INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Kathmandu, September 11
Kathmandu Metropolitan City was declared an Open Defecation Free zone during a closed door meeting at the office of
KMC yesterday despite reluctance of Mayor Bidhya Sundar Shakya.
Multiple sources told THT that Mayor Shakya was not ready to declare the
metropolis an ODF zone, fearing it would be a ‘subject of ridicule.&
A high level government official at Department of Water Supply and
Sewerage Management said Mayor Shakya did not even want any research works on open defecation in the capital city
&After convincing the mayor a research committee was formed, which submitted its report giving green signal to declare KMC an ODF zone,&
according to a source at KMC.
Head of the Kathmandu District Co-ordination Committee Shiva Sundar Rajbaidhya had handed over ODF certificate
to mayor Shakya amidst handful of personnels.
The Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration in the first week of July had
issued a circular to all local levels, including Kathmandu Metropolitan City, requesting them to expedite works to declare themselves as ODF
The government has set a deadline of September 30 this year to declare Nepal an ODF country
It has been found that the government was pushing hard to local governments to declare themselves ODF
Sanitation head of the Department of Water Supply and Sewerage Management, Devendra Jha said, &As per the ministry circulation, we don&t
have much time left to declare each local level ODF.&
The research committee formed bythe KMC reported that every house inside KMC had
toilets, and people did not practice open defecation, according to Jha
Every house in an area needed to have at least one toilet as a minimum requirement to declare it ODF, said Jha.
KMC move to declare
Kathmandu ODF has, however, started drawing flak from people and right activists as the metropolis lacks public toilets, and open defecation
has been persistent in the city.
Experts said availability of public toilets was one of the prerequisites to declare big cities like KMC an
Ashok Maharjan, an urban environmentalist said, &Local government was found least bothered to build more public toilets
Declaring KMC as ODF zone in its current state is ridiculous.&
Prakash Amatya, an expert on water and sanitation suggested KMC to make
agreements with local businesses, shopping malls and petrol pumps to allow general people to use their toilets
KMC was the last out of total 11 local governments in Kathmandu district to announce itself ODF zone
Since the KMC has now been declared ODF zone, the DoWSSM is planning to announce Kathmandu district an ODF on September 17.
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Declaration of KMC as ODF zone flayed appeared first on The Himalayan Times.
