The Village Development Committee (VDC) at Pendalwada in Jainad mandal of Adilabad district will have turned the impossible into the possible as all the 700 houses in the habitation will boast of an individual sanitary latrine (ISL) in a few weeks’ time. By pumping in additional funds in the shape of one time grant to every household, it has made a serious and successful effort in getting rid of the menace of open defecation in the village located on the banks of river Penganga.
“All of us were frustrated with the problem which is the root cause of illnesses among other things. About six months back, a collective decision was taken in the village to put an end to open defecation by providing funds to everyone who was willing to go in for an ISL,” says VDC president Kethireddy Madhusudan Reddy, as he shed light on the endeavour.
After due deliberation, it was decided that all the families which were sanctioned an ISL by the government will be given Rs. 7,000, in two instalments of Rs. 4,000 and Rs. 3,000, each from the VDC funds. This will help them work faster on construction of the latrines.
“None of the ISLs sanctioned by the government could achieve proper progress as the beneficiaries did not have sufficient cash in hand to take up construction. With our help, all of them have started construction and some of them have even completed the construction,” Mr. Reddy pointed out.
The help from VDC also required the beneficiaries to contribute labour in construction work and manufacture cement rings used to fortify the walls of the septic tanks. “This saved us a lot of money and resulted in better quality in construction,” points out Annela Gouramma, a beneficiary.
The task of the villagers is further made easy as sand and stone used in construction are locally available. While sand is extracted from Penganga river, stones for basement of the structure is brought from Jainad.
