BENGALURU: A recent survey conducted by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has revealed that 37,183 families living in slums in the State capital do not have individual toilets at their residences.
According to the findings of the survey, 17,435 families in notified slums and 19,748 families in non-notified slums do not have toilets. Yelahanka zone tops the list with 14,498 families surviving without individual toilets and Bommanahalli the least with 229.
BBMP Special Commissioner (Solid Waste Management) Subodh Yadav told Express that the survey on community and individual family toilets was conducted in the slum areas in two phases between October 2015 and February 2016.
Individual toilets in slums will be constructed using central government fund allotted under Swachh Bharath Mission.
It may be recalled that Bengaluru had slipped to 38th position among 476 cities in the cleanliness rating given by the Union government. However, Mysuru has retained its top position in the list.
“There is a need to push the state capital to the top level,” said an official.
Public Toilets
As on date, there are around 504 Nirmala Shauchalayas (public toilets) in BBMP limits and most of them are in core Bengaluru.
A senior BBMP official said they are planning to construct community toilets under public-private partnership. “We have been given targets to construct a few public toilets in each zone every year. However, this depends on private individuals or organisations who come forward to construct them under PPP model. We are looking for partners,” he said.
Also, during the recent BBMP election, BBMP Taxation and Finance Committee Chairman M Shivaraju announced that apart from 80 e-toilets and 60 community toilets, public toilets will also be constructed in 250 localities.
Mujahid Pasha, chairperson of the BBMP Standing Committee on Public Health said they are approaching NGOs to construct e-toilets in Bengaluru. Each e-toilet costs `4-5 lakh. “We are also planning to construct regular toilets for which we will seek help from IT/BT companies and other agencies by next month. To construct regular toilets, we require `1.5 lakh per toilet. We will prepare an action plan and work accordingly,” he said