KATHMANDU: The government has planned to speed up the construction of public toilets to move towards full sanitation. The plan has come at a time when Nepal was declared an open defecation free country.

Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation in collaboration with state governments and local governments has devised a plan to increase public toilets, shared Ritesh Kumar Shakya, spokesperson of the ministry.

As it is local government’s responsibility to operate public toilets, the federal and state governments will also collaborate for toilet construction in a bid to enable environment for sanitation, he added.

The government is mulling the options whether to construct the public toilets on its own or to hand over the responsibility to private sector and carry out monitoring roles, he said. “Whoever takes the responsibility and whatever modality is adopted, the monitoring part should be strong”, Shakya noted.

It may be noted that the government had declared Nepal as an open defecation free country on last September 30.