The Madhya Pradesh Government has charted a plan to completely stop open defecation in urban areas by 2017 and provide sanitation access through individual household toilets by 2025.

“The ‘Madhya Pradesh Sanitation Vision 2025’ (MPSV) has been drawn with an aim to make urban areas in the State free of open defecation by 2017 and achieve a near complete (99.8 per cent) sanitation access through provision of individual household-level toilets by 2025,” State Urban Administration and Development Department Commissioner Sanjay Shukla said.

The plan, with an investment outlay of over Rs 13,969 crore, has been lauded by the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), KfW, a German Development Bank, and GIZ, also a German body for international cooperation, the Commissioner said.

“After a round of discussion with the World Bank, its representative said that they may arrange finances in the form of soft loans from their partner agencies,” Shukla said, adding that the world body’s response to the project was very encouraging.

“Similarly, GIZ has also shown keen interest in the project and asked us to give a Letter of Intent (LoI) to proceed further in the matter,” he said.

The State Government is committed to go ahead with its MPSV 2025 plan and it is expected to contribute 35.5 per cent of the total investment, while grants from other sources are estimated to contribute 20.1 per cent. The remaining funds will be generated through urban local bodies public private partnership) mode.

The plan is likely to be launched as soon as the financial modalities are worked out.

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