Even as Odisha is aiming big to grab more Smart Cities, a reality check reveals how Odisha figured among the top ‘dirty dozen’ in the country. At times, the State was seen trailing far behind from some BIMARU (Bihar, Jharkhand, MP, UP and Chhattisgarh) States.
With only one-third of over 1,012 wards having sewer network, Odisha lags behind States such as Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh. More so, it is second State after Jharkhand in the country where a whopping over 83 per cent rural households lives without drainage arrangement. The result: Jaundice and diarrhoea take an acute grip equally across the urban-rural divide in Odisha quite often. More shocking is an around 7 per cent wards having dumping grounds for solid waste disposal in the State never get cleaned.
Only 45 per cent wards in Odisha have door-to-door waste collection system against 91 per cent in Andhra Pradesh. When waste generation per day in wards is over 2,460 tonnes, only 2 per cent waste gets processed against the national average of 18 per cent. Moreover, with only one-fifth of the wards having community toilets in the State, swachhta becomes a victim of open littering.
Such startling ground realties were brought to fore by a recently released nationwide rapid survey done on Swachhta status during the year 2014-15 by National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO). According to the survey, with only 26 per cent rural households having access to sanitary toilets and a whopping 99.5 per cent village in State without community toilets, Odisha has 3rd highest rural open defecation after Jharkhand and MP in the country. With over 14 per cent open defecation rate in urban areas, Odisha is second in the dubious list nationally. The survey finds that while women use toilets the most in Odisha, elderly gives a thumb down to toilets.
What comes out significantly from the survey is the few community toilets the rural areas in Odisha have never get cleaned at all. The result: Very few prefer to use them. Moreover, with only 20 per cent having access to water to use in toilets, open defecation is rampant in rural Odisha.
However, with the launch of Swachhta Bharat Mission (SBM), a high of 9.1 lakh Individual Household latrines (IHHls) were constructed in State till February last against mere 1.3lakh in 2014-15. The survey, however, shows when the State had seen 3,302 IHHls under MGNREGS in 2014-15, no single work has been taken up under the scheme in 2015-16. Other flipsides observed are: Under Bal Swachhta Mission only 46 per cent Anganwadis in State have toilets against 71 per cent in Uttar Pradesh and no internal assessment done under ‘Kayakalp’ scheme for health centres (PHCs and CHCs) in State. Significantly, the ‘Kayakalp’ scheme provision cash awards ranging from Rs 5 crore to Rs 2 lakh for health centres (district hospitals to PHCs) having best cleanliness and sanitation.