New Delhi : Secretary, Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Ministry of Jal Shakti, Government of India yesterday said that the government is making all efforts to get a functional household tap connection into every rural household, in a campaign mode. “Our mission is that by 2024, we should have given a functional tap connection to every household. Starting from the base of about 17% in 2019, we have reached 40% as of now,” she added.
Addressing the meeting on ‘Public Private Partnership with DDWS for the 100 – Districts ‘Model block’ (lighthouse) initiative’ organized by India Sanitation Coalition, jointly with the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Ministry of Jal Shakti, Government of India and FICCI, Ms Mahajan said, “We have to make sure that the grey water is effectively managed, and we need to ensure that there is a reduction in vector and waterborne diseases.”
The Secretary also highlighted, “If we have to take care of India, then we have to take care of countryside and our rural population.”
Ms Mahajan further added that there are different opportunities and possibilities that the rural areas offer, not least of them being the strong sense of community. “There is much larger possibility of community participation,” she added.
Ms Mahajan also urged the industry to engage and leverage the rural community groupings in the planning stage of the projects. “Can we do waste to wealth and convert organic waste into bio manure on one hand and also extract compost gas for energy purposes,” she emphasized.
Mr Arun Baroka, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Jal Shakti said, “We are interested in engagement of people, particularly youth and the technical and managerial skills the people have. Now we need to focus on ODF plus villages. We need to create lighthouse projects in the 100 blocks of 100 districts.”
Ms Naina Lal Kidwai, Chair, India Sanitation Coalition and Past President, FICCI said, “The focus is on promoting scalable and commercially viable solutions to make the sanitation economy work. Statistics showed that Swachh Bharat missions work has saved millions of lives and the lasting impact. We have to look at the solid and liquid waste management aspect which is very much part of SBM.”
Mr Nicolas Osbert Chief, Water, Sanitation, Hygiene (WASH) at UNICEF India set the context for global hand hygiene being an effective measure to control multiple disease incidences including that of diarrhoea. He also spoke about the genesis and rational of THE hand hygiene hackathon 2022 organised at the behest of India Sanitation and UNICEF.
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