With an endeavor of providing sustainable and affordable sanitation solutions to eradicate open defecation practices in the world, World Toilet Organization (WTO), a global non-profit body, along with RB as Swachh Bharat partner and LIXIL as the main summit organizer hosted the World Toilet Summit in Mumbai, India. In its 18 years’ legacy of continuously working towards reducing the gap between the government, corporate organizations, and civil society, the World Toilet Summit, this year has come to India for the third time, with the theme ‘Can the world be ODF by 2030.
With the success of government led Swachh Bharat Mission, India serves as a learning ground for the international WaSH (water, sanitation, and hygiene) community and has hosted the World Toilet Summit twice previously – in 2007 and 2015. This year, supported by Government of Maharashtra, the summit was inaugurated by Devendra Fadnavis, Chief Minister of Maharashtra.
In his inaugural address, Fadnavis said, ”It gives me immense pleasure to share that now Maharashtra has become 100% open defecation free (ODF), 55% of which has been covered since 2014. After becoming ODF, we have given plans of sustainability to every Village Panchayat, encouraging them by presenting awards every year, even kids engaged themselves in awareness drive. We also did a lot of work on clean water & all this lead to creation of jobs, economic development. Now, rural area is witnessing major transformation with this and many other initiatives.”
As part of continued efforts by RB to improve sanitation and hygiene, the company has built 17,000 toilets out of the 25,000 toilets it aims to create through people participation. It also partnered with Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) to launch the ‘Toilet Karenge Search, Toilets Rakhenge Swachh’ campaign that focuses on encouraging citizens to use Google Maps to locate public toilets, and share their ratings and reviews after using them.
Sharing his thoughts at the event, Akshay Kumar, Swachhta Ambassador, Harpic said, “I am pleased to see more and more people joining the movement that our honorable Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, started four years ago. We have seen a major transformation-taking place in India owing to the Swachh Bharat Mission. I am proud to associate with Harpic in spreading the message of sanitation across the country. But we still have a long road ahead of us and I urge everyone to contribute at their individual level to sensitize people about the consequences of open defecation and the importance of clean toilets.”
