Trichy declared as open defecation free district 11.1.2018

Trichy declared open defecation free TNN | Jan 12, 2018, 00:30 IST

Trichy: Days after Ariyalur was declared as open defecation free (ODF) district by the Union ministry of drinking water and sanitation, the ministry has declared Trichy district as ODF for having ensured adequate infrastructure for people to refrain from defecating in public places. District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) officials said sensitisation drives to make use of individual and public toilets had been carried out across the 14 blocks of the district through health, education and social welfare departments for the past one year. Project officer of DRDA, G Malarvizhi said, "All the 404 village panchayats in the district were studied since 2013-2014, from grassroot level, to identify vulnerable open defecation spots. For households, where the construction of individual toilet is not viable, we identified poromboke lands in villages to construct community toilets." Official sources said close to 90,000 individual toilets had been built across the district through Swachh Bharat funds in the past one year. Stating that adequate infrastructure for public is provided has been to avoid open defecation, DRDA officials said that more awareness initiatives and sensitisation drives would be carried out in the coming days to ensure open defecation is not practised in the district. "Creating awareness among the women and children would certainly ensure that a family utilise only the toilet facility for defecation. We have even planned to identify the best school and best self-help group in the district which pursue the best sanitation practices," the DRDA official added. Officials added the villagers in each of the 404 panchayats were roped in for the awareness drive against open defecation to highlight the health hazards caused due to it. As many as 16 districts in Tamil Nadu, including Trichy, have been declared as ODF by Union government so far. Another 16 districts are awaiting the recognition to make Tamil Nadu an open defecation free state.