Hyderabad’s New Project Will Build Over 50,000 Household Toilets To Ease Pressure On Public And Community Toilets

New Delhi: Hyderabad is all set to begin its ambitious sanitation project for the city’s urban poor, as the city’s civic body will begin work on construction of a double bedroom housing project with individual household toilets. 50,000 such houses are scheduled to be built in Hyderabad at a cost of Rs 25 crore, and the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has handed over tenders to suitable bidders, who are set to begin construction soon. The ODF city of Hyderabad is stressing on construction of these household toilets, as the city civic body feels that individual household toilets would work better in sustaining Hyderabad’s ODF status.

Hyderabad was declared ODF in January 2018. 98 public toilets were constructed across the city and the city fulfilled the condition of having a public or community toilet every two to three kilometres. But GHMC Commissioner M. Dana Kishore said that though the city was ODF, household toilets were easier to use and access for individuals, than public toilets, and easier to maintain. More household toilets meant that the dependency on public or community toilets will reduce, helping the civic body maintain them.

Hyderabad has become ODF thanks to the work done by the civic body and people’s cooperation. But public toilets will always remain crowded and in the danger of being used too frequently by too many people, making maintenance difficult. The proposed housing project will have individual household toilets and completion of their construction will take pressure of public toilets in the city, said Mr Kishore.

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The 550 sq. ft. houses will have a toilet each, and the houses will be constructed in a manner that waste from toilets will directly flow into waste treatment plants in the city. The GHMC is planning to completely overhaul its drainage systems in the next five years to link drainage systems directly to waste treatment plants, and these households will be the first to have direct drainage systems linked to treatment plants.

“We are planning to completely do away with manual wet waste collection and cleaning of drains. These new houses for the urban poor will also have drainage systems which are directly linked with waste treatment plants. Once completed, these houses will enable the urban poor to both have houses for themselves, as well as usable toilets,” said Mr Kishore

Hyderabad, which secured the 27^th rank in this year’s Swachh Survekshan, is aiming to segregate 100 per cent of the 5,000 million tonnes of waste produced daily. Presently Hyderabad segregates around 30 per cent of its waste, but the GHMC is confident of increasing the number of households, who segregate waste, on time. The civic body has also roped in a number of NGOs to assist it in going from door to door and encourage people to adopt segregation practices. With its urban poor housing project scheduled to be completed by early 2020, Hyderabad is looking at breaking into the top rankings in the coming urban cleanliness surveys.

Also Read: In Hyderabad, A Composting Request Goes Out To Bulk Generators In Form Of Protest By Civic Body Officials

NDTV – Dettol Banega Swachh India campaign lends support to the Government of India’s Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM). Helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan, the campaign aims to spread awareness about hygiene and sanitation, the importance of building toilets and making India open defecation free (ODF) by October 2019, a target set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, when he launched Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in 2014. Over the years, the campaign has widened its scope to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and menstrual hygiene. The campaign has also focused extensively on marine pollution, clean Ganga Project and rejuvenation of Yamuna, two of India’s major river bodies.