DEHRADUN: Almost a year and half since the state was declared Open Defecation Free (ODF), a district-level survey conducted in Uttarakhand shows that there are still around 84,000 households without toilets . The survey revealed that more than half of these households were concentrated in seven districts (Uttarkashi, Rudraprayag , Chamoli , Tehri Garhwal , Pauri Garhwal , Haridwar and Dehradun ).

Notably, a report prepared by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) for the year ended March 2017 which was tabled recently in the state assembly said that auditors had physically verified 1,143 of the latrines built in villages and found that 41 of them were not constructed while 34 were still under construction. The audit also found 71% of toilets being built without technical assistance, 70% being constructed outside the residential premises and 19% without water facilities.

While the Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) website mentions that Uttarakhand has constructed around 4.8 lakh toilets since 2014, achieving 100% progress in construction of IHHLs (Individual Household Latrines), the survey by respective district administration in 13 districts found that 84,000 households did not have toilets. Of the 13 districts in the state, Haridwar has turned out to have performed the worst. The district has 19,380 households which are without toilets. Haridwar is followed by Udham Singh Nagar and Pauri Garhwal which have 17,004 and 8,393 households without toilets respectively. Meanwhile, Dehradun fared better and had only 723 households without toilets.

The officials involved in the implementation of the Swachh Bharat project said that around 50,000 of these households are those ‘which’ were mistakenly left out of the 2012 baseline survey conducted by the districts. “The targets in Swachh Bharat Mission were based on 2012 survey. Based on the survey we have constructed more than five lakh toilets but after another survey was conducted, we found many families which were not accounted for in the 2012 survey,” said the official adding that the rest of the households are those which have increased because of the population increase or division of families.

According to estimates, the state needs around Rs 100 crore to build toilets for remaining households. “We have sent a proposal to the Union ministry of drinking water and sanitation for funds to complete the construction of toilets in homes that were left out of the 2012 survey. The toilets in remaining households will be constructed under schemes like MNREGA,” the official said.

