No access to toilets for half of Jammu and Kashmir households

Srinagar, March 28 (IANS) Almost half of Jammu and Kashmir's two million households don't have access to toilets and only 900,000 have water taps in their homes, revealed figures released here by the directorate of census operations Wednesday.

On the positive side, more than 60 percent have access to safe drinking water.

"Of 20,15,088 households in Jammu and Kashmir, 9,70,643 households have water taps available within their premises, 5,78,386 have water taps near the households while 4,66,059 households have water tap availability away from the households. Around 63.9 percent of the state's households have access to safe drinking water," C.S. Sapru, joint chief principal census officer, said at a press conference.

He was releasing the decadal (2001-2011) census figures on housing and household amenities.

According to the survey, of 20,15,088 households in the state, 10,31,297 households have access to latrines but 9,83,791 don't.

The survey also revealed that 1.95 percent of households in the state do not have any lighting facility - either through electricity or kerosene oil availability.

While 85.14 percent households of the total 20,15,088 households have electricity availability, 9.69 percent depend on kerosene oil for their lighting needs.

A total of 11,87,122 households use firewood for their cooking needs, 84,509 households use liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) while 6,35,867 households use cowdung cakes for cooking purposes.

"Out of the households with drainage facilities, 2,53,349 use closed drainage systems while 7,10,735 use open drainage systems," Sapru said.

In other interesting statistics, Census 2011 reveals that 1,51,328 of the total households have accommodations spread over six rooms and above, 93,860 have five room accommodation, 2,61,863 have four rooms, 4,33,956 have three rooms, 5,55,367 have two rooms, 4,48,767 have one room accommodation while 70,047 households do not any exclusive room accommodation.