Kathmandu, Sept 18: Kathmandu district has been declared as an Open Defecation Free (ODF) zone.
Province Assembly member Narayan Silwal read out a paper declaring Kathmandu district as open defecation free zone amidst a programme organized by the District Drinking Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Coordination Committee on Tuesday. The Kathmandu Metropolitan City was declared ODF zone on September 10.
According to a report of the District Coordination Committee for Drinking Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, Kathmandu district has total 292,452 households with toilets. Though efforts were made to declare Kathmandu as ODF zone before 2017 it was never materialized.
Assembly member Silwal said drinking water and sanitation should be linked with civilization and interventions should be designed in an integrated and coordinated way.
District Coordination Committee chief Shiva Sundar Rajbaidhya, who is also the chair of District Level Coordination Committee for Drinking Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, said mere construction of toilets would not make full sanitation happen while stressing local government efforts for this.
Chief Administrative Officer of KMC Kedar Neupane also underlined the need of proactive interventions in the sanitation and hygiene areas from proper use of toilets to construction of public toilets.
Member-Secretary of district coordination committee Hari Dutta Poudel shared that the users had invested Rs 278 million and government spent Rs 66.5 million for the construction of 55,500 toilets under the campaign.
It may be noted that Bhaktapur district was declared ODF some six years ago and Lalitpur last year. Kaski was the first-ever ODF declared district. It was declared ODF in June 2011.
Likewise, Bhojpur municipality has also been declared ODF zone. The declaration was made with the construction of toilets with septic tanks in all houses of the municipal area.
Though other eight local levels of the district were already declared ODF, it was difficult to declare Bhojpur municipality as open defecation free due to delay in the construction of toilets at ward-7 in the market area.
District Coordination Committee Chief Laxman Khadka made the declaration after the ward residents completed the construction of their toilets.
Similarly, Mahottari district has also witnessed a leap forward in sanitation sector. The ODF declaration has been an important achievement for district residents in social and cultural area.
Chief Minister of State-2 Lalbabu Raut on Tuesday declared Mahottari as ODF zone amidst a programme at Jaleswor.
At the programme organized by District Drinking Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Coordination Committee, Chief Minister Raut said a special achievement is associated to the identity of Mahottari with the declaration.
The declaration was made after all 15 local levels, including 10 municipalities and five rural municipalities met the indicators to graduate to the ODF status.
