In a boost for sanitation in the city, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to rope in corporates to build public toilets. Around 54 toilets for men and women will be built in BMC's M-East ward which covers areas like Govandi and Mankhurd under a new Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) scheme.
Instead of waiting for funds, which are always short and need administrative approvals, corporate companies will now be able to build toilets at sites designated by the BMC on their own. The civic body would give a single-window clearance to companies who step forward to construct toilets.
"Close to a dozen companies have already come forward and have agreed to construct toilets. We will give them all clearances in one go. This will bridge the gap between the number of people and number of toilets. At some locations, work has already started," said Kiran Dighavkar, assistant municipal commissioner, M-East ward.
According to officials, the ward has a severe shortage of public toilets. "We are short of 54 toilets. At many places, the exiting toilet structures have become dilapidated and are not safe for use. We have even demolished some of them. Now, brand new toilets will be built in their place," Dighavkar added.
The idea, which was mooted by Dighavkar, was recently given a go-ahead by municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta. Each toilet block costs around Rs2.5 lakh.
Many of the 54 toilets will exclusively be for women. The BMC has organised a meeting of interested corporate companies to explain the scheme to them. Officials said that several top companies would participate. Following complaints of fewer public toilets, the BMC had last year decided to conduct an extensive survey to map all public toilets in the city. The civic body had also decided to survey properties of other public agencies such as the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA), Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA), Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) and Public Works Department (PWD) to account for the public toilets in their areas. Activists said that in a city where an average person travels a considerable distance to and from his workplace, there was a glaring gap of in the number of people and the toilets available for them to use.
According to BMC estimates, for the 1.3 crore residents of Mumbai, there are only 836 public toilet blocks (excluding public toilets in slums) having a total of 10,381 toilet seats, 2,849 urinals and 842 bathrooms. This means that a single toilet seat caters to 1,250 Mumbaikars even as authorities admit the city needs a minimum of 35,000 public toilet seats. NGOs' estimates peg the figure at 50,000 seats.
While a survey undertaken by the BMC in 2005 had found 1,175 public toilet blocks, more than 300 blocks have been razed due to the various infrastructure projects such as Metro, Monorail, flyovers, skywalks and road widening projects in the last couple of years, officials said.
"This is a good move by the BMC. There is a severe shortage of public toilets. The ward has many slums and having more toilets will boost general sanitation too. The BMC must replicate this model in other wards too.
However, the toilets must be made in a time-bound manner and also be maintained later on," said local Samajwadi Party corporator Rais Shaikh.
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