The number of public and community toilets in Bengaluru is very low when compared with the number of toilets in cities such as Chennai, Hyderabad, and Ahmedabad in proportion to the population, pointed out a survey of toilets in the city submitted to the High Court of Karnataka on Thursday.
The survey report states that operation and maintenance of community toilets by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike is poor but those community toilets maintained by private agencies are comparatively better. However, the maintenance of public toilets appears to be quite good when compared with community toilets, the report states.
Chennai, Hyderabad, and Ahmedabad have better community and public toilet ratio per 1,000 population, per square kilometre, per ward, and per 100 km road length, the report stated. For example, Chennai and Ahmedabad have 25 and 15 toilets, respectively, per 100 km road length but Bengaluru as only five.
Not ward-wise
However, a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Suraj Govindar, which took note of the survey report submitted by the BBMP, found that the survey had not conducted the exercise of requirement of ward-wise public toilets for the city.
The Bench was hearing a PIL petition, filed by city-based Letzkit Foundation, complaining about failure of the BBMP to provide sufficient number of public privies as per mandate of the law.
The survey, conducted by the All India Institute of Local Self Government, a private institute, also pointed out that available data is still not sufficient to capture the correct number of existing public and community toilets, and the BBMP needs to update and reconcile the records to generate a comprehensive database on toilets for future planning.
Among the total 555 public toilets, the BBMP has built 462 toilets and 93 toilets are built by private agencies under different schemes catering to floating population, the report stated while pointing out that of the 462 public toilets built by the BBMP, 32 are not functional, and 22 of them can be functional by repairing.
Floating population
These public toilets offer 3,528 seats, catering to a population of 2 lakh to 8 lakh and this number is on a much lower side when compared with the estimated floating population for Bengaluru city, which is estimated to be about 21 lakh in 2021 as per Swachh City Plan prepared for the city.
Stating that there are 95 community toilet complexes in eight zones of the BBMP, the report said total toilet seats provided in these complexes are 760, catering to a population of about 26,000. Of these 95 toilet complexes 23 are non-functional, and 18 of them can be repaired to make them operational, and five are not repairable.
“Unhygienic conditions and poor maintenance of community toilets have impacted on the usability of these toilets, leading to open defecation,” the report stated.
The Bench adjourned further hearing till August, asking the BBMP to take remedial measures based on input given in the report and take steps to estimate the number of public toilets required for the city.
