The tribal districts of the State are prone to various epidemics as water supply and sanitation are very poor. Open defecation is astronomically high in the urban areas in the tribal districts, which incidentally is three times over that of national average in the urban tribal districts.
The latest Census data portrays the stinking status in the tribal districts in Odisha. In urban areas of tribal districts, the intensity of open defecation practice is quite high with around seven in ten going for it. Comparably, the intensity of open defecation in urban areas of non-tribal districts is far less with only three in ten doing so. In the rural areas, nine in ten go for open defecation in the State.
Despite the Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) in force for over a decade and a half, the Census data shows that improved sanitation facilities are limited to only 29 per cent in urban areas of tribal districts against 61 per cent nationally. The corresponding status in rural areas is only 5 per cent against 10 per cent nationally.
Incidentally, the jaundice scare has jolted the State first in Sambalpur, which has an over one-third of population as tribals. The Government’s apathy can well be ascertained form the fact that way back in City-Sanitation ranking report in 2010, the Union Urban Development Ministry had warned the State by including Sambalpur in the ‘RED’ colour code indicating that the city is on the brink of public health and environmental emergency and needs remedial action.
In the indicators of open defecation, accessibility of toilets to urban poor and floating population, proportion of black/grey waste water treated, functioning of sewerage disposal system and proportion of solid waste generated and treated, the city fared the poorest nationally.
Though the State Urban Development Department officially stated that the State Sanitation Mission has been upgraded to the level of the Rural Health Mission, the outcome now is for all to see. Another shocker from the Census data is in the tribal districts nine in ten tribal households have no drainage system at all compared to seven in ten in their non-tribal counterparts in Odisha.
Moreover, only one tribal household in Odisha’s urban areas have access to tap water from treated source against four nationally. Though around 16 per cent tribal households in the urban areas have tap connection to their houses, it is pertinent to mention that tap water from treated source is accessible to only 30 per cent urban households even in non- scheduled tribal districts, reveals the latest data.
Owing to untreated water supply coupled with poor drainage and sanitation scenario, Odisha has been in the grip of water borne diseases like diarrhoea, typhoid, jaundice and cholera. The latest Economic Survey concedes that dysentery/diarrhoea alone results in around five deaths every day in the State.
In the given context, the progress of Total Sanitation Campaign (TSP) in Odisha last year has been very tardy. The State could achieve only 56 per cent of the target of provisioning toilets to individual households and with respect to sanitary complexes the rate was very poor with achievement of around 20 per cent of the target. However, the State was successful in covering the target completely in schools and Anganwadis.