The Hindu

• Dakshina Kannada shows progress under `Total Sanitation Campaign'
• Success dependent on funding from Central and State Governments
• 70 community toilets to be constructed

Mangalore, Nov 19: The day holds special significance for agencies that work for the cause of promoting sanitation, especially in the rural areas. For it is on this day (November 19) that ever since 2001, the global community has been observing World Toilet Day to promote the use of toilets as part of hygienic practices among individuals and in society.

This year, Dakshina Kannada district can boast of some progress on this front under the `Total Sanitation Campaign' launched with great fanfare on Gandhi Jayanti (October 2) last year. The campaign includes the construction of individual toilets for families as well as for anganwadis and schools.

The district is on its way to achieving the targets set under this campaign by the end of March 2007.

In all, 51,160 toilets have already been constructed across the district against a target of 96,833 toilets — an overall achievement of 52.83 per cent. These include 28,282 toilets constructed for below poverty-the-poverty-line families as against the 59,478 units sanctioned, 21,972 toilets for above-the-poverty-line families against a targeted 35,532 units, 160 anganwadi toilets against a target of 505 units, and 746 school toilets against a target of 1,318 units. Also, 70 community toilets are to be constructed.