Nearly 13 per cent of the population in urban India defecates in the open. In capital Delhi, while there are no precise figures, the number of those defecating in the open – since they don’t have a toilet – is substantial.
Now growing aspirations are creating a huge demand for toilets and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has promised to build 100 million toilets across the country.
The irony, however, is that existing community toilets are falling into disrepair. A few years after they are built, they are no longer fit for use.
[…] Over six years ago, under a public private partnership initiative with the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, the Aga Khan Development Network or AKDN began to rebuild and upgrade the community toilets in the basti.
This is the larger of the two facilities which was re-launched a year ago. Clean, airy and well lit, there are cubicles for bathing and courtyards for washing clothes. Dustbins and steel pans make maintenance easy.
Shveta Mathur, Programme Officer of Aga Khan Development Network, said, “We have done a single shaft which has individual stacks from all the toilet cubicles so that if there is a problem with one cubicle, then the piping is individual and the whole line doesn’t get choked up. Many times we see that the quality of construction and the quality of infrastructure that has been laid in at the first time is also very inadequate and that leads to problems in maintainenece . The minute you get in adequate light and ventilation, you eliminate the use of electricity throughout the day, so that reduces costs.
via India Matters: Toilet Stories in Delhi, an Overview.
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The Toilet Foundation is also trying to do something about this disastrous situation. Good article.
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