Hyderabad: Toilets no place to pee

Hyderabad: The city has one public toilet for 30,000 citizens. And most of the public conveniences are in a pathetic condition. The recently introduced 47 bio-urinals are no exception.

There are 48 pay-to-use Sulabh toilets, which are the only ones in good condition. There are another 136 toilets in the build-operate-own-transfer model, 86 run by the GHMC’s engineering department and the 47 bio-urinals that were introduced recently. Besides, 20 urinals are located near railway and bus stations and 60 in the Cantonment.

About 30 per cent of the GHMC toilets are defunct. But then, even at the few functional toilets, people relieve themselves all around. Several slum-level federations and other organisations have applied to the GHMC to run 188 public toilets. The proposals are pending.

Last year, the GHMC had said it would construct 1,000 bio-toilets but has managed to erect 47 so far. On the poor status of the bio-toilets, GHMC additional commissioner, health and sanitation, said they had been handed over to an agency, Ultimate Concepts.

“The GHMC does not pay the agency. It will use the outside walls for advertisements,” he said. But several toilets are not maintained properly, and others are locked.

A GHMC official said the maintenance team of the agency cleans the toilets at a particular time; till then the toilets remain dirty. “Sometimes they are shutting down the toilets for maintenance,” he said.

For either reason, men relieve themselves all around the toilets. Asked about this, Mr Kiran said he would issue a notice to the agency.