The governor of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) declared the state open defecation free (ODF) on September 15, 2018. This ODF status has not been validated by the central government’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India Mission), but even if it is, Jammu has a bigger problem.
The state’s winter capital generates over 22,000 tanker loads (157 million litres daily or mld) of untreated sewage (94% of the 167 mld sewage produced by the city), which flows into open drains and contaminates the city’s water bodies and sources of drinking water, threatening its population of over 550,000 and its large floating population of
