NEW DELHI: The government on Saturday unveiled its plan to set up at least one plant in each district to generate electricity and compost from cattle dung and other bio-degradable waste by 2023-24 under Gobar-Dhan scheme and one plastic waste management unit in each block or district by 2021-22 to deal with such waste. Moreover, one storage facility for plastic waste would be set up in every village .

These are some of the targets set by the drinking water and sanitation department under Jal Shakti ministry in its effort to take the Open Defecation Free (ODF) status of villages to the next level, ODF Plus. The other two components deal with the waste water generated in rural households and to handle the faecal sludge safely.

According to the government plan, to manage waste water, open or small bore pipe drains will be laid for carrying the waste water to community leach/ soak pits in villages where population is less than 2,000 and in bigger villages the grey water would be carried to “waste stabilisation ponds”. This would be completed by 2023-24.

Similarly, to deal with faecal sludge, large villages will be linked to the existing treatment plants in towns and trenching technology will be promoted in far off villages where collection and transportation of human waste is not feasible.

To foster competition among states, minister of state Rattanlal Kataria launched the ODF Plus Dashboard and a mobile application Swacch Gram Darpan. The app allows officers to monitor how the programme is progressing at district and state levels. “Provisional targets have been set under the programme and we are working on it now. The funding for the programme will be from our own budget and from the state government’s budget along with other resources,” said secretary Parameswaran Iyer.

The targets include setting up of 700 Gobar-Dhan plants and 7,500 block level plastic waste management units.

