The State Government has just given to the Centre a miraculous plan to construct 15 lakh toilets by March next, which is unrealistic, said Water Initiative Odisha (WIO) convenor Ranjan Panda.
Panda said the State Rural Development Secretary has assured the Centre that under the Prime Minister’s Swachchh Bharat Abhiyan while 3 lakh toilets would be built by December 31, the remaining 12 lakh would be completed by March 31.
This means the State Government has to build 5,455 toilets per day till December 31 and 13,333 toilets per day from January to March next year. This is too unrealistic for a State whose toilet construction rate per day so far this year has been a meagre 57 per day, said Panda.
“The State always lags behind the national average in constructing toilets by huge margins. “last year, the national average of toilet construction per day was 13,634, where as it was only 92 in the Odisha. In fact, in 2012-13, it had a better record of 324 toilets per day which has only gone down recently,” said Panda, adding that with such a poor record, the State Government was only day dreaming and set to fail.
In fact, a Swachh Bharat or clean India cannot be achieved if the effort is limited to such target based construction of toilets. There is no guarantee that the toilets would be used. Besides building toilets, the Government should ensure water supply and promote use of the toilets. Usability of toilets in rural Odisha is pathetically low at the moment, Panda informed. Panda also emphasized on proper management plan for the fecal sludge. He cautioned that If at all the toilets are constructed in such a mad rush, the quality of construction is surely going to suffer thus reducing the chance of their usability further, Panda observed.
He said that hurried construction leaves a lot of scope for corruption, adding that the Government needs to emphasise on quality and usability.