Community toilets: BMC yet to complete half of planned toilets seats

While builders are asking to double their rates to built community toilets for the 11th phase, the BMC is still struggling to complete 50 per cent of toilets seats under 10th phase which got sanctioned two-and-half-years ago. The BMC failed to find space in time to build them, thus the whole process gets delayed.

As per BMC records, it has built 14,369 toilets seats in the city between 1997 and 2018 under phase 1 to 9. These community toilets were handed over to registered societies of slum residents. The standing committee approved the proposal of 5170 toilet seats under the 10th phase in January 2016. After two-and-half-years, only half of them has been built. Now BMC administration requested the standing committee to extend the deadline to September 2019, but the committee members rejected it in Tuesday's meeting.

These toilets were sanctioned under the scheme where local people get involved in the design, building, and maintenance of toilets. While doing so, the civic body did not allocate space to these toilets. "No one wants a public toilet in front of his or her house. So it is difficult to find a space for toilets. Thus the construction gets delayed," said Vishwas Shankarwar, deputy municipal commissioner, solid waste management. "Many of the toilets are in dense slum pockets where the land belongs to the collector, Mumbai Port Trust, Forest Department among many others. That makes the task to get permission more difficult for BMC. Some slums are on top of hills and are connected by narrow roads, so the construction material cannot be carried with vehicles are some more reasons to delay the work.