Though listed as one of

Though listed as one of

the backward districts of the country with a dominant tribal population, 130 villages of 14 blocks in the district have been declared open-defecation free (ODF) as the villagers have started using pucca toilets at home.

"The construction of toilets alone cannot ensure the open-defecation free tag for a village. It's only when the villagers start using those toilets and stop defecating in the open that we can declare them ODF," said Collector (Koraput) Jaya Kumar V.

While only 815 and 4694 toilets were built in 2014 and 2015 respectively, the work was expedited in 2016 with the construction of 37445 toilets. "Till September 10 this year, at least 15,200 toilets have been constructed," said Debasish Patnaik, coordinator of the district water and sanitation mission (DWSM).
 

The Collector added, "We aim to declare at least two panchayats of the district ODF on October 2."

Officials said it was not easy to inculcate the habit of using toilets among the villagers as they are used to defecating in the open. However, the awareness camps organized by the district administration at the panchayat headquarters every month have helped, they added.

As per a baseline survey conducted by the administration in 2012-13, as many as 2,75,761 households had no toilets in 2013. "For the year 2016-17, we have been assigned a target of constructing 81,929 toilets in the district. Efforts are on to complete as many as toilets possible at the earliest," said Manoranjan Mali, executive engineer of RWSS (Koraput).