Kashmir Press Service
Srinagar: Sanitation in Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) is among the worst in India, with more than 54% of more than 1.2 million households without toilets and the 2014-15 target for household latrines falling short by 86%, according to government data.
While J&K is ranked third, the two worst states are Odisha and Bihar, according to the Baseline Survey 2012 of the Union Ministry of Drinking Water & Sanitation.
Meanwhile, Iqbal Colony, Pattan in North Kashmir’s Baramulla district is behind in the Swachh mission.
The residents of the area have time and again appealed Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh and MLA Pattan, Imran Ansari to intervene in the said matter and resolve the issue at earliest.
J&K, a state of 12.5 million people, did not use about 96% of the money granted by Delhi for the sanitation programme for 2014-15, using Rs 4.66 crore of Rs 121.52 crore.
“The sanitation programme is at a preliminary stage in the state,” said Khurshid Ahmad Shah, Secretary, Rural Development. “We are taking measures to fulfil our objective, and it will be done very soon.”
That does not appear immediately evident.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s much-talked-about sanitation programme, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (SBA), is largely unimplemented in J&K, which is partly ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party.
In J&K, 6,351 schools lack toilets for girls and 8,098 lack toilets for boys, according to data from the state’s Unified District Information System for Education (DISE Survey 2014-15).
More than 71% of schools have no basins or taps to wash hands near toilets and urinals.
“Sanitation facilities in the state are very poor, and this is not only limited to villages,” said Dr Nisar ul Hassan, a senior doctor at Shri Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital in Srinagar. “The situation is similar in cities and healthcare institutions as well. Hepatitis A and diarrhoea, particularly in children, caused by rotavirus are common among patients where sanitary facilities are poor.”
40 cases of viral hepatitis, caused by unsafe government-supplied drinking water, were reported from a village in northern Kashmir last month, according to the Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.
Successor to an earlier sanitation programme called the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan, SBA seeks to eliminate open defecation in rural areas of the country by 2019. Jammu and Srinagar were also ranked among the dirtiest districts in India by a recent survey.
The Housing and Urban Development Department J&K, has prepared a document ‘policy vision 2017’ for improvisation of the sanitation system in the state.
“Many areas in J&K have defunct public toilets leaving people to defecate in the open. The community toilets are less than an attraction and stink from almost a quarter of a kilometer away,” it reads.
The HUDD in its document, says that SMC claims to have 78 functional public toilets in Srinagar. “However, on ground, the picture is dismal with many unusable public toilets that are inaccessible for the masses. Similarly a considerable number of public toilets in Jammu city are in a bad shape.”
In order to control the practice of open defecation, it has suggested that more public toilets need to be constructed. “J & K has an ambitious target of making the state open defecation free by 2019. But it only addresses the first component of the sanitation value chain. The pertinent issue of proper collection, conveyance, treatment and disposal of the faecal sludge/septage is likely to remain.”
Further it states that there was no dedicated facility for treatment and disposal of septage and faecal sludge in J & K.
While, a recently released survey Swachh Survekshan has ranked Srinagar at 241 positions in the list of cleanliest cities in the country, while as winter capital Jammu stood at 251st position, thus 10 ranks behind Srinagar in cleanness and other basic civic amenities.
The survey was carried out by the Quality Council of India, which had deployed 421 assessors for on the spot assessment of 17,500 locations in 434 cities and towns.
Another 55 people regularly monitored the survey process in real time. The criteria and weightage for different components of sanitation related aspects used for the survey were: Solid waste management including door-to-door collection, processing, and disposal, ODF (open defecation free) status. These carried 45 per cent of the total 2,000 marks. Citizen feedback – 30 per cent and independent observation – 25 per cent.
Comments are closed.