Goa Minister for Public Works Ramkrishna Dhavlikar on Tuesday vowed to end the bane of open defecation partially existing in the coastal tourist State, by implementing “Swatchcha Bharat” mission.
He said that still around 30 per cent of State’s population did not have sewerage linked toilets.
The Minister launched a State-wide awareness drive in the city for the project focusing on judicious use of water and mandatory connectivity to sewerage system under the Rs.1,100 crore on-going Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) funded water supply and sewerage project to be fully implemented by December 2016.
Constructing toilets under Swatchcha Bharat and extending cent per cent connectivity to sewerage system under JICA will be done to wipe out the problem of open defecation entirely.
The Minister admitted that in the progressive coastal tourist State, there are people in rural areas who still continue to defecate in the open despite availability of toilets. The plan is to ensure that sewerage connection is reached to every household, he asserted.
“The awareness campaign launched across the State from Tuesday through street plays of college students will focus on the need for this awareness”, he stressed.
The JICA is implementing with the Goa government, through a Central Government scheme, a Rs.847.50 crore soft loan for a major water supply and sewerage project aimed at plugging leakages and bringing down drastically the high levels of non-revenue water (NRW).
Later Anand Wachasunder, project director of JICA Goa project told The Hindu that the project has fixed a target to bring down the present Non Revenue Waters (NRW) from present nearly 40 per cent to 20 percent in the State.
