What are the schemes taken by the state of Tamil Nadu in the rural drinking water and sanitation?

Tamil Nadu Village Habitations Improvement (THAI) Scheme

  • This Government has introduced the flagship programme called Tamil Nadu Village Habitations Improvement (THAI) Scheme from 2011-12 onwards to overcome the bottlenecks in the uneven distribution of resources and to provide minimum basic infrastructure facilities to all the habitations. 
  • Tamil Nadu is the only State focusing on ‘Habitation’ as the unit of development and no other State in the Country is implementing such an innovative scheme.

Scheme Components

Minimum Basic Requirements

  • Water Supply
  • Street Lights
  • Roads
  • Burial Grounds
  • Pathway to Burial Grounds

Renovation of Integrated Sanitary Complex for Women

  • Provision of sanitary facilities for women was one of the priority areas of the Rural Development Department when this Government was in power in 2001.  
  • The non-availability of sanitary facilities impacts women and they suffer in silence.  
  • Absence of sanitary facilities is primarily due to both poverty and cultural inhibitions, which had to be overcome.  
  • Therefore, it was of paramount importance to ensure privacy and safety to women besides improving general hygiene and health to the rural people.
  • The Government in 2001 decided to build Integrated Sanitary Complexes for Women in all the 12,618 Village Panchayats in the State, at an approximate area of 750 sq.ft. each

Constitution of Monitoring Committees

  • To monitor the maintenance of the Integrated Sanitary Complexes for Women, the District Collectors have constituted the District Level and Block Level Monitoring Committees.  
  • The above Committees deliberate on the following and take necessary follow up action:
  • Functioning status of each and every Integrated Sanitary Complex for Women
  • Maintenance of the Complexes by User Groups
  • Periodic maintenance by Village Panchayats
  • Feedback given by the User Groups
  • Feedback on inspections made by the members of the Committee / Zonal Officers.

Clean Village Campaign

  • In order to create a momentum to bring about a sanitary revolution in the State, this Government launched “Clean Village Campaign” in 2003.  
  • The Clean Village Campaign encompassed all activities taken up in the village for environmental sanitation.

The components of Clean Village Campaign are

  • Eliminating the practice of open defecation
  • Water conservation and waste water  re-use
  • Solid waste management
  • Night soil based Biogas plant

Solid Waste Management System(SWMS)

  • Establishment of a sustainable solid waste management system in all our villages in a phased manner is an essential need. 
  • Initially, a proper solid waste management system with recycling and waste disposal facilities will be established in 2,000 select village Panchayats.
  • Solid Waste Management (SWM) activities in the village Panchayats will include collection, removal and safe disposal of wastes with the participation of every member of the village Community.

Nirmal Bharat Abiyan

  • In order to ensure sanitation facilities in rural areas with the broader goal to eradicate the practice of open defecation, a comprehensive programme called ‘Total Sanitation Campaign’ was launched by Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking Water Mission, Government of India to cover all households with water and sanitation facilities and promote hygiene behaviour for overall improvement of health and sanitation in rural areas.
  • The Total Sanitation Campaign which was introduced in Cuddalore and Coimbatore districts initially in 1999 was extended in phases to all other districts in Tamil Nadu by 2004. 
  • The Scheme has now been renamed as ‘Nirmal Bharat Abiyan’ (NBA) and revised guidelines have been issued by Government of India.

Some of salient features

  • Accelerating the sanitation coverage in the rural areas is advocated so as to comprehensively cover the rural community through saturation approach to create Nirmal Gram Panchayats.
  • Implementation of NBA is proposed with ‘Village Panchayat’ as the base unit. Village Panchayats where all habitations have access to water are to be taken up on priority.
  • Accelerate sanitation coverage in rural areas to achieve the vision of Nirmal Bharat by 2022 with all Village Panchayats in the Country attaining Nirmal status.
  • Incentive as provided under the scheme for construction of Individual Household Latrines (IHHL) has been extended to all Below Poverty Line (BPL) Households

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