Can Delhi be toilet friendly for CWG?

Making Delhi toilet friendly for CWG

With at least a hundred thousand visitors expected in the city during the Games in October, Delhiites need to change their sanitation habits and the government needs to enforce harsher punitive action against violators, says the founder of well-known sanitation NGO.

"Adopt punitive measures against those who inspite of existence of good facilities resort to the practise of committing public nuisance against walls and outside designated places," says Bindeshwar Pathak, Sulabh International.

"Imposing heavy fines on people creating a public nuisance is nothing new. It was done during the historical times of Chandra Gupta Maurya and Kautilya. Take the case of Singapore known for its meticulous cleanliness with fines up to 500 Singapore dollar for violators. The Delhi government also needs to think about such a policy as our image is at stake during the CWG," he said.

Acknowledging a shortage of public rest rooms in the city, Pathak, who has set up a toilet museum in the country says it is no excuse to dirty clean places.

"Public toilets should be constructed within a gap of one kilometre each to ensure ready access to those in need.

Delhi requires more than 10,000 public toilets and two lakh urinals, the number however could increase," says Pathak.

Presently the New Delhi Municipal corporation (NDMC) has total of 194 public toilets, 94 south of Rajghat and 100 on north of it in its jurisdiction.

The other civic agency in the capital the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) accepts a shortfall of toilets.

"Yes, we do have shortage of public toilets in Delhi. The MCD had built around 2500 but we are planning to bring in 1000 waterless urinals," says MCD spokesperson, Deep Mathur.

The MCD had recently floated tenders for construction of 216 toilets in market areas, in different parts of the city to come up before the CWG. The proposed posh public toilet blocks which includes other amenities like coffee shops, flower shops and fast-food joints.

However, leader of Opposition in MCD, J K Sharma says, "There is little chance these posh loos would be completed in time before the Games. Work goes on at a slow pace, they have not even repaired the old broken toilets. We need more clean toilets for CWG."

J K Sharma says, "The funds from Japanese government have been used to construct around 1900 public toilets in Delhi. Out of them,1278 are yet to be completed as recorded by a survey some time ago. Women face a hard time finding usable toilets."

MCD spokesperson Deep Mathur says, under a special drive which started in the city on July 1 and would continue till July 15, violators would be fined upto Rs 500.

"We are running special drive to punish the violators. There is maximum fine upto Rs 500, but in our draft proposal, we have recommended an increase it with provision of more fine for habitual offenders," he says.

"We are following a two-pronged approach. On one hand, we educate people through a multi-media campaign and on the other, they will be fined for urinating outside public toilets," says the spokesperson.

Meanwhile, Sulabh International has included Delhi as one of the various cities in 50 developing countries that will host its sanitation programme.

"The plan is to launch sanitation programmes in 10 countries each year, so that over a period of 5 years a total of 50 countries are covered. The toilets of Sulabh design would be constructed as demonstration toilets to help the country to proceed further adopting technologies involved," says Pathak.

He says his technology used in public toilets is cheap and effective.

"I have developed two technologies, one for individual houses and the other for public places. Both require minimum manual effort or physical labour to keep them clean. These technologies are affordable, appropriate, indigenous and culturally acceptable compared to the sewer and septic tank systems" he says.

Sanitation drive launched in Capital for the Games

Staff Reporter, The Hindu, 02 July 2010.

NEW DELHI: With the Commonwealth Games approaching fast, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi on Thursday launched a 15-day sanitation drive to spruce up the city. The campaign would include several short-term and long-term schemes to attune the city to welcome tourists during the Games.

The announcement was made by Delhi Mayor Prithvi Raj Sawhney, MCD Standing Committee chairman Yoginder Chandolia and MCD Leader of the House Subhash Arya at a joint press conference here on Wednesday.

Mr. Sawhney said: “Usually the MCD launches such a drive on the eve of the festival season, but as a special case for the Games the MCD is launching a sanitation-cum-cleanliness drive during the monsoon season. All the major functioning departments of the MCD including engineering, environmental management services and horticulture will co-ordinate.”

