New Delhi, December 24: A statement by Govt of India has declared that Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban has achieved its target of creating urban India open defecation free. Urban areas of 35 states and Union Territories have become ODF. In all, 4,320 cities out of 4,372 have declared themselves ODF, of which 4,167 cities have been certified through third-party verification.
This has been achieved by the construction of nearly 65.81 lakh individual household toilets against Mission target of 59 lakhs and 5.89 lakh seats of public toilets against Mission target of 5.08 lakh seats.
On Solid Waste Management, the Ministry said so far 96% of wards started door to door collection, and of which around 60% of the total waste generated is being processed.
On making city garbage-free which includes cleanliness of drains & water bodies, plastic waste management, managing construction and demolition waste, 4 cities (Indore, Ambikapur, Navi Mumbai and Mysuru) have been certified as 5-star cities with cleanest while 57 cities have been certified as 3-star cities, and 4 cities have been certified as 1-star cities.
The Ministry said 819 cities and 312 cities had been declared ODF+ and ODF++, which set targets for maintaining public toilets and proper management of sludge toilets respectively.
Under the SBM, which was launched on October 2, 2014, the government had declared rural India ODF on October 2, while the deadline for urban India had been pushed while third-party audits and compliance from West Bengal were awaited.
The Swachhata hi Seva campaign of 2019 has garnered participation from more than 7 crore urban residents, across 3,200 cities, from more than 1,06,000 events, and more than 7,700 million tonnes of plastic waste has been collected, said the statement.
Going forward, the Mission will focus on holistic and sustainable sanitation through faecal sludge management and 100% wastewater treatment and reuse. In solid waste management, it will focus on strengthening source segregation, collection, transportation and processing. Alongside, the Mission will also emphasise on construction and waste management and scientific landfilling and dumpsite remediation.