Secretary at the Prime Minister´s Office (PMO) Krishna Hari Banskota on Saturday proudly declared Gundu village development committee (VDC) in Bhaktapur open-defecation-free (ODF) zone in the presence of hundreds of locals. [break]
Three other VDCs in the district are yet to be declared ODF zone. However, the government needs to declare three other ODF zones by October 21 as Nepal is hosting the “South Asian Conference on Sanitation” on 22 October. The government has planned to declare Bhaktapur an open defecation free district before the conference. After the declaration, Bhaktapur will be the 10th ODF district in the country.
“So far, 1,012 VDCs across the country have already been declared ODF zones. Our target would be met if we declare three other VDCs in Bhaktapur ODF zones,” said Banskota.
According to millennium development report released recently, the annual rate of sanitation coverage should be increased from the current 2.9 percent to 4.5 percent if the country is to meet the ODF target by 2017. If the government does not expedite efforts, it is unlikely to meet the goal.
Meanwhile, Kishor Thapa, secretary at the Ministry of Urban Development, assured that all households in Nepal would have toilets before the deadline. According to him, the government is also working on post-2017 strategies as well.
“We are going to work aggressively on sanitation program and segregation of waste from water resources. Similarly, we will build public toilets in the urban areas,” he said.
Despite involvement of several government and non government organizations, the sanitation coverage is comparatively very low in the Tarai region.
Related story
Sunsari declared 'ODF district'
