Having achieved full sanitation coverage, Himachal Pradesh is on the verge of acquiring the status of a “Nirmal Pradesh”- the second state after Sikkim to get the distinction.

However, the country will miss its 2017 target for achieving total sanitation coverage as the government today said that it would take at least 10 more years before all villages can boast of “Nirmal Gram Panchayat” status and completely eradicate the practice of open-air defecation.

About 23 percent rural people use unhygienic toilets while 10 percent villagers defecate in the open in Bangladesh, reveals a survey.

The data achieved through the surveying of about 2.5 lakh people in some 150 villages of the seven divisions this year represent the overall sanitary condition of the country, said Dr Mujibur Rahman, professor, the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet).

The seventh World Toilet Conference got over in Delhi on November 2. The theme of the four-day summit was