ROURKELA: Rourkela Municipal Corporation (RMC) area has been declared as Open Defecation Free (ODF). In a function organised at Udit Nagar High School on December 31, RMC’s innovative idea to hand over community toilets to the Self- help groups (SHGs) was appreciated.
At the event, for the operation and maintenance of community toilets, six women SHGs signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with RMC.
Rashmita Panda, Commissioner of RMC, while addressing the event said, “Rourkela-Smart City having 40 Wards with a population of 3,20,040 and 69,865 households is now an ODF city. We have constructed a considerable number of community toilets for slum dwellers, 64 such toilets are in place with 620 seats and 53 public toilets with total 251 seats were also constructed at various prominent places.”
She further added that the target set to construct individual household toilets was 5186. 4290 of the total are fully completed and people are already using it. The remaining 896 individual household toilets are at the final stage of completion. She also said that residents of these 896 households are now using community toilets and public toilets. Some of them are also using toilets on sharing basis with their neighbours.
On a daily basis, the members of Nigrani Committees and the SHGs supervised the open defecation sites in their respective slums and wards during early morning hours and evening hours. The members approached there sidents of their wards through various community meetings and door to door visits making them aware of the health and the environmental issues caused due to open defecation.
The Nigrani Committees will now act as Sanitation Committee sand will monitor the sustainability of ODF status including other sanitation activities and proceed towards ODF+ & ODF++ in the coming days, said Rashmita Panda. She requested everyone to maintain the status of ODF for further sustainability and to proceed forward to achieve higher tags like ODF+ & ODF++.