While the government focused on increasing sanitation coverage in the rural areas as the awareness level was low there, it could pay enough attention to construct public toilets in big cities and emerging towns, said Secretary at Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD), Kishor Thapa. [break]
A data issued by the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) shows that 97 percent of the city households have toilet. But there are only 61 public toilets for around 4 million valley dwellers. No wonder the municipal staff are struggling to stop open defecation at the overhead bridges and roadsides.
The general perception that urban people do not need to be sensitized to build toilets at home holds true. But a person who is habituated to using toilet at home will be compelled to urinate and defecate in open in absence of proper public toilet.
The limited number of public toilets in the city are very poorly managed, dirty and face acute water shortage though the contractor continue to charge anything from Rs 5 to 20, admitted the officers.
In practice, the policy only focused on making every households build toilet to achieve total ODF till 2017. As a result the urban authorities now face the daunting challenge of meeting the ODF targets while human excreta continue to be directly exposed to rivers and streams, as almost all the sewerage pipes are connected to them.
To meet the challenge, the ODF declaration deadlines for the urban centers have been extended. "The ODF target of Janakpur, Birgunj and Biratnagar has been scheduled for the end of 2016 and 2017 respectively," Thapa said.
In the capital valley, Bhaktapur, the smallest district, is going to be first to achieve ODF status amid a public event on October 21. Here as well, most the VDCs have already achieved the target while its two municipalities lag behind.
The Bhaktapur District Development Committee is currently constructing ten public toilets to meet the target. When the government planned to declare Kalikot as the ODF district in the beginning of this year, all 30 VDCs had achieved the target by constructing toilet in every household, but Manma, the district headquarters, delayed the achievement.
"The villagers had picketed Manma municipality office to pressurize to meet the target soon," says Awadh Kishor Mishra, a Joint-Secretary at the MoUD.
In June, Kalikot became the first ODF district in the Karnali zone and second in Mid-Western Development Region though it ranks 71 on the Human Development Index among the 75 districts of the Country. The municipality had to construct public toilets to achieve the target.
A huge amount of money needs to be allocated with a special campaign to construct public toilets in the urban areas to meet the national target in four years, Mishra added.
However, the government is yet to figure out the number of public toilets needed to be constructed. In fact, the authorities remain unaware of the existing number of public restrooms across the country.
"We are planning to set the ideal ratio of restrooms at public places," said Ram Chandra Sah, an Under-Secretary at the Department of Drinking Water and Sewerages Management (DoDWSM).Sah claimed that his Department along with the MoUD would also push the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development to include the public toilet construction work in the municipalities.
Likewise, the authorities are also looking forward to coordinate with non-governmental sectors and corporate houses to promote the plan under corporate social responsibility.
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