Minister for Drinking Water and Sanitation Department Ram Chandra Sahis on Friday counted the State’s success in making Jharkhand 100 per cent Open Defecation Free (ODF) as one of the greatest achievements of his department in the past four and a half years of the incumbent Government.
Addressing media persons in Ranchi on Friday, Sahis said, “Only 16 per cent households in rural Jharkhand had personal toilets in 2015. At present, all the households in rural Jharkhand have personal toilets. This is a great feat for the State as we achieved our target a year in advance.”
As per figures with the Drinking Water and Sanitation Department, as many as 6,48,959 households had personal toilets back in 2015. In 2019, at least 39,93,586 households have personal, useable toilets, the figures say. The target was achieved in linear progression. In year 2015-2016, at least 25 per cent households had personal toilets. The number increased to 46 per cent in year 2016-2017, 76 per cent in year 2017-2018 and 100 per cent in 2018-2019, a document provided by the Department on Friday said. On November 15, 2018, Jharkhand’s Statehood Day, the state was declared 100 per cent ODF.
In the remaining four months of the Government, the Department plans to provide clean drinking water to at least 11,124 identified Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe populated colonies, said Sahis, adding that as many as 2,251 colonies populated by Particularly Vulnerable Tribe Groups (PVTG) will also come under the ambit of the project. “We have set up at least 19 new water testing laboratories, thereby ensuring that each of the 24 districts in Jharkhand has a water testing lab,” said Sahis.
The Department was earlier headed by Chandra Prakash Choudhary, who got elected to the upper house of the parliament after the recently concluded 17th General Elections and vacated the minister’s position. Sahis took charge of the Department hardly a month ago.
However, in the remaining four months of his short stint as the minister for the Department, he assured to do his best for water conservation and supply of clean drinking water.
“Former Minister CP Choudharyji, Prime Minister Narendra Modiji and our Chief Minister Raghubar Das have set targets and achieved them with ease. I salute them for their dedication and assure to achieve all the targets that they set for my Department in the days to come,” Sahis said.
He added that his Department was rigorously working on setting up water harvesting system in Government buildings and focusing on afforestation to conserve water. Drinking Water and Sanitation Secretary Aradhana Patnaik said that water harvesting system was already set up in the main Government buildings such as Project Building in Ranchi. “We will run a phase-wise project in all districts for setting up of water harvesting system in Government buildings,” said Patnaik.