States and cities in the country will have to come out with their sanitation strategies in the next two years, according to a national urban sanitation policy unveiled by the government today.
The strategies would be prepared with the financial help from the Urban Development Ministry, which has funds worth about Rs 50,000 crore for the purpose under the Eleventh Plan.
Implementation of the strategies would be through the public-private partnership (PPP) route, aid from Plan funds and multilateral aid, Urban Development Secretary M Ramachandran said today. “The total scale of the requirement will be known as and when states and cities come up with individual plans,” he said.
The policy targets open defecation-free cities and advocates community planned and managed toilets wherever possible. It also emphasises solutions for disposal that enable recycling of waste. There would be periodic rating of cities based on the sanitation coverage and maintenance, as well as central government prizes to cities and towns based on their performance.
The ministry has begun the first survey on sanitation, which would produce the first ever rating of urban areas on the basis of sanitation parameters.
According to the policy, cities would form a task force headed by the mayor, with participation of various stakeholders. It also suggests appointment of city sanitation ambassadors, who could be celebrities, to help policy implementation.
The policy envisages transforming all cities and towns into 100 per cent sanitised healthy and livable spaces, ensuring sustained public health and improved environmental outcomes for all, the urban secretary said.
According to figures available with the ministry, unsafe disposal of sanitation is to the extent of 46 to 82 per cent in the country, implying that even where there are toilets, the disposal is not done properly because of ill-maintained septic tanks, leading to unhygienic conditions and even contamination of groundwater, ministry officials said.
Of the 54 million households in urban India, 26 per cent do not have toilets or access to individual sanitation, while almost 50 million people have to defecate in the open.
According to Ramachandran, around three-fourths of the available surface water is polluted with 80 per cent of the pollution being contributed by sewage alone.
Maharashtra is one of the six states which have already prepared a road map for total sanitation in urban areas. Madhya Pradesh and Bengal are also ready with their plans. Maharashtra government officials said that their model was based on the experiment in Kolhapur where two NGOs and a foreign technology provider came together with the municipality and the community.
They added that the emphasis was on local disposal of waste and recycling of water, thus implying less expense on huge sewer lines. “The policy will be a good umbrella of governance that is required for sanitation efforts in urban areas, especially in slums,” said Sheila Patel, one of the members in the governing board of the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission.
So far, sanitation for slums was denied government recognition as slums were considered illegal. Now, with a policy which talks of sanitation even in slums, it would be easier to engage municipalities with local communities and come up with local solutions.
