11th July 2015 was marked as a glorious day for the people in Kohalpur municipality. It is a light of hope to have whole district declared as Open Defecation Free district. Kohalpur Municipality hosted the ODF declaration event in partnership with different WASH stakeholders along with Lumanti Support Group for Shelter.
The ODF declaration program was initiated with cultural and traditional processions and rallies from the different wards of the municipality. Women groups, teachers, students, S & C groups, political leaders, kohalpur municipality representatives, Citizen Forum representatives, media personnel, community people and cultural group dressed in their traditional dresses participated in the processions. Four different gates decorated at PipalChautara, ChapparGauri, Farelachowk and NCCN were the junction for the processions to meet. The people participating in the rally from ward 1 and 2 met at Farelachowk. Likewise, the participants from ward 3, 4, 5 and 6 met at NCCN gate whereas participants from ward 12 and 13 at Chappargauri gate. Similarly, Pipalchautara gate was for the participants
from ward 7, 8, 9 and 10. Though the junction was formed at four different point; all the participants in rally was directed to march towards the venue along the Newroad by waving play cards and displaying festoons with WASH messages and reciting the slogans during the procession. The Jhanki as well as traditional music and dance of different ethnic group added color to the rally. The rally ended at the venue with the great entry of Mayur Dance on stage.
The formal program began with the chairing ceremony.Representatives from different district line agencies, DPHo, D-WASH-CC, LGDP, members of W-WASH-CC, V-WASH-CC, Tole-WASH-CC, WASH UGs, Citizen Forum, Media persons, Principals and teachers, Political leaders, representatives from community based organizations, women’s group, MFI groups and other dignitaries from Transportation Management Committee, Community forest group and representatives from other NGOs attended the program that started under the chairmanship of Govinda Prasad Pandey, Executive Officer of Kohalpur Municipality. All the representatives and the chief guest Hon MP Dev Raj Bhar and special guest Jiblal Bhusal from LGDP and D-WASH-CC President as well as Rajkumar Chaudhary from District WASH Division was welcomed with a welcome speech which was followed by the inauguration of the program by unveiling the social map of Kohalpur in whole Map and its content were recited by the Chairperson for the ceremony.
The Chief Guest, Hon. Dev Raj Bhar, Member of Parliament congratulated the community people for their effort and support to make the municipality open defecation free. He mentioned that it is a thing of great honor that within this short time period behavioral change among people in latrine use have been possible and now 14396 household are with their own latrine and 27 HH are sharing with their neighbor. He then declared Kohalpur Municipality as “Open Defecation Free municipality”. The pride of people glorified with applause after the commitment was made by everyone crossing their heart on - not to defecate in open field and head towards Total sanitation with full commitment. Then a series of speech to congratulate the municipality was delivered by the dignitaries whose focus was to remain committed to ODF and ODF sustainability.
A midst the speech ceremony, there were many cultural dance and traditional songs performance was given by the local community people from different wards as well as school students, who disseminated the information on importance of ODF in municipality. A drama by the local people reflected the scenario of the municipality prior to the ODF Declaration.
This was followed by honoring and appreciating the efforts of the people whose dedication resulted in the declaration of ODF of the municipality. All the members of M-WASH-CC, W-WASH-CC and social mobilizers as well as local leaders were honored with certificate of appreciation for their immensely incomparable effort. Moreover, Chairpersons of Citizen Forum, Community forest Users Group, Kohalpur health Post and Tole-WASH-CC members were also the part of appreciation. In addition to them, Lumanti Support Group for Shelter, Plan-Nepal, Geruwa Organization were also honored with certificate of appreciation for their eternal support hardship they paid off to declare this Municipality as ODF zone.
The chief guest of the program, Hon. Dev Raj Bhar, was called upon to deliver his speech and he congratulated the community people. He then reminded the community people about their responsibility of maintaining the ODF status and said their responsibility has not finished with this declaration program as they still have a long way to go. He had stated that ODF was only the first step towards Total Sanitation. ODF sustainability was the challenge beyond it and adopting hygienic behaviors for healthy life was another issue after ODF declaration. This was followed by giving token of love for the chief guest as well as other guests for their presence in the program.
The program was finally closed by the closing remarks from Executive Officer of Kohalpur Municipality Govinda Prasad Pandey.
