Hyderabad declared open defecation free, decision after official inspection

Hyderabad: Despite having poor sanitation, Hyderabad has been declared an Open Defecation Free (ODF) city. 

Teams from the quality control division of the Swachh Bharat Mission conducted a series of inspections in various parts of the state capital on December 27 and December 28 and declared Hyderabad an ODF city on Tuesday.

Special officers of the quality control division visited slums, schools, chapels, markets, and colonies managed by colony welfare associations, in four different parts of the city. They also visited a railway station and a bus station. 

Under the Swachh Survekshan Mission initiative of the central government, the GHMC had begun to construct individual and public toilets wherever necessary.

A total of 1,975 individual household latrines and 384 public and community toilets were constructed. Wherever space was a problem, community toilets were built, and where the location is under dispute, pre-fabricated toilets were installed.

Of the 384 public/community toilets, 135 were built on Build-Operate-Transfer mode, 109 were pre-fabricated, 46 were by Sulabh, 17 were She e-Toilets, and 20 were community toilets.

In addition to these, 44 community toilets are under construction under the BOT mode, and tenders have been called for 25 more.

Twenty-five She e-Toilets too are under progress, a statement from the corporation said.

Besides, the GHMC has convinced about 295 fuel stations and 390 hotels and restaurant owners to open toilets on their premises for use by the general public.

Unique effort to make people use public toilets
Several awareness programmes are being conducted at circle and zonal levels for curbing open urination. 

In a few cases where people are not using toilets despite availability, they are being garlanded to cause embarrassment and fined. A total of 225 such persons were fined, and an amount of Rs 38,120 has been collected since April 2016.

City mayor Bonthu Rammohan and GHMC commissioner B. Janardhan Reddy congratulated civic officials for achieving this incredible feat.

The GHMC corporators who had earlier declared several parts of Hyderabad as ODF free, handed over the forms, which were filled by during inspections, to the quality control teams. 

Documents with signatures of the principals of several schools from Saroor Nagar, Uppal, and LB Nagar, certifying that there are sufficient toilets for their students, were also handed over. 

The GHMC representatives accompanied the officers of Quality Control Division  during the inspections at Janapriya Colony, Mallapur, Kamineni Hospitals, Mansurabad and Nalla Cheruvu.