Rs 12,000 but will be eligible for incentives for constructing toilets while panchayats and municipal corporations will be awarded for maintaining cleanliness. Haryana is working towards transforming all of its districts into open defecation free (ODF) zones by December next year while eight districts, including Gurgaon, are expected to be declared ODF by this November.
Kabali tickets for constructing toilets in Puducherry
The Puducherry administration has promised free tickets to the Rajnikanth-starrer blockbuster movie Kabali as a reward for people from 147 families who have constructed toilets at their homes in Puducherry and Karaikal. So far, 450 persons have been identified and will be presented with the movie tickets. Corporate houses have come forward to chip in for these incentives as part of their Swachh Bharat CSR commitments.
Bhubaneswar's poor public toilet infrastructure forces people to pee in public
People in Bhubaneswar city are forced to urinate in public due to the lack of adequate toilet infrastructure. A majority of the public toilets remain inaccessible, with lack of water and cleanliness emerging as the top two constraints. Public toilets in busy market areas and bus terminals are rendered useless due to poor maintenance. Apart from constructing new units in places that lack public convenience facilities, the Bhubaneswar municipal corporation should focus on deputing its staff or private consultancy firms to maintain existing infrastructure.
Rainwater to be routed to latrines to ensure toilet usage in Tripura schools
As part of the Swachh Vidyalaya Abhiyan, a massive campaign has been planned in Tripura to equip schools in the state with rooftop rain water harvesting structures. The water thus accumulated will be supplied to the toilets to ensure their continued usage. Despite several school toilets constructed with the help of CSR funds, over 60 percent of them remain unused due to lack of adequate water. ONGC which has been involved in school toilet construction, called for this expert meeting attended by members from ARPAN Society in Agartala and Auroville Foundation of Tamil Nadu, apart from school principals and teachers.
Children roped in to spread the swachh message
The Ministry of Urban Development’s new Swachh Bharat ad campaign has put children in the forefront of sanitation and hygiene promotion. Children have turned out to be one of the best sanitation behaviour change agents, transforming learning into action and influencing parents to construct toilets at their homes. The ad campaign with its Shauchalaya ki adat pakki, wahi asli tarakki slogan features children trying to get the real meaning of ‘development’ across and appealing to elders to construct toilets at home.
This is a roundup of important sanitation-related news published between July 16 and 22, 2016.