City stinks, slips down on Swachh index due to lack of public toilets

Due to open defecation and other reasons, Chennai Corporation had slipped in Swachh Survekshan League ranking released on December 31. Among the cities with more than 10 lakh population, Chennai has been relegated to 43rd rank in the second quarter of 2019 from 38th rank that it had managed to secure in the first quarter.

According to the Chennai Corporation records, the city was declared ODF exactly one year ago on January 24, 2019. A special council resolution passed in the regard by the civic body read that all the 200 wards in the city are ODF zones, thus making the entire city an ODF zone. The resolution also claimed that the protocol laid down by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs under Swachh Bharat Mission were followed while making the declaration.

Despite the growing population in the city, the civic body was only maintaining 1,245 public toilets, including 872 conventional toilets. The civic body’s public toilets have a total seating capacity of 7,888. The numbers are very low, and the civic body has to go miles to reach fulfil the norms for community toilet set by the central government. As per the central government norms, all urban local bodies should have one toilet seat for every 35 men and one seat for every 25 women. Also, urban local bodies should have one bath unit per 50 users. “Even though the civic body declared Chennai ODF zone, the city is not fully open defecation free. When I was crossing Besant Road in Triplicane a few days ago, some persons were seen defecating openly. This bears the testimony of the Chennai Corporation’s claims,” VS Jayaraman, a resident of T Nagar said.

Responding to the queries, a Chennai Corporation official said that the civic body has taken measures to construct 161 new public toilets with as many as 340 seats. “SHE-toilets – exclusively for women – would be created at 84 locations under Nirbhaya Fund,” he said. It is also learnt that several residents are yet to get funds from the civic body under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan to build Individual Household Latrines (IHHL).

The Chennai Corporation had identified as many as 6,636 beneficiaries under the project and the officials claimed that the funds have been released to all the beneficiaries, while several beneficiaries waiting for the funds. “We have released funds to the beneficiaries through respective zones. If the beneficiaries face problem in getting the assistance, they should contact the banks,” he said.