“The idea behind this is that we want to create an environment conducive to welcome the visitors. We would encourage the functionaries and officials who perform during the drive and the chairmen and zonal officials would be adjudged and awarded on the basis of their performance,” he added.

The MCD leaders also mentioned the civic body's special scheme to remove malbafrom the city. “We are identifying at least one site in each of the ward where residents could regularly dispose of garbage so that flies and mosquitoes are kept at bay,” Mr. Chandolia said

“A plant is already running at Jehangirpuri-Bawana with a capacity of 500 metric tonnes per day for processing the malbaand converting it into useful products. Sites for setting up two new plants have been identified at Ghomanhera and Narela-Bawana Road, while the process in Central, South and East Delhi has also been initiated so that malbabeing generated from these areas is processed at nearby places,” he added.

According to the civic body, a lot of malba and soft earth is being generated due to civic works pertaining to the Commonwealth Games and accordingly steps have to be taken to ensure that these do not flow into drains leading to water-logging during rains. To ensure this, the MCD has also decided to make payments to contractors only if the site is cleared.

As part of the drive, special attention on improving the surroundings would be paid to entry and exit points of Old Delhi and New Delhi railway stations, Inter-State Bus Terminals, airport, markets, religious places and major road junctions. The Horticulture Department too has been directed to ensure that all the public parks are cleaned of unwanted grass, garbage and special greening efforts are carried out. The Mayor, MCD House Leader and Standing Committee chairman appealed to Delhi's citizens to cooperate with the municipal officials engaged in this drive so as to make it successful.

Mr. Sawhney said the MCD would embark on an intensive multi-media advertisement campaign titled ‘ Let's get ready' to create civic awareness with regard to sanitation and good civic habits ahead of the Games.

Source: http://www.hindu.com/2010/07/02/stories/2010070260130400.htm

Train turns public toilet at Pune railway station

Manoj More, Indian Express, 29 June 2010

As soon as the Pune-Mumbai-Sinhagad Express leaves Pune station at 6.05 am, the stink from grime lining the tracks at Pune railway station becomes unbearable. This is because, over the years, the train leaving for Mumbai from Pune has become a public toilet not for the daily passengers, but for all those who spend nights in and around Pune station.

No sooner the train arrives at the platform from the yard, there is a scramble among autorickshaw drivers, vendors, street children, beggars, hotel workers, to get inside the train to use the toilets. The train remains at the station for nearly half-an-hour by that time it is filled with Mumbai passengers as well. Since this facility comes for free, they do not want to use the public toilet made available at the station premises, according to railway officials.

According to railway officials, the stink and squalor at the Pune station begins early morning. The situation becomes worse as number of trains leave Pune station soon after the Sinhagad Express departs. While station manager CD Pounikar has been blaming the SMS Ltd, the agency which has been tasked to keep tracks clean, the agency officials argue the time between two trains arriving and leaving Pune station is too short to carry out immediate cleanup. They also point out that sufficient water is not available.

However, regular passengers and activists point out that most Mumbai trains from Pune leave from platform No 1 which is supposed to be kept clean by the railway staff and not the contractors. “The cleaning work for platform no 1 and the last platform is looked after by the railway staff and not by the outsourced agency. At least, the prime platform and tracks should be cleaned,” said Harsha Shah, president, Railway Pravasi Group. Shah said the Central Railways should implement the track system like the one at Kolkata railway station. “The Kolkata railway station has concrete surface on the tracks which make cleaning job easier. No sooner the trains leave, the staff immediately clean up the concrete surface,” she said

Shah said the passenger group has taken up the issue of cleanliness several times with the railways, but to no avail. “Even the Sinhagad Express issue had been taken up. Why should outsiders be allowed to use the express train as toilet? This only speaks about the poor security at the Pune station,” she said.

Railway spokesperson, Suhas Lokhare, said he would talk to the concerned departments to ensure that Sinhagad Express is not used as toilets.

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/train-turns-public-toilet-at-pune-railway-station/639681/2