Sustainability challenges in ODF villages

India’s spectacular achievement of making villages Open Defecation Free (ODF) came with the challenge of sustaining the ODF status.
Sustainability challenges in ODF villages
Published on

India’s spectacular achievement of making villages Open Defecation Free (ODF) came with the challenge of sustaining the ODF status. The villages attaining ODF Plus status by sustaining their ODF status and implementing either solid or liquid waste management systems encounter challenges in sustainable plastic waste management. Nearly 50% of villages across the country declaring their status as ODF plus marks a significant milestone of Swachh Bharat Mission Grameen (SBM-G) going beyond the construction of toilets. The top performing states with ODF Plus villages are Telangana (100%), Karnataka (99.5%), Tamil Nadu (97.8%), Uttar Pradesh (95.2%) among the large states, and Goa (95.3%) and Sikkim (69.%) among the small states. These states have set the benchmark for the pace of implementation of the SBM (G) for other states. Less than 12% of the total 25,501 villages in Assam declaring ODF plus status till date show that the pace of SBM-G implementation in the state needs momentum to catch up with the top-performing states. The desired goal of SBM-G is for ODF villages to finally graduate to ODF Plus Model Villages, which sustain their ODF status, have arrangements for both solid and liquid waste management, minimal litter, minimal stagnant wastewater, no plastic waste dumps in public places, and display ODF Plus Information, Education, and Communication (IEC) messages. The huge impact of rural India becoming open defecation-free in the health sector has been witnessed, and hence sustaining the ODF status is also critical to achieving Sustainable Development Goal 3 of ensuing health and well-being for all. The World Health Organisation estimated that 100% implementation of SBM (G) could prevent three lakh diarrheal deaths in the country. In 2017, UNICEF estimated that a household in an ODF village saves on average Rs 50,000 a year due to improved health. In addition to water availability, grey water management, faecal sludge management, and plastic waste management are key determinants of the sustainability of ODF status in a village, but they can be achieved only by making villagers key stakeholders and not leaving the responsibility only for the panchayat and various government officials and representatives. Across the country, 22 lakh community and household soak pits have been constructed to manage grey water—the wastewater generated in everyday household chores such as cleaning, cooking, bathing, etc. The SBM (G) supports districts to strengthen mechanised desludging of sanitation systems and the establishment of treatment plants for safe disposal of faecal sludge. At the household level, faecal sludge is managed by the retrofitting of toilets into twin pits, while at the village level, it is managed at sewage treatment plants for clusters of villages or at faecal sludge treatment plants located in urban areas for villages located closer to such urban areas. In Assam, so far, only 1465 community soak pits, 800 community compost pits, and one faecal sludge treatment plant have been constructed. These figures speak volumes about the current implementation goals under SBM (G) that the state needs to achieve to meet the target dates. More than 50% of rural households in the state still do not have functional tap water connections, despite significant progress under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM). This speaks volumes about the magnitude of the challenge of sustaining the ODF status, particularly in more than 8700 villages where water supply work has yet to start. The existence of only 18 plastic waste management units against 25,501 villages when the plastic waste menace is growing not just in Guwahati city, various towns, and other urban areas but also in villages calls for a review of the SBM (G) implementation in conjunction with other flagship missions like JJM and banning single-use plastics (SUP). Failure of the states to effectively enforce the SUP ban has allowed the circulation of prohibited plastics, posing hurdles in achieving the end goals of the SBM (G) mission of improving the status of the ODF villages as ODF model villages. Affordability and easy availability of alternatives to SUPs and strengthening enforcement of the prohibition need to be prioritised by the central and state governments to overcome the challenges. The circulation of SUP despite the blanket ban not only highlights the deficiencies of local administrations but is also indicative of the poor level of awareness among people about the pollution threat from SUP. Raising the awareness level will significantly reduce the burden of plastic waste management in villages and bring down expenditures on the establishment and operation of plastic waste management units. If ignored, the plastic waste management problem will soon become unmanageable in villages and will continue to drag down ODF plus villages and prevent those from attaining the ODF model villages even after putting in place robust mechanisms for grey water and faecal sludge management. All key stakeholders in village administration and community leaders in Assam are looking at SBM (G) beyond the construction of toilets for every household, which has become an urgent necessity to sustain the open defecation-free status of villages.

Top News

No stories found.
The Sentinel - of this Land, for its People
www.sentinelassam.com