Date:19/10/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/10/19/stories/2007101961120400.htm

Tamil Nadu

Japanese bank official impressed with sanitation campaign

Special Correspondent

Eri Nakamura was invited by DRDA officials to Urapakkam

— PHOTO : SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

MAKING AN ASSESSMENT: Eri Nakamura, Country Officer of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, at Urapakkam village panchayat near Tambaram on Monday to study the Total Sanitation Campaign.

TAMBARAM: A senior official of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation visited Urapakkam village panchayat near Tambaram on Monday and was impressed with the concept of government-people participation in the Total Sanitation Campaign there.

Eri Nakamura, Country Officer of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, had come to Dharmapuri to take part in a review meeting of the Hogenakkal Water Supply and Sanitation Project, executed by the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board with financial assistance from the Japanese agency. On her way back, in Chennai, she saw some of the schemes being implemented by TWAD Board .

She stopped over at Urapakkam, on an invitation from officials of the District Rural Development Agency, Kancheepuram. Urapakkam village panchayat is among the few panchayats in Kancheepuram district, where the Total Sanitation Campaign has been implemented successfully, officials told The Hindu. G.N.R.Kumar, panchayat president, told Ms. Nakamura that 524 individual household toilets were constructed so far as part of a nationwide programme to stop open defecation and also to improve hygiene and sanitation in rural areas. Officials told Mr. Nakamura that a model sanitary complex with 14 units and an integrated kitchen garden was also constructed. They said women self-help groups were motivated to form a Panchayat Level Federation and User Groups, comprising 346 women. After a nominal sum was collected from the members, the DRDA would extend Rs. 2 lakh as assistance for construction of these sanitary complexes, officials said.