On Wednesday, a widespread awareness campaign and survey on Grey-Water Management (GWM) commenced, aiming to formulate environmental plans and infrastructure for grey-water management in all 16,243 villages across the state. Through this survey, a rural action plan for grey-water management will be prepared for each village. Primarily, this entire program is being conducted as a public awareness campaign, providing information on grey-water management to people and aiming to raise awareness about cleanliness.
The Himachal Pradesh State Rural Livelihood Mission (HPSRLM) in collaboration with Swachh Bharat Mission – Gramin (SBM-G) is executing this project, wherein the WASH Institute is involved for technical assistance and guidance. According to the WASH Institute, this survey involving 1,744 Community Resource Persons (CRPs) (women) is being conducted in 88 blocks.
For this purpose, selected CRPs from the State Rural Livelihood Mission have been trained to conduct this survey. The WASH Institute has developed a mobile application through which information related to grey-water management can be obtained, facilitating the formulation of plans for each village.
According to the standards of the Swachh Bharat Mission, the state has been categorized in ODF Plus and efforts are underway to elevate villages to the Ideal ODF level.
This survey is a collective effort to achieve the objectives of grey-water management, which needs complete support from all citizens of the state and specifically from representatives of the Panchayati Raj.