Mumbai: Two dead as Bhandup community toilet collapses into septic tank

Mumbai: Two dead as Bhandup community toilet collapses into a septic tank. (File) 

TWO PERSONS died in Bhandup early Saturday while they were using a community toilet, which collapsed into a septic tank. This comes nearly two months after a portion of another public toilet had collapsed in Mankhurd, killing three persons.
The deceased, Labhuben Jethava (40) and Babulal Devase (45), were residents of Sai Sadan chawl. The toilet had 20 cubicles — 10 on each side — and catered to four chawls in the Patilwadi area of Bhandup (West). Local residents claimed the tiling on the toilet floor had been creaking since Friday.

The incident took place around 6.30 am. Soon, residents of Sai Sadan chawl, located just ahead of the toilet, realised that two persons who had gone to use the toilet had fallen in the septic tank. They called up the fire brigade. Due to the narrow lane leading up to the toilet, it took a while before fire brigade officials could remove the bodies. They were rushed to the Rajawadi hospital where they were declared brought dead on arrival.

Rita Jethava, a relative of Labhuben, said: “Just a month ago, the family had got a toilet constructed at their room in the chawl. It was, however, a western style toilet and Labhuben was not comfortable with it. Her family kept telling her to use it, but she went to the public toilet.”

Vanita Parmar, another relative, added: “We have been told that for the past 10 to 15 days, people had been talking about how the structure of the toilet was shaking.”

Labhuben is survived by her husband and three children — two boys and a girl. Babulal Devase used to work at a clothes shop near Bhandup railway station. Hailing from Rajasthan, he is survived by his wife and four sons. “I had used the public toilet around 6 am. There was some creaking noise. I did not think much of it. Fifteen minutes later, my husband went to the toilet and the entire structure came down,” said Babulal’s wife.

Omkar Ahire, a resident of Sai Sadan chawl, said the toilet has been there for decades and was repaired nearly eight years ago. “The basic plaster on the roof was repaired… the structure remained weak. People have written to successive corporators about it, but nothing much has come of it.”

“Nearly 30 to 40 per cent of the people in these chawls use the public toilet. Not everyone can afford to get a toilet constructed in the house, which of course has to be done illegally,” a resident said. A Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)official said they are investigating the matter.

An officer from Bhandup police said: “We have registered an accidental death report in both cases and are investigating if there was negligence on the part of anyone that led to the incident.”

“We received two bodies from the collapse site, one male and one female. Their postmortem examination is underway,” said Dr Vidya Thakur, superintendent at Rajawadi hospital. On February 2, a portion of another community toilet at Mankhurd had collapsed, resulting in the death of three persons. The Mankhurd police had registered an FIR against the contractor, who was later arrested.