Mobile toilet on Loop Road not helping seniors, disabled

CHENNAI: Senior citizens and residents along Marina Loop Road rue that the new mobile toilet is not useful for senior citizens and the disabled.
The Greater Chennai Corporation recently set up the toilet as people were found defecating in the open at the Santhome playground. However, many senior citizens said they find it arduous to climb the mobile toilet that’s mounted on a truck.
R Muthusamy, who lives in Nochi Nagar along the Loop Road, said GCC could have installed the toilet at the ground-level instead of mounting it on a vehicle. “If it’s higher, then they could provide a ramp. The toilet block is narrow too,” he said.
The Loop Road earlier had two public toilets, but they were demolished as part of renovation work a few years ago. Since then, a large number of people living on the road have been defecating in the ground.
Deepak Nathan, disability rights activist, said GCC must follow the Union government guidelines when it comes to setting up infrastructure for the disabled. “There are 21 types of identified disabilities ... and infrastructure must be built in a universal manner that caters to everyone,” he said.
While the civic body has toilets with ramps at Marina, it is about 200 metre away from the Loop Road, and people who live there don’t go to Marina to use it.
Vaishnavi Jayakumar, member of disability rights alliance, said the toilets located in the centre of Marina has a ramp but the infrastructure should ideally be friendly for disabled. “Because of the mobile toilet not being disabled-friendly, we can see the crowd moving from the Lighthouse side to the centre of the beach. Even vendors are moving there,” she said.
Chennai Mayor R Priya said she would look into the issue and fix it.