No open drainages, smart toilets and abundant sewage plants (STPs) – Previously, this city got its Open Defecation Free(ODF) Plus status, and now within a fortnight, it was awarded ODF++ status too.
Any wild guess which city this might be? Allahabad it is!
To get the ODF ++ status, the number of toilets matching the standards of hotels should be 25% said the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) official.
According to the report, all the toilets can be easily searched or traced on google map as they have been listed as SBM (Swachh Bharat Mission) toilets. This makes AMC the first corporation to apply for the ODF ++ status and get the status as well.
A third-party inspection was also being carried out to see whether the public toilets and STPs were in perfect condition. Also, whether there is a closed drainage system in the city or not.
Ahmedabad was declared as an ODF city in 2015 and the certificate was again renewed in 2018. The corporation applied for an ODF-Plus status and the team carried out the survey. He clarified that earlier the team that surveyed in December had covered several toilets that were not within the corporation area.
A report was released on January 4, 2019. According to that survey, in Rajasthan, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh, it was found that more Indians living in villages owned a latrine in 2018 than four years ago, yet 44% of them still defecate in the open.
A FactChecker.in investigation in Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh in 2018 also found fudged data and unusable, poor quality toilets with high open defecation.