Under the campaign, locals must build a toilet at home if they want to get their citizenship cards and receive other services provided by the government. [break]
´This strategy will allow us to establish the exact number of households without toilets and the latter will be compelled to put in a toilet,´ said Local Development Officer (LDO) Suman Ghimire.
´Once they produce their identity cards, nothing will stop them from receiving all the facilities provided by the government,´ added Ghimire.
The government has proposed to provide drinking water and sanitation services to all citizens by 2017 and stakeholders in Ilam aim to reach that goal by 2015.
´We want the locals to become conscious about the need for toilets as that will finally fulfill our coveted dream of turning Ilam into an open defecation-free zone by 2015,´ said Ghimire.
Ghimire said that locals without toilets will have to file a written statement promising to built a toilet at home.
´We have directed VDC offices, land revenue offices, co-operatives and land survey offices to offer their services only to those who produce their identify cards. This will compel them to construct toilets at home,´ said Chief District Officer (CDO) Baburam Khatiwada.
According to Ilam District Development Office (DDO), the identity cards are being distributed to the locals of Kolbung, Sakhejung and Namsaling VDCs in the district.
The DDC and the drinking water division office have been providing poor families all materials needed for building their toilets. ´In the first phase, 12 VDCs in the district have become open-defecation-free zones and by the end of 2015 there will be toilets in all houses in the district and no locals without their identity cards,´ said Khatiwada.
Based on the records of the DDC, 6,400 families out of 59,874 households in the district still don"t have toilets at home. Altogether 19,443 houses have brick and mortar toilets and 34,029 have temporary toilets, informed Khatiwada.
´We still need a budget of Rs 20 million to complete the open defecation-free project in Ilam,´ he said.
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