Dharavi residents forced to use broken toilets; BMC silent after multiple complaints

Mumbai: Residents of Dharavi have been grappling with poor quality of public toilets on the 60ft road

Mumbai: Residents of Dharavi have been grappling with poor quality of public toilets on the 60ft road. With broken doors and large gaping holes in the walls of the stalls, they are hardly in a condition to be used. Residents claim that they have written to the authorities, but no action has been taken so far.

Mumbai, India - February 05, 2023: Deplorable condition of toilets at Madina Nagar, Dharavi, in Mumbai, India, on Sunday, February 05, 2023. (Photo by Satish Bate/ Hindustan Times) (Satish Bate/HT PHOTO)

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), in its budget last week, said that about 20,000 toilet seats were reconstructed in the current financial year (FY) under the Slum Sanitation Programme, and that plans are afoot to construct 20,000 new toilets in FY 2023-24.

Twenty-seven-year-old Ataul Khan has been writing to BMC for the past two weeks, using twitter and emails, highlighting the plight of the temporary toilets set up in Madina Nagar. These toilets were set-up by BMC’s contractor, who is reconstructing new toilets there. Though the new toilet is ready, it is not open for public as BMC is yet to appoint a contractor to manage them.

Initially, when Khan uploaded the picture on twitter, tagging the ward, he received a response that assuring that the issue will be looked into, but nothing was done. “After my tweet, I got a call from someone in charge of the maintenance of these toilets. He asked me to delete my tweet. I refused,” said Khan.

Khan then sent an email to BMC commissioner and administrator Iqbal Chahal, whose office forwarded it to additional municipal commissioner Asheesh Sharma. After a long mail trail, the email went to G north ward office’s assistant commissioner Prashant Sapkale, who forwarded it to a private email address and there has been no response after that, said Khan.

After two weeks of following up with the ward, Khan took to twitter again questioning the laxity of the department on such a serious issue. He said that the temporary toilets are set-up there for the last two years, and they are in such a bad state that people can see through the broken stalls.

“Last year, the G north ward spent ₹1.75 lakh on hiring toilets for the MP and MLAs for a one-day event. Through RTI, I learnt the BMC hired the toilets stating that it was for VVIPs. The VVIPs were one MP and two MLAs from the area,” Khan said. The BMC can spend lakhs of rupees for ‘hiring’ VVIP toilets for three days but cannot fix toilets for people of their own ward, he added.

A BMC official said that the toilets were set-up by a contractor appointed by the maintenance department. “We are yet to appoint CBO (community-based organisation). Once the CBO is appointed, the new toilets will be opened to residents,” said the official.

HT reached out to Sapkale via messages and calls for two days but there has been no response from him.