Overcoming hurdles involved in the process, the district
administration is leaving no stone unturned to make Nellore district
100% open defecation free (ODF) by the end of March.

There are
nearly 236 villages still to be covered under this programme with the
officials having drawn plans to mobilise all the necessary men and
material to complete the task in the next five weeks.

As of now,
nearly 700 of the 936 villages have been declared ODF as individual
household latrines (IHHLs) were constructed in the houses of the
beneficiaries by providing Rs. 15,000 subsidy from the side of the
government.

A massive drive was taken up recently at the instance
of Collector R. Mutyala Raju considering the fact that this programme
named ‘Atmagauravam’ in Andhra Pradesh had assumed higher significance
in the context of the rural sanitation and ‘Swachh Bharath’.

As
per an estimate, there were 5.67 lakh households in the 936 village
panchayats in the district. Of these households, it was found out that
the toilets under the Atmagauravam would be needed for 3.24 lakh
households, who had no latrine facility. As many as 2.21 lakh households
were now covered under the scheme while another 50,000 households had
constructed latrines prior to its commencement.

“We now have to
focus on constructing nearly 50,000 toilets in the next few weeks. This
will help achieve the 100% ODF status in the district and we are
confident of achieving this,” said R.V. Krishna Reddy, superintending
engineer, Rural Water Supply.

Issues in usage

He
said there were many problems in making sure that the residents had
made proper use of the toilets and this societal awareness would be
taken up with a greater emphasis in the second phase of the programme.

His
observations came in the light of the fact that in many rural
households, the newly constructed toilets were not being used to serve
the intended purpose but the inmates were turning them into either
bathrooms or store rooms.

In some cases, the residents were preferring use of the toilet facility together with bathrooms in the combined format.

The officials are now involving the people’s representatives as part of the Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) programme.

With
active involvement of sarpanches and local employees, the sanitation
programme in the district is expected to yield better results in future.