The Angul district administration’s efforts to make villages open defecation-free (ODF) has yielded positive results. This has made Odisha as a frontrunner State in individual household latrine (IHHl) construction. A World Bank Team has already visited the district and noted the method adopted here to be replicated elsewhere. Chief Secretary GC Pati visited the district to preside over a function at Kumursingha to declare the entire gram panchayat as ODF. Kumursingha is the first GP in the State to have IHHl for each of its 1,519 households in nine revenue villages.
The district administration adopted a community-led total sanitation (ClTS) approach for this and involved PRI members and communities in this exercise. Under the leadership of sarpanches, each GP was divided into communities of a stage size of 50 households.
The Feedback Foundation, supported by the DFID, trained motivators drawn from the community itself to follow the ClTS approach. Decision making about place of latrine, purchase of materials, construction, etc, was taken by the community through Palli Sabhas.
The Chief Secretary felicitated 32 village communities for making their villages ODF and 14 sarpanches for their extraordinary leadership for the cause. In February, 10 more GPs in the district are expected to become ODF as these are on the verge of completion.