Context:

• Recently, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Urban Development has tabled its report on the performance of the Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) in Lok Sabha.

About ODF+, ODF++

• It is launched in 2018 to further scale up and sustain the work undertaken by the cities after achieving the ODF status under Phase I of the Swachh Bharat Mission — Urban (SBM-Urban).
• Cities that had been certified ODF at least once, on the basis of the ODF protocols, are eligible to declare themselves as SBM-ODF+ & SBM-ODF++.
• Its aim is to properly maintenance of toilet facilities and safe collection, conveyance, treatment/disposal of all faecal sludge and sewage.
• ODF+ focuses on toilets with water, maintenance and hygiene
• ODF++ focuses on toilets with sludge and septage management.

Highlights:

• Despite the fact that work on three protocols under the next phase of Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban-2) — ODF+, ODF++ and Water Plus — is to be completed by 2024, the ground situation was not matching with the assigned timeline. The progress has been slow.
• Less than 30 per cent of the cities have been certified as ODF+ so far. Out of 4,320 cities declared ODF, as low as 1,276 cities have been certified as ODF+.
• The number of ODF++ cities — 411 — means that less than 10 per cent cities are certified as ODF++ so far.
• According to Phase 1 of the Swachh Bharat Mission (U), 99 per cent of the cities became ODF, the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) had claimed in 2019.

About Water plus:

• It aims to sustain toilets by treating and reuse of water, which is launched in 2019.
• It contributes to the government’s focus on water conversation and reuse under the Jal Shakti Abhiyan and is in alignment with United Nations-mandated Sustainable Development Goal No 6 on clean water and sanitation.