Reps of Central Ministry of Sanitation comes to Karnataka

On April 20^th, Wednesday a team of senior officials of the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation met with the state officials of Karnataka for evaluating the water crisis and the situation of sanitation in the state. The team who came to meet the state department was led by Parameshwaran Iyer who held a meeting with the Minister of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Mr. H K Patil. This was followed by the meeting with the Chief Secretary and subsequently the Additional Chief Secretary of the State. In the meeting the District Collectors of the state were also there who also spoke with the delegation through video conference. The secretary in his comment assured the senior officials about the support from the Central Government to combat the situations of draught being prevalent in many parts of the state. The meeting also deliberated a detailed discussion which was being held for the possible draught management techniques and the use of probable technologies. The discussion was also about the usage of the technologies which mainly deals with water conservation and recharge. This meeting was highlighted by the presentation of a team of water experts from the Latur district who exemplified the Shirpur Pattern of water shed which has been successfully implemented in several parts of Maharashtra. In an effort to improve the water situation of Karnataka efforts are being made to replicate this project and a pilot of this project has been planned in North Karnataka to help improve the water situation of the state.

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The meeting with the District Collectors of Karnataka highlighted issues on sanitation. In this the senior officers of Karnataka committed to make the districts Open Defecation Free (ODF) which was planned to be implemented in the seven districts of Karnataka in the year, 2016-17. Out of these a target was also set that four districts will become ODF by 2^nd October 2016. This was targeted in connotation with the second anniversary of the launch of the mission of Swachh Bharat Mission. The target set by the team also encompassed the goal of few gram panchayats or blocks or villages that will be ODF by 2^nd of October 2016. This will be celebrated by the state as planned by the state government. The Chief Secretary of the state reiterated that this has to be taken as an ODF movement and people should be involved to make it a success.

The Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation has been deploying many efforts and one of those was involving the Non Governmental sector or the NGOs in accentuating the Swachh Bharat Avijan. There were meetings held with NGOs like Arghyam who related their experiences in the field of sanitation. The secretary also visited institutions like the Indian Institute of Human Settlements to discuss about the issues like monitoring and evaluation of the Swachh Bharat Mission and other such technical issues and problems related to the programme.