Five towns in state take up sanitation plan

The State Institute of Urban Development (SIUD) of the Karnataka government has got city sanitation plan (CSP) ready for 26 towns and cities in five backward districts of Karnataka from the All India Institute for Local Self-Government, Pune.

Four towns have begun to give effect to the plan.

The Mysore-based SIUD is an urban sector apex State Training Institute, established by the Department of Urban Development, in 1999 with the vision to ensure good urban governance through capacity building and research.

Its activities comprise building capacities of stakeholders in urban local bodies (ULBs), suggesting methodologies through action research and documentation of best practices, enhancing capacity for improving quality of urban good governance, upgrading skills of urban functionaries and bringing attitudinal changes at all levels.

The National Urban Sanitation Policy 2008 has come out with a call to prepare CSP to overcome sanitation issues. In this direction, the SIUD has got the CSP drafted for 26 towns and five cities in the state.

As per the recent census, only 31 per cent of the urban population has safe sewerage, 53 per cent has safe drinking water and even today open defecation is observed in urban areas, said Administrative Training Institute (ATI) Director General Amita Prasad.

Delivering the keynote address at a two-day national level workshop organised by the ATI and the SIUD on urban sanitation yesterday in Mysore, she said, the country's urban population is increasing. However, Karnataka is ahead of the country in urbanisation. She called upon urban denizens to come out to assist in the government's efforts as it alone cannot solve the issue of urban sanitation.

Inaugurating the workshop, Karnataka's Urban Development Additional Chief Secretary Satya Murthy, said: "There cannot be any one plan to deal with urban sanitation. We need to have short term and long term planning."

To address the issue." He cited the example of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and Mandur agitation which has attracted the world's attention in solid waste management.

Against this background, he called for a serious look into urban sanitation issue and building up a healthy living environment in urban areas.

"Urban functionaries like engineers and commissioners have to discharge their duties consciously keeping in mind their responsibilities. The system of not working has to be converted into a working system. We cannot create resources like water, but can manage better to save, use and reuse water in a sustainable way. We lack reliable data to manage urban sanitation," he said.