Field Visits to Kurukshtra on 17th November

The Water and Sanitation Programme (WSP) of the World Bank organized on November 17, organized for an exposure visit for 25 journalists from three different countries- India, Bangladesh and Pakistan- to have an overview of the rural sanitation projects in Kurukshtra, Haryana. The visit was a prelude to the four-day South Asian Conference on Sanitation due to take off on November 18. Kurukshetra district which has a rural population of over 6 lakh people is working towards making the entire district- consisting of 364 gram panchyats- open defecation free. In a span of one year, this district has received 108 Nirmal Gram Puraskars as opposed to only two last year.

The visit first entailed of a briefing by Additional District Collector Sumedha Kataria, the force behind this success, who has largely involved the woman brigade and the children who double up as the 'sarthak sena' in achieving this feat.

The team was then taken to visit the village Bishangadh, a small hamlet of 100 houses, majority of them farmers, has been recently declared a 100 per cent open defecation free.