HYDERABAD: Novemeber 19 is observed as World Toilet Day. There is no better day to ask city officials how good Hyderabad is in terms of setting up and maintaining toilets in public places.
The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has often drawn flak for failing to build enough toilets for denizens in the twin cities. Ideally, there should be one public toilet for every kilometre stretch of road in the city, as per the norms of Central Public Health and Environmental Engineering Organisation (CPHEEO), working under Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA). Unfortunately, though Hyderabad has been termed as one of the best livable cities in the country, it lags behind when it comes to building public toilets for its citizens.
Greater Hyderabad has over 9,000 km of roads. In reality, the city does not have more than 360 public toilets as on date. These toilets were constructed over a year ago. This means that the GHMC has made no efforts in the last one year to construct additional public toilets. Even those that exist are in abysmal conditions -- they are either defunct, lacks maintenance, or has irregular water supply. As a result, people shudder to even think of going into them.
For the one crore population in Greater Hyderabad limits, city does not have more than 360 public toilets as against the required 9,000. As per the details, of the 360 public toilets, 230 belongs to Sulabh/BOT, 97 pre fabricated toilets, five Loo Cafes located mostly in Hitech city areas and 34 She Toilets.
Women most-affected
The male-female ratio for toilet availability should be 1:1 but there are hardly any toilets for women. Women face a lot of inconvenience because there are not enough toilets for them. Even if there are any public toilets for women across the city, they are in deplorable states. Further, these toilets are maintained by attendants who are mostly men.
Often, women find it uncomfortable to even use them.Admitting the there is a lack of public toilets in the city, GHMC officials told Express that corporation was finding it difficult to construct toilets due to non-availability space in the city.
Special cleanliness drive in 150 wards soon
HYDERABAD: The GHMC proposes to take up a 360-degree special cleanliness drive covering sanitation works in all 150 wards in the coming days, Mayor Bonthu Rammohan said. Addressing the representatives of the RWS and Basti Committees, Mayor said the drive would involve the wings of Sanitation, Engineering, Town planning, Entomology,Urban Biodiversity, Veterinary among others