IAS team in village

Warangal February 19: People of Gangadevipalli village in Geesukonda Mandal had rare guests on Saturday. A team of 40 senior IAS officers principal secretaries of different states and representatives of the UNICEF, led by Secretary to the Union Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation Parameswaran Iyer came on a field trip to the village.

The officers were in the village for a first-hand knowledge of the working of twin-pit toilets and how to convert human excreta into manure. The officers, on a training program at the National Institute of Rural Development(NIRD) in Hyderabad, came in two buses and went round the village. The officers divided into seven teams visited the toilets in seven houses and interacted with the residents to understand its working.

The villagers have been using twin-pit technology toilets for over a decade and converting human waste into organic manure for quite some time now.

Under the twin-pit technology, the residents have two pits for collecting solid waste from household toilets. After one pit is filled with human waste, it is closed and the waste is collected into the second pit. The waste in the first pit is allowed to dry for over a year. Then the dried waste is taken out and used as organic manure for farms. The villagers gave samples of manure to the visiting officers.

Later, addressing the officers, media, and others, the Union Secretary described it as 'waste to wealth'. The technology has been tested and proven to be safe. It is good organic manure which could be used for farms. "This method should be popularized in other places as well," he suggested.

Mr. Iyer showered praise on the villagers and said they adopted Swachh Bharat concept two decades ago and won many laurels. "We have heard a lot about this village as an ideal village. We feel happy to be here where people are first in many aspects such as sanitation, drinking water, and literacy, among others," he said.