BeMC to hand over management of SeTP to SHG

The Berhampur Municipal Corporation (BeMC) will hand over the management of the Septage Treatment Plant (SeTP) at Mahuda on the outskirt of this south Odisha city to a woman self help group (SHG) by the civic body, an official said on Sunday.

The BeMC has set up a 40-kld SeTP at an investment of Rs 2 crore at Mahuda. The SeTP is producing compost on a trial basis at present.

A BeMC official said that an evaluation programme was organised to select the woman SHG to maintain and operate the SeTP recently.

Out of 70 SHGs which had applied for the work, the civic body has shortlisted four considering their earlier performance, he said.

The woman SHG will be selected soon. The selected SHG will undergo training for two months on the management of the SeTP before taking up the job, BeMC commissioner Chakravarti Singh Rathore said.

The aim of the initiative is to boost financial inclusion among the women SHGs in the urban areas, said the BeMC commissioner.

"The initiative will open a window for women SHGs to set a milestone to be entrepreneurs in the sanitation value chain by ensuring financial inclusion of women living in urban poor areas," he said.

As many as 26 SHGs have already been managing the 36 community toilets in areas under BeMC jurisdiction.

The initiative will create a model for others in the state to adopt inclusion of women SHGs to operate and maintain the SeTPs, said an engineer of Odisha Water Supply and Sewerage Board (OWSSB) which is the nodal agency for setting up and managing all SeTPs in the state.

Odisha has been a pioneer in liquid waste management by establishing a structured FSSM (Faecal Sludge and Septage Management) roadmap for other states, he said.

The State Housing and Urban Development department has planned to achieve 100 per cent scientific disposal of faecal sludge and septage across 114 Urban local bodies (ULBs) including all five corporations in the state - Berhampur, Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Sambalpur and Rourkela.