As many as 2,64,828 individual household toilets have been constructed in the rural areas of Meghalaya under Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen) from October 2, 2014 till date.
It may be noted that the Central government had launched Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen) with effect from October 2, 2014 with the main aim to make the rural areas of the country open defecation free (ODF) by October 2, 2019, by providing access to toilets to all the rural households.
As sanitation is a State subject, SBM (G) is being implemented by the state governments. The Government of India provides technical and financial support to the states and issues guidelines.
Under SBM (G), the incentive for construction of individual household toilets was enhanced from Rs 10,000 to Rs 12,000 to provide for water storage facilities for hand-washing and cleaning of the toilet.
The Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation had undertaken three rounds of National Annual Rural Sanitation Survey (NARSS) from 2017-18 to 2019-20 through an independent verification agency under World Bank support to SBM (G).
As per the survey conducted in 2019-20, the percentage of population in the State who were having access to toilets is 98.2 per cent.
Further, 95.9 per cent of villages in the State have achieved open defecation free status. 66.3 per cent of the population in the State has made some arrangements for solid and liquid waste management.
Meghalaya also projected an amount of Rs 500.72 crore as fund requirement during the last three years which includes funds from Centre’s share and funds from the 15th Finance Commission grants.
In 2019-2020, the Centre released Rs 37.13 crore under SBM (G) to Meghalaya. In 2020-2021, the Centre released Rs 65.41 crore and also Rs 22.75 crore as tied grants from the 15th Finance Commission.
In 2021-2022, the State received Rs 36.56 crore from the Centre under SBM (G).
Under the 15th Finance Commission, tied grants for sanitation are being provided to Rural Local Bodies since 2020-21 onwards.
The State government projects its annual requirement of funds in their Annual Implementation Plans (AIP) consolidating the requirements for all the districts in the State.
The projected annual requirement of funds are considered and approved by the National Scheme Sanctioning Committee of the SBM (G).
