Tamil Nadu - Nagapattinam   

Maximum `ECOSAN' toilets for fishing village

Special Correspondent

They are considered good models for sandy coastal areas

NAGAPATTINAM: Kameshwaram, a tsunami-hit fishing village, has the distinction of getting the maximum number of `ECOSAN' compost toilets in the country with the opening of 100th Household Centered Environment Sanitation Toilete (HCEST) here on Saturday.

As many as 100 toilets were constructed by Society for Community Organisation and Peoples Education (SCOPE) of Tiruchi, a pioneer in the field of ECOSAN compost toilet in the country.

M. Subburaman, Director of SCOPE, said that toilets each costing of Rs. 7,000 were built with financial assistance from Nagapattinam District Rural Development Agency (DRDA), UNICEF, and Friends-in-Need, an NGO from France.

The toilets were considered a good model for high water table sandy coastal areas where conventional ones could not function well.

G. Radha, DRDA Project Officer, congratulated the residents for taking up the new model.

He wanted them to reap the benefit of recycling waste in the most environment friendly manner. The DRDA has advanced Rs. 1,200 per toilet under the total sanitation programme.

K.N. Vijayanthi, UNICEF Project Officer, said that for holistic development of the area, UNICEF was promoting solid waste management and health hygiene education programmes.

Antonin, research scholar from France, said that the NGO was headed by Shyama Ramani in French economic research wing, who hailed from Tiruchi. C.G. Kanagasundaram, panchayat president, praised the house owners who had contributed Rs. 2,100 and said that the village would soon become an ECOSAN village.

G. Krishnaveni, president, Garland Service Society, Tiruchi, said that the DRDA had agreed to set up a eco-friendly paper unit and fibre paper unit at Kameshwaram.

K.Y. Babu of UNICEF, P.G. Jacob George of NGOs Coordination Resource Centre, Nagapattinam, spoke.

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