Mumbai to soon get three-storey public toilets

Owing to lack to space, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation plans to construct 18,818 toilet seats in Mumbai by 2018

Owing to space constraints, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporartion (BMC) has now decided to construct two to three storey public toilets across the city. Through this, the civic body aims to reduce the area required to build one toilet seat by 1 square meter. The idea was floated in the civic chief’s weekly meeting last month.

Picture for representation

After a report by the Maharashtra government, which puts the Mumbai civic body in the bottom five municipal corporations in terms of construction of toilets, the BMC is rushing to meet its target to construct 18, 818 toilets seats across the city in 2018.

However, it is difficult for the civic body to find adequate amount of land for the purpose. In a land-starved city, the BMC doesn’t have enough space to provide such basic amenities. As of now, there are a few ground plus one storey toilets in the city’s slums.

Out of the 18,818 toilets, 3,044 will be new constructions. The remaining toilets, which were constructed 20 years back, will be refurbished. The construction work will begin in January at a cost of Rs376 crore.

Civic chief Ajoy Mehta, in his weekly meeting, has asked all 24 wards to submit their requirement. The highest demand has come from M/east ward that includes Govandi, Deonar at 7,200 toilet seats, followed by L ward (Kurla) at 2,328 seats. These wards also have the highest number of slum population in the city. As per the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan standard, the city needs to provide 1 toilet seat for every 30 citizens.

Although opposed on many accounts, the BMC, in October, was declared open defecation free. The certification awarded by the Union government’s Quality Council of India (QCI) under SBA is valid only for six months. To maintain its status as ODF, the civic body has set the toilet construction target for next year. The QCI guidelines state that all occupants of households that do not have space to construct toilets have access to a community toilet within a distance of 500 meters.