Mail News Service
Imphal, Jan 30 : The Government of India’s plan is to keep the people’s health sound, that is why the government is spending huge amount of money on Total Sanitation Campaign, said L. Swamikanta, Director, Communication and Capacity Development Unit (CCDU), Public Health Engineering Department (PHED), Manipur.
Speaking on Total Sanitation Campaign during the Bharat Nirman Public Information Campaign at the Mini Secretariat Hall in Thoubal district today, Swamikanta further said that every household should have a low cost sanitary toilet. Such a simple toilet can be constructed at the cost of just about Rs 10,000. The CCDU bears Rs 4000 and the Gram Panchayat should contribute about Rs 6000 to construct an ordinary sanitary toilet.
Through film slides, the CCDU Director showed how to construct simple and easy toilet.
He said, Manipur has abundance of rainfall. The annual rainfall in Manipur is about 15 centimeter. However, there is complete drought of the concept of rain water harvesting in Manipur.
Calling upon the audience comprising largely students from the nearby schools, the Director said, God has given the people of Manipur an abundance of rainwater. “We should collect and store up the rainwater by using easily available methods. We should not waste the rainwater.”He also demonstrated various methods for harvesting rain water through the film slides. He showed some chemicals used in testing the rainwater whether the water contains iron and lead, etc. He said , the Department is considering to distribute the chemical kits, which cost a little over Rs 2000 to the schools and the Gram Panchayats in Thoubal district to encourage rain water harvesting.
Swamikanta told the students to wash their hands properly before having food. Calling a few students upon the stage, the resource person demonstrated how dirty their hands were by washing their hands with a glass of water into a plastic bucket. Then he asked the students to drink the dirty water, but the students refused saying that the water was dirty. Thus the resource person could easily convince the large number of students that dirty hands carry a lot of germs. Having food without washing your hands means consuming the germs. The students went home convinced.
L. Ibomcha SE Rural Circle No. 1 PHED Manipur speaking on the second day of the Bharat Nirman campaign held at the Mini Secretariat conference hall at Thoubal DC complex said one must use safe drinking water to keep oneself in good health and added that 40 percent of the diseases prevalent can be controlled by using safe drinking water.
He also said drinking water supply is an important flagship programme. Total sanitation and supply of drinking water are the two main missions of the flagship programme. He stressed the need for both centre and state Governments going together for the successful implementation of the two programmes.
Plans are afoot to provide drinking water to all the villages in Thoubal district. A website has been launched and by visiting the site one can know the area covered by rural water supply scheme. He also said village water supply committees have been formed which can ensure regular supply of drinking water to problem villages. Each committee will have not less than two members in charge of each scheme. Engineers of the PHED will teach appointed members of the committees on how to mix chemicals in the water and laying of pipes. The rate of tax varies according to the number of population of the villages. Villages having not less than 2000 villagers will pay less tax than those having only 300 villagers.
PHED will extend help in maintenance of the water supply scheme in case of calamities and major damages occurring but for minor damages the repairing must be done by committee themselves.
On the second day of the campaign a free medical camp was also organized. More than 200 persons received medical treatment and medicines free of cost.
Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/centres-plan-is-to-keep-peoples-health-sound/
