CSE questions sustainability of ODF success

The Centre for Science and Environment has questioned the sustainability of the government's Swachh Bharat Mission and raised concerns over the maintenance of the nearly 100 million toilets constructed under the ambitious programme.

The advocacy group asked how will these toilets be kept functional and how will the "tonnes of waste" generated by them be disposed of efficiently.

India has built 100 million toilets in about six lakh villages, and another 6.3 million in cities in the last four years, it said.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that rural India and its villages are now open defecation-free (ODF).

CSE director general Sunita Narain said till five years ago, India was home to 60 per cent of the world's people who defecated in the open.

"If the nation now achieves ODF status, it means a huge leap forward not only for it, but for the world as a whole. It will take the world a long way on its sustainable development goal of universal coverage to toilets and safe disposal of excreta," Narain said.

However, she said, the scale of this transition is so massive that it will mean new, bigger challenges.

"Will the extraordinary success of the Swachh Bharat Mission stand the test of time," she asked.

"How will the over 100 million toilets be maintained and kept functional? Will people continue to use them? Will the millions of tonnes of waste generated by these toilets be managed and disposed of efficiently, without polluting the environment? How will we make this success sustainable, make it last?"
At an event on Wednesday, Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said, "I congratulate everyone on having achieved the dream of an open defection-free India (except 52 urban local bodies of West Bengal)."